While still a young project, All Talk has already shown an impressive ability to navigate transition. Following the release of 2015's Juno -- which principles Tim Mensel and Cole Maxwell consider the band's true starting point -- and an attendant tour, the Boston indie concern's first drummer Tim Carman decamped for the west coast. Undaunted, Messrs. Mensel and Maxwell rigged an Ableton Live setup to anchor the rhythm and then plotted out new songs. The digitally augmented duo self-recorded its newest EP upstairs/downstairs, but has since incorporated childhood friend Dan Shapiro to helm the drum kit. The proverbial shoe fits.
"I felt like it took a couple shows for... the beats to sound right," said Mensel. "I had a MIDI controller and I would try and trigger them with my feet, but we were singing and playing, too, so it was tough at first to do it at spots like the ER without a stage monitor."
Needless to say the addition of Mr. Shapiro has proven beneficial. Both Maxwell and Mensel credit rehearsing with a live drummer, and at Shapiro's spacious Brookline basement no less, with giving new life to All Talk's music; even arrangements have shifted. And while he doesn't play on the new record, Shapiro has clearly played a crucial role in the band's (re-)development as a live act, too.
"[T]he songs have changed a lot, going from the Ableton versions to recording, and then to us playing them as a trio -- especially the drums," said Maxwell. "Part of that had to do with my limitations as a drummer, or what I thought sounded good, but I think Dan's influence changed things a lot, too."
Shapiro's fluid integration into the unit is unsurprising, given there is meaningful shared history among the players. All three grew up together in suburb Needham, Mass., often taking to Shapiro's basement to work out Beatles tunes. To up his game, Shapiro has in recent months -- even before joining All Talk -- taken a more studious approach to drumming, going so far as to take lessons from Mr. Carman's former teacher at Berklee.
"It just happened to be good timing, 'cause we had jammed a few times while they were doing the shows with the beats, and it seemed to go pretty well," said Shapiro. "They saw that I was starting to get serious about drumming and asked me if I wanted to play a show with them. We basically just went from there."
While keen to mention the influence of classic acts like The Beatles, Radiohead, and Wilco, All Talk has been sopping up more proximal influences as well, largely by virtue of attending more shows. More actively participating in the scene has, somewhat counter-intuitively, helped All Talk shape its own identity.
"I definitely don't think we go out of our way to write songs that sound like the bands that we go see or the sort of Boston scene in general," Maxwell observes. "But when I do go out to shows and stuff, I definitely pay attention to arrangements and sounds and try and add some of those things to what we do."
Perhaps the biggest influence on the writing and creation of the new EP upstairs/downstairs was the actual process that birthed it. The collection was mostly recorded in the confines of Mensel and Maxwell's Brighton, Mass. apartment, and the pair passed numerous days clearing and bleaching the floors of their basement, and wiring cables and plugs throughout the space, before rehearsing and recording everything themselves. The DIY approach created a sense of comfort that carried over into the production.
"Being able to work at our own pace, without worrying about time constraints, was definitely a benefit," said Mensel. "It was nice to be able to go back and work on things after playing back certain things immediately."
upstairs/downstairs finds the band doubling down on the sturdily melodic and folk-tinged power-pop that characterized Juno's strongest moments. Mensel and Maxwell have distinctive (although not entirely dissimilar) voices and writing styles, and the songwriters' give-and-take across the EP is among its charms. Mensel-penned tunes including opener "Misled" are often appointed with modest, yearning vocals and sprightly jangle-guitar leads that lead to big distorted riffs, a neat reflex that engenders emotional heft. Maxwell's numbers tend to rely less on dynamics and instead dig in to establish memorable grooves. The upstroked and tremoloed guitars on his "Pay No Mind," for example, play into a sturdy and insistent backbeat that pushes the song ahead.
All Talk is prepping for a month-long tour that will take it as far Texas and Oklahoma with rehearsals in Shapiro's basement, last-minute DIY flyer production and gear purchases, but it is also looking ahead to its next move.
"The next release is gonna be a lot different, for sure," Mensel offers.
All Talk's record release/tour kickoff extravaganza is set for this very Saturday at Cambridge's living room, the great Lilypad. Dreamy folk strummer (and recent Captured Track signee) Lina Tullgren and Erica from surfy indie poppers Littlefoot also perform. Stream upstairs/downstairs via the embed below, check out the complete tour dates at upper right, and order a limited-edition cassette right here. -- Dillon Riley
Doug Tuttle's free-and-easy new solo effort, his second, presents nine concise nuggets of sunny psych-pop, each one highlighting his arrangement chops and smooth voice. Like many albums from artists recording for Trouble In Mind, It Calls On Me applies charming production choices to tried-and-true '60s instrumentation, here resulting in a vibe that is equal parts Laurel Canyon and English folk. Mr. Tuttle's bona fides derive from his previously playing in New Hampshire-based droning garage concern MMOSS, and his new collection distills much of that group's bleary sprawl into economic tunes that shower listeners in analog tape warmth and positive vibes. In an election year contextualized by our crumbling environment, Tuttle's new collection of cool strummers is a most welcome reprieve, although it would stand strong even in a more utopian clime.
Upbeat opener "A Place For You" pairs 12-string strumming to plaintive questions, subtle melodies and judicious tambourine. During its final 40 seconds, a squiggly electric and harmonic guitar solo overruns the tune with a well-placed moment of delirium. It evokes The Monkees's more solemn moments, or a hipper Wilco at its most '60s-informed, or even something by the enigmatic Kelly Stoltz, as the elegant, mid-heavy production suggests the precision of both Stoltz and sometime-Wilco member Jim O'Rourke. It Calls On Me’s title track, an album highlight, deftly weds steady riffing, lo-fi soloing and relaxed vocals to concoct something of a bedroom homage to Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper." Which is not something this reviewer knew he wanted... but now he knows.
Is it still too early in dream-pop's current swell in popularity to proclaim a band the "Wilco of shoegaze?" Such a mantle might not yet fit Austin, TX noise-pop goliaths Ringo Deathstarr, but it nevertheless illustrates the liminal point the act occupies as it issues its tremendous new album Pure Mood. Across its four-album run (including 2011's Sparkler singles collection), the trio has established itself as reliable producers of potent, thoughtful rockers that faithfully honor established shoegaze conventions with artfulness and a bit of humor. Pure Mood is a perfect summation of Ringo Deathstarr's strengths, but it also raises the question: where does the band go from here?
