The Playwrights "Guy Debord is Really Dead"

An indie-rock English band that sounds unapologetically English, with enough quirky quirks to be mistaken as influenced by American music? Who knew that such a thing would come out sounding so...good? Guy Debord Is Really Dead is a great three-song EP; there's no room for screwing around, they get to the point--and in your face--quite quickly. With a sound that seems to be a mixture of Jawbox and Pavement--which, for review purposes, covers the harder moments and The Fall moments quite nicely--and it's absolutely no surprise why the kids are getting excited about these guys. Intense, literate rock (that occasionally sounds a little too American for my taste, sorry) is found in the title track and "Bridge Burning Cooperative," but I really love "Knock Yourself Out," which finds the band supplementing their rock with a bit of a beat, and it sounds real...nice. A nice little taste of a great band, who are sure to (hopefully) dominate 2005.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.theplaywrights.co.uk
Label Website: http://www.sinkandstove.co.uk

Panda Bear "Young Prayer"

Over the last few years, Noah Lennox (known lovingly to those in the know as Panda Bear) has proven that he is capable of interesting, unique musical explorations. As part of the Animal Collective, Panda Bear has made some music that qualifies as interesting--just listen to the amazing Sung Tongs or Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They're Vanished, and you'll hear a young man who doesn't let inhibition hold back from musical exploration. Wanna meow as a cat? Go for it! Wanna make all kinds of noises? Sure,why not?

Recently going through the tragedy of losing his father, he decided to pay tribute in the way he knows best: through music. Young Prayer was recorded in the room where his father passed away, it's most certainly a record that reflects upon the universal feelings that come with death: sadness and melancholy. Lennox has eschewed song titles, giving the entire record the feeling of being one long, continuous suite. Because the music is so varied, such a device actually gives the record a stronger, more cohesive feel. From the gentle piano of "Track Nine" to the guitar strumming on "Track Four" and to the clapping, one man drum circle of "Track Five," Panda Bear never fails to be anything less than engaging, and he never fails to convey the range of emotions that come from the death of a parent, even though he never says a word.

Growing up, my father always used to say 'the blues isn't a sound, it's a feeling.' Though Young Prayer is not a concept album about his father's death and life, but you do get the distinct feeling of loss and sadness and youth and life through Panda Bear's emotion. Young Prayer is sad, yet it's hopeful; it's detatched, yet it's loving; it's difficult, yet it's universal; it says nothing, yet it says everything. It's a stunningly beautiful testament to the power of the unsung song, and is quietly one of this year's musical highlights.

--Joseph Kyle

Label Website: http://www.paw-tracks.com

Icicles "A hundred Patterns"

For those of you who don't know, and I'm sure there are a bunch of you who don't, the Icicles are the early 21st century version of the Partridge Family. Except that they're not related (or pretend to be related) and they can play their instruments. No, if you see and hear them, you'll know what I mean. Just look at the paper doll caricatures of them on the cover of this album. They wear matching retro outfits and sing ultra-cute, innocently fun tweepop music. Yes, I've seen this band live and it's like going through a time warp to a time (perhaps only existing in fictional television nostalgia) when rock and roll was innocent and there weren't even any veiled, winking references to drugs or sex in the music. But just because this is the kind of band you can bring home to mother or have play in front of your girl scout troop, don't think they're lame. Unless you hate cuteness, because the Icicles are as cute as a roomful of kittens and as sugary sweet as the last time you stuffed yourself full of Halloween candy. Those who don't know how to hold their sugar will have trouble digesting the Icicles' sublime confections of guitar, bass, farfisa-ish keyboard, drums, and mostly female vocals.

This Michigan-based band has previously released one six-song EP, aptly named the Pure Sugar EP. With songs about lemonade and somersaults in the summertime, going on a date to the picture show, the joys of hair dye and the tribulation of being a wallflower in the corner waiting to dance, it was a tweepop fan's dream. It's an underrated classic, and if you don't already have it, I strongly recommend it. Since then, the Icicles have replaced their original bassist and drummer. However, core members Gretchen DeVault (lead vocals, guitar, most songwriting) and Joleen Rumsey (keyboards, vocals) still remain, and the Icicles still sound much like the same band they were on Pure Sugar. However, early reviews have said that the Icicles seem more "mature" on this release. While that does seem true, I'd say they've only matured just a little bit.