And perhaps this is where Wilco could point the way. Obviously recruiting guitar virtuoso Nels Cline can only be done by so many bands... But by albums four and five, Jeff Tweedy and company famously transformed with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born by not only revealing more of themselves, but also by mixing up their influences to concoct an avant and abstract challenge to its prior oeuvre. Is it time for the Texas titans to inject more vulnerability or experimentation into its work? The latter is already happening in certain corners of Pure Mood. Indeed, its most thrilling moments are when Ringo Deathstarr defies expectation, as in "Dream Again," one of the few songs on the new collection where the band allows the piece to unwind in its own fashion, rather than choosing the easier exit via dramatic buildup or ignition of a holocaust of distortion and other effects. Album highlight "Stare At The Sun" slinks by on a delicate guitar bridge-plucked groove that not only sounds unlike anything that has been played by a shoegaze band before, but also manages to be both emotionally stimulating and entirely impossible to predict as the piece shifts to a shrill and danceable anthem of a chorus. It's a highly imaginative moment for the band, but also a glimpse of one possible future for an act that may be approaching an inflection point.
Pure Mood embraces influences both unexpected and logical. The grungy chords and steady, pounding drums of the Elliot Frazer-led "Never" and "Heavy Metal Suicide" echo Alice In Chains and relatively recent tourmates Smashing Pumpkins, specifically those bands' presentation of punk-derived energy in the context of big, polished productions. Even so, The Deathstarr knows better than to let go of its own strengths. For example, the relatively more aggressive and bass-forward sound introduced with its 2012 long-player Mauve [review] persists on the new collection. Bassist Alex Gehring, Mr. Frazer's longstanding musical foil, handles vocals on many of Pure Mood's softer songs, where her clear, euphonious tones shine brightest. There she is right at the outset of the record on the aforementioned stunner "Dream Again," gracefully harmonizing and doubling her vocals. And "Boys In Heat" and "Acid Tongue" underscore just how adept Ringo Deathstarr is at crafting the sorts of woozy, mid-tempo whammy-bar workouts characteristic of much of the Texans' 2011 debut, Colour Trip. Beyond these songs' inherent beauty and majesty, it is impressive just how fertile this territory is for the band: while in a sense the sound is Ringo Deathstarr's bread and butter, the threesome never feels like it is repeating itself because of the bracing, brisk and pop-leaning aspects of its songwriting. Pure Mood was released Friday by London-based Club AC30 in two separate colors of vinyl, on compact disc, and as a digital download. Unfortunately, it appears that the vinyl is already sold out, but the CD can be snatched up right here. -- Edward Charlton
>> Oh, hey, we're back. We missed you, too. How's your mom? Are you working the same place? Your hair got long...
>> Happy new year, and happy new Pile. Stereofork got the nod yesterday for an exclusive on the Boston grunge titans' terrific new track "#2 Hit Single" -- taken from the forthcoming set You're Better Than This (let's just let that title hang there meaningfully for a second... maybe a second more...) -- and in doing so perpetuated the irritating trend of large music publications being more about firsties than journalism. Had Pantsgum bothered to do 10 minutes of research (we get it, music writing is hard, guys), it could have told you that the reason the preview tune is called "#2 Hit Single" is because the title "Number One Hit Single" was already used. Indeed, that tune appeared on Pile's wonderful 2010 LP Magic Isn't Real; you can hear it right here or at the embed below. "#2 Hit Single" -- also embedded below -- echoes the slashing rhythm of the earlier tune's opening guitar riff, but inverts the melodic elements as it introduces a call-and-response between fronter Rick Maguire's vocal and the annihilating instrumentation of the verse. The aggressive jam abruptly ends after 145 seconds, and then is gone into the proverbial night like a deranged mugger. Pile's new record You're Better Than This will be issued March 3 as part of a Exploding In Sound's exceptionally strong first quarter release schedule, which also includes bugcore heroes Krill's powerful A Distant Fist Unclenching. Pile's newest was recorded in Omaha and features electrifying and hyper-roomy production that recalls the biting sound of early Jon Spencer Blues Explosion records, and we think Clicky Clicky readers are going to find a lot to like on it, particularly the wild, rootsier sound of tunes like "Fuck The Police" and the ambitious, awe-inspiring closer "Appendicitis." Pre-order You're Better Than This on vinyl, CD or cassette via Pile's Bandcamp wigwam right here.
>> December seems like a bad time to promote an album. Not only is there an endless round of "Best of 2014" lists and year-end nostalgia, but nearly everyone is on vacation and not listening to some great new indie rock. In jeopardy of being lost in the late-year shuffle were certain late-season singles from Brooklyn four-piece guitar poppers Leapling, whose album Vacant Page is seeing a February 10th vinyl co-release via Inflated Records and the mighty, aforementioned Exploding In Sound. Big news, right? The second single "Silent Stone," released around the holidays, is a stone-cold killer cut of spacey, free-jazz guitar rock. "What have I been told? / Leave me in the cold" sings guitarist Dan Arnes in a soft, plain-spoken, everyman voice that brings to mind Death Cab For Cutie, albeit sans the excessive verbiage. That confused sense of resolution wraps itself around the song, guiding what are at first surfy guitar lines that mutate into bum-note guitar solos and pick scrapes that dance around tight, trained hi-hat work. Best of all is a breakdown at the two-minute mark, where the bassist has a chance to shine with oblong chops. The lead guitar channels Wilco's avant string mangling circa A Ghost Is Born, while the complex, steady chords ground the exposition. Perhaps best of all, Leapling is a hard band to define, and that’s what makes them special. Consider the act a crucial addition to EIS' stable. The first 150 copies of the vinyl edition of Vacant Page come on colored splatter vinyl, so don't sleep on this promising album. Pre-order the set from Inflated Records right here. -- Edward Charlton
>> Man, how this writer digs indie rock ambition. Take, for instance, the recent inbox find of France's Odessey & Oracle, a baroque-pop unit whose namesake is The Zombies' 1968 masterwork (the misspelled "odyssey" is also an homage, to the poor grammar of The Zombies' original album art artist). The French outfit's latest album Odessey & Oracle and the Casiotone Orchestra is a lofty, lo-fi love letter to the over achieving '60s pop scene, one that (thankfully) pays tribute without the wholesale recycling of old sounds. Out on vinyl and CD via Carton Records, the album is a technicolor trip that highlights the arrangement genius of those original bands while guiding the sound somewhere new. "I'll be floating far into dreams" they sing on opener "2016," which shapes ukulele strums into a progressive dream-pop track. While the cheesy-sounding synths may startle at first, they ultimately add to a pleasant home-grown vibe -- inadvertently recalling the playful, Casiotone genius of The Unicorns in the process. Album cut "Esprit Du Ciel" applies the band's native tongue to lush male vocal harmonies, while "Alphabet" and "Fixing The World" tone things down via gentle female that defuse the more complex and classical analog synth work of tracks including "Invention #7." Wide-eyed, accomplished, orchestrated and in love with an era that deserves the attention, Odessey & Oracle and the Casiotone Orchestra is not only a fun addition to the baroque-pop canon, but a great reminder of what made that scene so special. Order the album right here. -- Edward Charlton
>> While its counterpart in Oregon continues to be a hotbed of indie rock (more on that below), Portland, Maine has also been producing a steady stream of quality acts and recordings. In just the past year that city's Coke Weed and Endless Jags have released a tremendous record and EP respectively, and this Tuesday veteran indie quartet Brenda returns with a long-awaited sophomore record titled Fix Your Eyes. The 10-song collection echoes somewhat the aforementioned Endless Jags EP, as the two bands share some members and, likely as a result, distinctive Farfisa organ playing. But whereas the relatively new Jags' material is largely driven by guitarists Oscar Romero and Tyler Jackson, DJ Moore and Josh Loring write the bulk of Brenda's tunes. So there is a bright line distinguishing Brenda's music from that of Endless Jags, as the former band takes inspiration from vintage rock 'n' roll such as Buddy Holly as well as contemporaries The Walkmen (one only need hear the title track to Fix Your Eyes to appreciate the latter influence), while the latter band touts a more emotional immediacy reminiscent of Broken Social Scene. Brenda's approach can be more temperate, but Fix Your Eyes doesn't skimp on rockers: the best evidence for this is the undeniable, galloping hip-shaker "Hard Pleaser," which touts caffeinated strumming, spiraling Farfisa melodies and fizzing tambourine that together drive the song inevitably toward dance-floor nirvana. The similarly uptempo hand-clapper "Not My Friends" takes a more soulful approach but incorporates more finely articulated guitar leads that wind around the dizzying Farfisa like coiling snakes. As the image above somewhat attests, Brenda plays a free show at Zuzu in Cambridge, MA tomorrow night, at which it will no doubt delight with some of the tunes mentioned above on a bill that also features upstart dreamers Winter, who we wrote about here in January, as well as Australia's Olde Growth Cola. And then of course, Fix Your Eyes is released the following day with Teenarena Records out of Rochester, NH doing the honors. Pre-orders for the set are already being take right here; the LP is available on red vinyl, and a limited number of fans who pre-order will receive a t-shirt as well as a pin and patch. Brenda's debut full-length Silver Tower, which caught the ear of some guy named Jeff Tweedy and resulted in the band playing the Solid Sound Festival, was released in June 2010 and is available via Bandcamp right here. Stream "Fix Your Eyes" from the new collection via the Bandcamp embed below.
>> And now back to the other Portland. Earlier this week Oregon-based guitar pop heroes Lubec unveiled a new song from its planned sophomore LP, which now has a title: The Thrall. The new tune, "Local Celebrity," boasts some huge moments, such as when it hits a crushing bridge in the third minute and then winds itself up into a hotly paced closing section touting a burly guitar solo soaring above a neatly ascending keyboard line. The paired vocals of guitarist Eddie Charlton and keyboard player Caroline Jackson soar in the song's huge choruses. "Local Celebrity" was engineered and produced by Robert Comitz at The Frawg Pound and mastered at Stereophonic, all in Portland. The Thrall is expected to be released before the end of the year, or at least we expect it will be, because we want it that way. In January, Lubec shared for a limited time two demos of other songs that will likely feature on The Thrall, namely "Adam" and "Many Worlds." Lubec's full-length debut Wilderness Days was released at the beginning of the year and compiled a dozen early tracks from the band's oeuvre; we reviewed it here. Stream "Local Celebrity" via the Soundcloud embed below.
>> Birmingham, England-based noise-pop titans Johnny Foreignerlet slide a tantalizing tidbit earlier today when it disclosed that six recipients of its recent limited-edition photo sets were going to receive among their spoils "weblinks to some exclusive new art and lyrics from our next record." The sets, photographs from the quartet's epic tour of North America last fall augmented with exclusive art created by guitarist and notable artist Lewes Herriot, were released (so to speak) in March alongside digital-only offering Manhattan Projects and sold out almost immediately, such that Clicky Clicky HQ missed its chance merely in the space of time it took our Executive Editor to shovel a jar of baby food into Clicky Clicky Baby Unit 2. We wrote about all of this here and here. People who know say that Johnny Foreigner aim to release two more things this year, one a single in early summer and presumably the other will be the full length mentioned between the quotation marks supra. Because its triumphant last album Johnny Foreigner Vs. Everything [review] was released twice (the second go-round being a wonderful 2x12" reissue), it is easy to forget that it came out in 2011, and given the band's usual break-neck pace at creating music, it is almost surprising it has been that long. We are, needless to say, stoked for the new one, and will keep you apprised of all the minute details regarding same. While we wait, how about taking a listen to that practice room recording of the band covering American Football's beautiful and tragic "Never Meant" via the embed below?
[Photos from Wilco's Solid Sound Festival at MassMOCA in North Adams, MA 6/24-6/26/2011. Photos by Michael Piantigini.]
It rained. Like, a lot. I'm generally skeptical about big music festivals. Overcrowded, hot, overpriced concessions, and acts I'd rather see in a dark club at night rather than a massive dusty field in broad daylight. But I'll be damned if Wilco don't have this all figured out. I doubt you'd find very many of the reported 6300 (at its max) attendees of Solid Sound with anything bad to say, even about all that rain. It was a nuisance at the time (and I have the shoes to prove it), but it already seems like a distant footnote.
Sure, the letters crawling down the clock tower at the entrance spelled Wilco, but the vibe here was more celebration than marketing opportunity. I suppose some more cynical than I (if that's possible) could argue that Wilco's latter-day reasonableness is their weakness, but here at Solid Sound, at least, it was decidedly in our favor. Beers topped out at $5, sandwiches at $6 (with chips!), the crucial rain ponchos were $2, Popsicles were a buck, and bottles of water - also one damn dollar. By Sunday, I was almost begging to be ripped off in some way. The closest I came was the money I seemed to be separated from in Euclid Records' extraordinarily good pop-up record store on site, but since I got a bunch of great records in return we'll call it even. The man I assumed to be the store's owner told me "yeah, for one weekend you might have the best used record store in the country." We may have.
Handpicked by Wilco, the bands at the festival covered a fair amount of territory. The edges of noisy garage psych were covered by festival-openers Purling Hiss and Sic Alps, folkies Sara Lee and Johnny (that's Sara Lee Guthrie, of course) got Saturday started, while indie pop was later covered by Brooklyn's Here We Go Magic. Sixties soul was covered by near-legend Syl Johnson (who loves to talk - justifiably - about how Wu Tang Clan paid him a boatload of money for a sample, and about his recent box set), 70's roots rock by The Band'sconfirmed legend, Levon Helm, and 80's pop was taken care of by legend-in-some-circles Neil Finn and his new band, Pajama Club.
As is fitting the family atmosphere at Solid Sound, the various Wilco side projects well-represented: Mikael Jorgensen's Pronto was missed by this reporter, but John Stirratt and Pat Sansone's The Autumn Defense played to an overflow crowd in the smaller Courtyard C, and Glenn Kotche and Nels Cline were inescapable), Neil's son Liam Finn played a crackerjack set on Saturday. He sounded at times like his father, but with a much bigger, more rocking sound that warrants further investigation.
Courtyard D's brick borders were filled by Nels Cline and Thurston Moore's guitar duo Pillow Wand's squalling one hour noise improv barely 90 minutes after JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound's solid Chicago soul and funk groove had people dancing in the same spot.
Our hosts Wilco headlined playing full 2-hour sets on Friday and Saturday night, and played only a couple of songs twice: their new taut new-wavy single "I Might," and another new one, "Born Alone." The small handful of other new tracks they debuted hinted at a peppier, poppier new album when The Whole Love is released this fall. Any Wilco fatigue I might have been experiencing dissipated rather quickly as they dug into their catalog highlights both old ("Shouldn't Be Ashamed," "I Got You (at the End of the Century)" on Friday; "Box Full of Letters," "Passenger Side" on Saturday) and new ("Impossible Germany," "Bull Black Nova" on Friday, "Hate It Here," "One Wing" on Saturday). A festival like this was made for guest spots, of course: they followed up their "I Got You" on Friday night with Neil Finn joining them for his similarly titled Split Enz classic and Saturday brought some guest guitar work from Liam Finn on "You Never Know," and some vocals from Sara Lee Guthrie (and her bandmate Johnny Irion) on her grandfather Woody's lyrics to "California Stars." Levon Helm and His Rambling Band closed it all out with "The Weight," of course, though some of us were winding the mountainous Route 2 back home by that point. We saw enough of his set to regret it, though. He's a legend for a reason, and his band has a confidence and a gravity befitting that legend. Glad I got the chance to see him. He does a regular series of concerts in his home studio in Woodstock, NY for a small audience. Might be a worthwhile pilgrimage.
MassMOCA - and North Adams in general - were gracious hosts and it's easy to see why Wilco would want to base their showcase here. Plus, the remoteness of the spot keeps the numbers manageable. It was not at all difficult to keep running into friends - and members of Wilco and the other bands - all over the museum's campus. Might has well have been in a friend's backyard.
While it doesn't sound the way we had guessed it would, experimental folk copy-pasters The Books' latest surreal set The Way Out is the act's most emotionally direct work yet. It has been five years since the itinerant duo released its beautiful third full length Lost And Safe, but the career caesura does not appear to have affected its approach to creating captivating, inscrutable music. This despite the fact that the poignant, spine-tingling and almost sample-free closing cut on Lost And Safe was a relatively conventional ballad, which we had assumed was a harbinger of things to come from the band. We were wrong. Instead, The Way Out finds The Books retrenched in its familiar mesh of absurd found sounds, field recordings, acoustic instruments, beats and occasionally spiritual lyrics.
It took seeing The Books live (in 2005, as referenced in our review of Lost And Safehere) for us to realize how central humor is to its music. We had previously recognized the quirk, but the visuals the augmented duo used to accompany its mesmerizing, extended musical koans in a live setting made plain that The Books are as much amused by life as they are amazed by it. Perhaps because of that experience we find The Way Out to be the most humorous of The Books' four iconoclastic full lengths; one listen to the hilarious amalgamation of kids goofin' called "A Cold Freezin' Night" bears this out. But it's not just the humor that is more potent: "I Am Who I Am" is stunning in its cold aggression (well, relative aggression). While we recognize that The Books are satirizing the quasi-dictatorial/actually kind of pathetic declarations that are sampled, the song is uncharacteristically dark, but thrillingly so. "I Am Who I Am" features a male voice emphatically ranting over a jungle-ish rhythm track and something like electric bassoon drones; the result sounds like something created by Pailhead, the amazing '80s collaboration between Fugazi fronter Ian Mackaye and Ministry's Al Jourgenson.
We found a record store/label that has posted samples from each song on The Way Out to Soundcloud, and so we've embedded the series of samples below. Please support The Books and pick up this very special record July 20 (tomorrow) when it is released. Or, of course, you can buy the thing from the duo's new label, Temporary Residence, right here. The Books have booked an uncharacteristically long (we think) strand of tour dates to support the release of The Way Out, and all the dates we are aware of as of this writing are posted below. Boston-area readers should make special note of The Books' appearances at Wilco's Solid Sound Festival next month and at The Somerville Theater in October.
[pre-order The Way Out from Temporary Residence Ltd. right here]
08.13 -- Solid Sound Festival -- North Adams, MA 09.04 -- ATP Music Festival -- Monticello, NY 09.29 -- The Trocadero -- Philadelphia, PA 09.30 -- 9:30 Club -- Washington, DC 10.01 -- Sheafer Theater -- Durham, NC 10.03 -- Variety Playhouse -- Atlanta, GA 10.04 -- Square Room -- Knoxville, TN 10.05 -- Jefferson Theater -- Charlottesville, VA 10.21 -- Somerville Theater -- Somerville, MA 10.22 -- Pearl Street -- Northampton, MA 10.23 -- Cabaret Mile End -- Montreal, QC 10.24 -- Capitol Music Hall -- Ottawa, ON 10.25 -- The Mod Club -- Toronto, ON 10.26 -- Crofoot Ballroom -- Pontiac, MI 10.27 -- Ladies Literary Club -- Grand Rapids, MI 10.29 -- Vic Theater -- Chicago, IL 10.30 -- Cedar Cultural Center -- Minneapolis, MN 10.30 -- Cedar Cultural Center -- Minneapolis, MN 11.13 -- Zankel Hall -- New York, NY 11.30 -- Palace of Fine Arts -- San Francisco, CA 12.03 -- Aladdin Theater -- Portland, OR 12.04 -- Moore Theatre -- Seattle, WA 12.05 -- Vogue Theater -- Vancouver, BC
The title to Philadelphia-based The Swimmers' ambitious sophomore set is not a put-down, it's a poignant acknowledgment of human flaws. Or at least that is the impression we get after listening to People Are Soft, which is starkly different from the band's excellent 2008 debut Fighting Trees. The latter album was a scritchy, upbeat collection of jangly, rootsy indie rockers that sounded like the earliest Wilco records. By contrast People Are Soft is awash in icy, futuristic synths (as in the New Order-y "Anything Together"), electronically augmented rhythm tracks and imaginative production.
The remarkable difference -- production-wise -- can in part be attributed to the fact that between the recording of the two records The Swimmers built their own home studio. And if it wasn't for a freshly realized, pronounced darkness that hangs over People Are Soft we'd chalk up the startlingly dissimilar sonic palette purely to the band's newfound freedom to experiment in the studio without having to worry about paying for all the hours. Album closer "Try To Settle In" certainly takes an everything-and-the-kitchen sink approach while recreating a sound -- one melodically akin toThe Clash's "Hitsville UK" -- that wouldn't be out of place on The Magnetic Fields' recent Distortion. The second track of People Are Soft, "A Hundred Hearts," stomps along with a slight hint of roller disco funk that recalls Lilys' recent dance floor filler "A Diana's Diana" (for that matter, the closing seconds of album opener "Shelter" sound very similar to the closing seconds of Lilys' wonderful "Black Carpet Magic"). The lazery clean, glossy production of the new Swimmers record not only contrasts with the moodier outlook in the new songs, but also places them in the same sort of sonic area as another Philly band that drastically retooled (along with a name change and personnel pruning) from a rootsy sound to a spacey, glossy and studio-influenced one: Sun Airway.
As we alluded to above, even more jarring is the darker vibe of the new record, whose songs in sum suggest a loss of innocence. Where Fighting Trees included wide-eyed and infectious anthems like "Heaven," "Pocket Full Of Gold" and "It's Time They Knew," People Are Soft's post-lapsarian sound is more troubled and reflective. The overdriven rocker (and album highlight) "Drug Party" includes the lines "when they cut me open they'll see why I didn't fit" and "I'm always outside getting sick." These sentiments, that loss of innocence, could easily be a result of the band -- led by Steve Yutzy-Burkey and whose principals met at a small Bible college -- moving to the big city and confronting new, more complicated lives. But if we had to venture a guess we'd say that the new record carries a certain resignation and weariness that manifests itself among 20-somethings when youth and idealism become increasingly distant memories. People Are Soft is released by Mad Dragon Records today. Fighting Trees was named one of our top 10 records of 2008 right here, and we reviewed it here. The band will tour briefly to support the new collection, and Boston-area fans should make a special note about the Dec. 12 date at PA's Lounge.
The Swimmers -- "A Hundred Hearts" -- People Are Soft [right click and save as] [buy Swimmers records from Newbury Comics right here]
11.06 -- Kung Fu Necktie -- Philadelphia, PA 11.07 -- Main Street Music -- Philadelphia, PA 11.07 -- Pianos -- New York, NY 11.13 -- Progressive Galleries -- Lancaster, PA 11.14 -- The Bog -- Scranton, PA 12.11 -- DC-9 -- Washington, DC 12.12 -- PA’s Lounge -- Boston, MA
The span of years roughly book-ended by the launches of Napster and Spotify -- a decade during which many perpetually proclaimed the album format dead -- was crammed with crates and crates and crates and crates of compelling music. And why wouldn't it be? Ones and zeroes do not obviate humanity's innate need to rock. But that is a subject for another day. Today, as part of Deckfight's ongoing Albums Of The Decade Blog Tour, we force ourselves to choose the 10 best of the last 10 years. For weeks we've debated how to weigh the best versus the most representative versus the most influential and so on. It's difficult stuff to parse, but we think ultimately what it came down to was giving respect where respect was due for songcraft, innovation and gusto. While we offer our picks for 10 best records below, we are not ranking them, as simply making the cut is the honor here. What is below is listed alphabetically.
No matter whether you are gauging by songcraft or innovation, The Books deserve recognition for writing some of the most amusing, compelling and beautiful compositions of the decade. In particular we find Lost And Safe's closer "Twelve Fold Chain" incredibly moving. Here's a digested version of what we said in our review May 10, 2005:
Even on this, their third album, The Books sound like they've got secrets to tell. But the most solid clues they offer on Lost And Safe are fragments of dreams, stream-of-consciousness queries and allusions to spiritual questing. An intricate mix of serene vocals, spoken word samples, understated clattering percussion, guitar and cello, the duo's music is enchanting and hypnotic. "A Little Longing Goes Away" opens the record with soft vocals swathed in reverse reverb, making lines like "our minds are empty / like we're too young to know to smile" sound like prayer.
All musical elements are expertly but gently balanced like a series of birds on a wire. Although not overtly apparent, the band's lyrics, in addition to being spiritually inquisitive, can be quite funny. This is most apparent during the act's current live show, during which video accompaniment emphasizes the graduate school-level word play that characterizes songs like "Smells Like Content" and "An Animated Description of Mr. Maps." No matter the context or what you call it, The Books are in relatively uncharted territory with bountiful potential in every direction. Although Lost And Safe would be a crowning achievement for any band, The Books show no sign of running out of beautiful musical ideas to convey.
We didn't review this record upon its release (or ever). As with songwriter Dan Bejar's finest efforts, the record is self-referential, inscrutable, beautiful and biting. Destroyer's Rubies in particular seems like a record ripe for academic examination. But no matter how layered or diffracted the narratives, the songs themselves are hook-filled, generously melodic and wholly rewarding. Bejar's smarter-than-you lyrics, singular vocal delivery, and attention to production detail make all of his records great -- Destroyer's Rubies is exceptional. What else is there to say? We recently saw Bejar perform solo in Boston, and for much of the performance we were thinking how we wished he was performing with a full band. But even performing solo with a weather red acoustic under spare spotlights the songs were completely arresting.
This list is not really about success stories, but The Hold Steady's sophomore set certainly qualifies as one, and -- of course -- one of the biggest of the decade. The burgeoning blogosphere was alight with praise when this was issued, and although our first inclination was to ignore the band because of the bountiful praise from seemingly every corner (we're contrarian like that), we were an embarrasingly ready convert when we finally stopped to listen to Separation Sunday. And what's not to like? As Mr. Kumar states, The Hold Steady is like Jim Carroll fronting Thin Lizzy playing Bruce Springsteen songs. Like the aforementioned Mr. Bejar, Hold Steady fronter Craig Finn is an amazing lyricist and he crafts on this record an amazing, conceptual collection that follows the rise and fall and rise again of certain gutter-frequenting, drug-gobbling drifters. Mr. Finn and his cohort take these losers and wring from them incredible tales of spine-tingling desperation and redemption. Also, there's a whole hell of a lot of rock music on this record, including the highlights "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" and "Stevie Nix." Ground-breaking? No. Awesome? Yes.
Did you think a guy who co-operates the Johnny Foreigner fan site Keeping Some Dark Secrets wasn't going to pick a Johnny Foreigner record for his list? There are so many reasons why this record is awesome, front to back, but here is just one: on the rare mornings where we walk to the subway, ride the subway, and then walk to our office, it takes exactly one run through the entire record to get us from door to desk. Wonderful. Here's a digested version of our review from Sept. 28, 2009:
Grace And The Bigger Picture is pointedly heartfelt, jubilantly aggressive, road-weary and resigned all at once. The record is populated with wistful ideals of home ("we'll throw parties in the yard") and amazing letdowns ("all we have is miles and wires and all I am is calls tomorrow"), but there are also wonderfully carefree moments, as in the almost blindingly brief "Kingston Called, They Want Their Lost Youth Back." [The record] is painstakingly crafted, deeply layered, and hangs together as a collection more firmly than even its ambitious predecessor. The narratives sparkle like dizzying mosaics comprised of thousands of digital snapshots. Themes appear and re-appear, e.g. the clarion call "some summers!" in "Feels Like Summer" resurfaces in "The Coast Was Always Clear;" "More Heart, Less Tongue" is transmogrified into "More Tongue, Less Heart;" the breakdown to "Custom Scenes And The Parties That Make Them" even repurposes the breakdown from the band's break-out single "Eyes Wide Terrified;" and keen ears seem to hear the familiar cry of "Amateur! Historian! shouted in the closing moments of the squalling anthem "Dark Harbourzz." But even more impressive than the whole are the parts, as there is a remarkable compositional cleverness in certain of the songs that points to an ever sharpening songcraft among Berrow and company. This is no more apparent than within the almost linear, structure-flouting gem "Custom Scenes And The Parties That Make Them." Best Before Records releases the record 26 Oct. in the U.K.
After it had exhausted a Superchunk fixation, a record label and Athens, Georgia, and before its late embrace of a rootsier sound enamored a major rock critic or two, this always-at-the-brink-of-destruction collective created this wondrous, sweet full-length. A slapdash concoction of literate, lo-fi balladry and everyman indie rock channeled through three songwriters is remarkable perhaps mostly because, like the band itself, We're All In This Alone somehow manages to hang together. All at the same time the proceedings sound like the end of the '90s, point toward the ascendency of the band's adopted hometown of Brooklyn and presage a decade that once more embraced folk rock. It's a weird record, but it's a fantastic record, held aloft by great songs including the devastating "I Hope That You Remember To Forget." Of course, The Mendoza Line did not survive this decade, but part of the magic of We're All In This Alone is that the record sounds like a band with a world of possibilities in front of it, which was fairly accurate in the year 2000.
With the ascendancy of the related, more psych-leaning project Woods, and with silence from the band going on uninterrupted, we are starting to believe we may have seen the last of our beloved Meneguar. Which is a shame because the Brooklyn-based quartet's brand of desperate, shouty, smart and guitar-driven indie rock pushes all the right buttons for us, and we see no American successor really taking up the banner for the style. I Was Born At Night, so good it was issued twice, is seven anthems brimming with brawling attitude, splendid guitar interplay and heavy dynamics pounding home hooks galore. And it all comes down to the "The Temp," a fist-banging shouter about dead-end employment (or something -- who knows?) with a killer chorus that out-Slack Motherfuckers Superchunk's renowned "Slack Motherfucker." We recall that at one point Troubleman Unlimited had posted the MP3 for "The Temp" as a promo track, so here it is in all of its glory. Actually, this is the mix from the original Magic Bullet release -- retro!
Meneguar -- "The Temp" - I Was Born At Night
[right click and save as]
When we mentioned innovation supra, The Books weren't even the first band to come to mind. Instead we thought of The Notwist, and how in the wake of this landmark release that melded laptop electropop and indie guitar music suddenly, for at least a year, every one tried to replicate the Weilheim, Germany-based quartet's sound. Only by watching the amazing "On | Off The Record" DVD does one develop an appreciation for just how difficult an undertaking such replication would be (the opening seconds of the album were incredibly difficult, actually impossible, to perform), which is why -- despite seemingly providing the formula for an aesthetic perpetuated by labels like Morr Music for years afterwards -- so few acts came close to The Notwist. Even more amazing? The band's astonishing, dub-injected, Wii-dazzled live show, which we caught for the second time a year ago, makes Neon Golden and it's excellent successor The Devil, You & Me seem pale in comparison. But at the warm, digitally-pulsing heart of Neon Golden are 10 incredible, catchy songs delivered in Markus Acher's emotive deadpan murmur.
Flawless, every song, from a songwriting and a production standpoint. Endlessly listenable. As we said here in our Best Records of 2007 wrap-up:
We listened to this record over and over and over: in the car; in the office; in the kitchen. It's exceptional. Taut, glistening pop-rock, touches of spacey, warts-and-all production, and hooks galore. The songs all flow with an ease, an internal logic that is so finite that each tune seems representative of what indie rock is, at its core. If (when?) space aliens come to the United States asking about indie rock, perhaps the most obvious example to hand them is Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.
Digested from our review posted Feb. 10, 2008 right here:
Portland, Ore.-based A Weather's beautiful full-length debut has a persistent but slippery allure. Populated almost entirely with murmured bedroom ballads driven by brushed drums, guitar and electric piano, the set somehow succeeds in not repeating the same tricks over and over again.
Is there a voyeuristic attraction inherent in pretty songs delivered in hushed tones simultaneously by male and female singers? Or is there something universal -- an inverse of voyeurism, in a way -- conveyed by these intimate, poignant tracks that make them so arresting. What we are certain of is that sping-tingling moments are frequent on Cove: when the ride cymbal pulses louder and louder during "Shirley Road Shirley" as fronter Aaron Gerber and drummer Sarah Winchester desperately assure "I swear, you won't even know I'm there;" when the duo stingingly confesses during "Oh My Stars" that "sometimes it's hard thinking about how the plans we make won't happen;" when the pair utters during "Spiders, Snakes" the unfathomably sweet sentiment (for those of us of a certain age, anyway) "I want to have you again, listening to Bedhead."
10. Yo La Tengo -- And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out -- Matador (2000) Yo La Tengo: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr | Buy
When your band puts out what is arguably the best record of 1997, what is the likelihood that only three years later it will release one of the best, if not THE best, records of 2000? This doubt is why we were quite ready for Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out to be a disappointment. But it was nothing of the sort. Opening with the Mogwai-toned spook droner "Everyday" and closing with the 17-minute spectral masterpiece "Night Falls On Hoboken," the record provides easy exuses for lapsing into over-the-top praise. This is simply a perfect record, and we'd argue it is downright better than the admittedly fine records that the trio has released since. In addition to the droners we already named, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out also carried the sugary, caffeinated rocker "Cherry Chapstick," the marvelously affecting ballad "Tears Are In Your Eyes" and some bossa-tinted toe-tappers "Let's Save Tony Orlando's House" and "You Can Have It All." For the rest of the decade Yo La Tengo delved into murky sounds, garage rock and shiny pop, but when we think of the band, we think of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out.
What a pleasant surprise this is. Though I was an early and avid supporter, I started to lose track of Ben Lee after becoming increasingly disappointed in his music as he matured from the 13 year-old that was introduced to the US by no less than Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label in 1993 with his primitive cheap keyboard drum machines and guitars and obvious gift of melody and clever turns of phrase and into a more studied and serious singer-songwriter. That early notice was largely driven by the 1994 underground hit “I Wish I Was Him,” (from the Young and Jaded EP on Grand Royal) a back-handed tribute to Evan Dando that would have been easy to write off as a novelty were it not so clever, tuneful, and charming.
Now, I don’t mean to begrudge him his craft, but as I was talking about with a friend over the weekend, the longer you keep at songwriting, the harder it seems to be to recapture the innocence and charm of your early attempts. You’ve done the three-chord pop, what’s next? This is often a good thing: “Tomorrow Never Knows” was a scant three or so years on from “Love Me Do,” after all. Not everyone agrees about such things of course: the Wilco of A Ghost Is Born is not the same band that people fell in love with on Being There (though I happen to love both). For me, Lee’s records started to lose that charm after he dropped the Noise Addict moniker and releasing albums under his own name. After 1995’s Grandpaw Would, they just started to get less interesting.
So, when alerted by a Merge press release that there was a new Noise Addict album – available NOW – and FREE – and LOU BARLOW is IN the band (along with Crooked Fingers’ Lara Meyerratken), I was skeptical that Lee could reach back and recapture that spirit. I’m glad to report that he largely has. According to the liner notes for it was never about the audience, there were arbitrary ground rules, key among them that the songs were written right before being quickly recorded in Lee’s bedroom, just like when he was a teen. That urgency leaves little time for over-crafting and it suits his pop instincts well.
Lyrically, it’s a throwback too. The first track, “That’s How It Goes” opens with the lines “bands make music/writers write about it/sometimes people like it/and sometimes they don’t” and later in “I Heart Your Band,” he mocks with “I heart your band/especially the early stuff.” Elsewhere he goes after “Chris Martin’s Frown,” so there may still be a lot of music fanboy still in Lee, but a wearier one.
I’m holding out hope that this experiment reinvigorates Lee’s songwriting, and it certainly will stir an examination of what I missed. Grab it –- it’s available now for free download here. -- Michael Piantigini
>> [PHOTO CREDIT: Dawn Walsh] Philadelphia indie rock upstarts The Swimmers recently completed a small strand of tour dates, but the quartet is continuing the good vibes by sharing a cracking live recording of their March 22 show at The Hideout in Chicago. The audio is clear and punchy and the performances are sharp. The live set is largely comprised of tracks from the band's long-awaited and recently released full length Fighting Trees, which we reviewed here in early March. The Swimmers harness the rootsiness of Wilco and the economic pep of Spoon, and as such it is unclear to us why the foursome doesn't enjoy a higher profile outside of Philadelphia. Check out the live version of "Pocket Full Of Gold" posted below, and if you're jazzed also hit the link for a .zip file of the whole show, which closes out with a pleasantly ragged version of the Hall & Oates chestnut "Rich Girl." If you can't get enough of that live stuff and you are in Philadelphia Friday you can catch the band at Johnny Brenda's with BC Camplight and The Capitol Years.
The Swimmers -- "Pocket Full Of Gold (Live)" -- Live at The Hideout, Chicago, March 22, 2008 [right click and save as] [to get a .zip file of the whole show right click on this link] [buy Fighting Trees from Newbury Comics right here]
>> Thanks to the Internet, we are more able now to consume Philly-reared musical victuals than we were when we lived there in the late '90s. It also helps that we have money now, we suppose. We're tempted to turn Today's Hotness into an all-Philly edition so we can talk about the new Windsor For The Derby tracks and the review of the Yah Mos Def record at PantsFork, but we see some other things we need to get to, so a little bit about the recently reissued -- and free -- 2006 EP from Philly quintet The War On Drugs will have to suffice. Incidentally, The War On Drugs likely hit our radar via coverage in the inimitable Philebrity.com. But it was when we saw this item at BrooklynVegan saying the act -- which recently signed with Secretly Canadian -- was giving away a free EP that we finally checked out the band. And you know what? The Barrel Of Batteries EP is dynamite. Mixing laid-back Byrds-ish strummery and vocals with some rich production flourishes and the occasional odd interstitial, the small stack of tunes is a promising harbinger of what a planned full-length Wagonwheel Blues will bring. To whet your whistle, we've posted below an MP3 of "Arms Like Boulders," a different version of which will appear on the full length, which is slated for release in June. If you dig that you can snatch a .zip file of the entire EP at the other link below.
The War On Drugs -- "Arms Like Boulders" -- Barrel Of Batteries EP [right click and save as] [download the entire EP as a .zip file from Secretly Canadian here]
>> Brooklyn-based indie rockers Meneguar were responsible for our favorite record of 2007, and we've known for some time that more recordings are in the offing. And although we've stumbled across some things on the Internets over the last couple months -- and memorialized said things here and here -- we've been in the dark about what the band would be releasing when. Well, our RSS percolated up two items from the band yesterday. First, Meneguar has released via its own Rear House label the vinyl-only full-length The In Hour, which is available for mail order directly from the band [details here]. The record purportedly showcases the foursome switching up instruments and creating a spontaneous, self-recorded set. Meneguar itself characterizes The In Hour as "a serious departure," but contends the recordings "hold true to the band's undeniable pop sensibility." Needless to say we mail-ordered it straightaway. In other news, the band has uploaded to YouTube a video [linky linky] for the new track "Some Other Life." Frankly, we don't think the video is much to shout about, although once certain of the actors don full-body cat costumes things improve dramatically, in a creepy, "The Shining" sort of sense. If anything, the video is important because it is the only chance you have to hear the track without hunting down the band or ordering the vinyl or hanging out at its MySpace wigwam.
>> [UPDATED: See End Of First Paragraph] If this photo (not the one above) is legitimate -- and we have no reason to believe otherwise -- then superlative Texas shoegazers She, Sir must have recently recorded a live session for Internet radio streamer WOXY.com. This is terrifically exciting because the band released in 2006 a seven-song set, Who Can't Say Yes, that was a flawless concoction of sounds made famous (to us, anyway) by Ride and Lilys. As we reported here in January, She, Sir has been working on a new record titled Go Guitars with the assistance of producer Erik Wofford (Explosions In The Sky, Voxtrot). We inspected the WOXY Lounge Acts page and there is no indication of when the She, Sir session will be posted, but we'll keep our eyes on it. In other news, the band reports at its web site that it has been auditioning candidates to serve as a permanent rhythm section, replacing a rotating cast of players. Hopefully the move to a permanent lineup will result in some East Coast touring. In the meantime, enjoy the stellar lead track from Who Can't Say Yes. Update: so it turns out the picture linked above was in fact old, and the She, Sir WOXY session was recorded last year. We've added a direct link to an MP3 of the session below, and we're downloading it now to hear it.
She, Sir -- "I Love You, Blowtorch Eyes" -- Who Can't Say Yes She, Sir -- 2007 WOXY Session [right click and save as] [buy Who Can't Say Yes from the band here]
>> We went to EMusic the other night to check out the newly acquired Rolling Stonesofferings (oh how we love the live sets Get Yer Ya-Yas Out and Got Live If You Want It) and got sidetracked by the presence on the main page of a newish single from dub-influenced electronic music producer Deadbeat. We've had a thing for the Montreal-based act (actually one dood, Scott Monteith) ever since reviewing the set Something Borrowed, Something Blue for Junkmedia back in March 2004 [review here]. While the single "Eastward On To Mecca" was released by Wagon Repair/Zebralution, we associate Deadbeat with Stefan Betke's ~scape label, which has also released a number of Deadbeat recordings. It is interesting to note that while Betke's Pole project left us cold after the introduction of rapping into a series of EPs in 2005 (and the full-length Steingarten never completely fired our imagination, either), Deadbeat has stuck closer to the dub-influenced sounds that have been one of the more prominent hallmarks of the ~scape catalogue, and thus Deadbeat has also continued to move us with its grooves. If you are a fan, we highly recommend grabbing "Eastward On To Mecca" from EMusic here.
>> The title track to The Manhattan Love Suicides' recently issued, limited edition 7" EP Clusterf*ck is now streaming at Leeds-based Squirrel Records' MySpace cabin here. The band sounds even more like erstwhile Slumberland Records noise merchants Henry's Dress than ever before, and that is a good thing. The Manhattan Love Suicides' EP has four tracks in all, including "Detroit Diesel," "Burning Wire" and "Heat And Panic." So the obvious question now is, "will anybody sell me this thing as MP3s?" Well, let's have a look. Nope. But we bet if you watch EMusic it will eventually pop up here.
>> Readers may recall we reported here that L.A.-based rockers The Radishes would be giving away their forthcoming Strychnine EP for free prior to its April 15 release. Well the band has made good. Hit this link to download four straightforward hard rockers from the quartet. The title track seems to betray a love of taut, sludgy mid-'80s stoner metal, and the tune features a guitar solo courtesy of former MC-5 man Wayne Kramer. The set also includes a slow-burning psyched out cover of the John Lennon cut, "I Found Out," which the deceased Beatle issued on his John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band LP in 1970. We ranted about The Radishes blistering rocker "Hook Me Up" here in November.
>> We were curious about references made to the band Lump when we saw pop-punkers Varsity Drag earlier this year [review], and after corresponding with Lisa Drag and poking around on the Interweb we got turned onto the recently resuscitated '90s indie rockers. For all the guitar distortion and '90s nostalgia you're looking for, look no further than this recently posted video for Lump's rocker "Thirteen." The clip was apparently cobbled together by film students during the band's heyday in and around Lump's Fitchburg, Mass. stomping grounds.