The height of maturity on A Hundred Patterns is a song called "Pretty". It's sung from the point of view of a girl insecure about her looks. "Pretty, pretty, pretty. Maybe if I were pretty, I would be happy," reasons the girl in the song. The girl goes on to compare herself to the unusually thin models presented in magazines, which perpetuate the unrealistic standards of beauty that cause girls to starve themselves to death, get plastic surgery, and not embrace their outward geekiness. I could go on and on about how sad it makes me to see female geeks deny themselves and succumb to the pressure to conform to the frivolous standards of beauty set by the patriarchy, but I won't. (Yes, girls, there are boys out there who'd choose a blatantly geeky girl over the starved, plastic-laden centerfold.) Anyway, the song ends with a great, sardonic twist: "Happy, happy, happy. Maybe if I were happy, pretty wouldn't matter." This issue is a great premise for a song, and I'm glad that the Icicles addressed it.

Besides that, all but three of the remaining ten songs on the album are love songs. One of the other non-love songs is the leadoff track, "Rock n' Roll Girl", a feminine variation on the yearning many young people have to leave their nowhere town and successful traverse the path of rock stardom. In this version of the rock and roll fantasy, the boys are throwing flowers at the prospective rock star's feet as she walks down the street. I can't help but wish this would really happen to Gretchen because you hardly ever see any female rock stars who don't come off as worthless and asinine.

Another non-love song is the Joleen Rumsey-penned (and sung) "Bat in the Kitchen", which is about exactly what the title says it is. The endearing thing about this song is that while the bat is seen as an annoyance, Joleen has nothing but goodwill for the bat. "We don't want to hurt you, we just want to get you outside. We don't want to hurt you. We just want to help you fly." An amazing amount of composure in a situation in which many others would scream, "Get the hell out of here, you goddamned flying mouse before I put a stake through your vampire heart!"

The remaining non-love song is "Happy Place", about being driven insane by stress--and it sounds like the singer is literally going insane. After articulating the craziness she's been going through, the song ends with the lines "I'm going to my happy place, where none of this will ever happen again." I don't think I've ever seen tweepop totally lose it like this. I should also mention that the way they play this song is very upbeat and danceable. If you don't pay attention to the lyrics, it sounds quite happy.

I said that the rest of the songs are love songs, but that statement makes them sound one-dimensional. Was 69 Love Songs one-dimensional? The sentiments are just as varied on here as they are on that classic album. There's "I Wanna Know", about a girl wondering about the future of her relationship, asking her boy "Will I be your forever girl or will you just replace me?" Then, there's "Ralphy Rodriguez", a song about a girl with a huge celebrity crush, seemingly bordering on psychosis when you consider lines like "I know you're the one for me, it came to me in a dream" and "Maybe you don't know me, but I feel it just the same. You were meant for me, and I know you'll feel the same way." "Snowman" is about a girl in the springtime reflecting on the fun she had playing in the snow with her love. There's also "Porch Swing", about the delicious trepidation one experiences when deciding whether or not to tell a prospective significant other how you feel about them.

But I still haven't told you about the best song on the album, which is the last song, "Sugar Sweet". Besides having one of the most infectious melodies ever (I'm not exaggerating here), giving it guaranteed earworm status, it's got one of the most interesting lyrical twists I've ever seen in a love song. The verses are all head-over-heels in love, with sentiments like "You make my heart pitter patter. This kind of loving makes nothing else matter." But things get interesting in the chorus. The chorus consists of one surprisingly catchy line: "Oooh, yeah. You're just about my everything." What stands out to me is that it says you're "just about" my everything. That implies that the lover to whom this is being sung is not the singer's everything, and while he's close to being her everything, she still has a small part of her life that's not taken up by him. You don't often hear happy love songs equivocate like that, ladies and gentlemen.

This CD is a great step in the progression of the Icicles' career. As you see from the descriptions above, the Icicles have managed to present an album of great balance between adolescent romance and sophisticated "adult" thought. If you were familiar with the Icicles before, I hope you've already gone off to order this CD before finishing this review. For everyone else, you definitely need this if excessive amounts of sugar don't make you puke. Play it for your girl scout troop!

--Eric Wolf

Aritst Website: http://www.theicicles.com/
Label Website: http://www.microindie.com/

pAper chAse/red worms farm

God Bless Your Black Heart by Dallas' pAper chAse was an unsurprising surprise masterpiece. Simply put, John Congleton is one of the most interesting minds in indie-rock; he's receiving the credit he deserves in the production world, and his hard work is starting to pay off. The Paper Chase Meet Red Worms Farm, a split with Italian band Red Worms Farm, is a fun little out-of-the-way extra for fans and newbies alike.

Obviously, with three tracks--two of which have already been released--there's not much room to make a bold statement. "I'm Your Doctor Now," which first appeared on a Kill Rock Stars compilation, is a typical Congleton screamer; "Isn't She Lovely" (which sadly isn't a cover!) is also another excellent relationship number. "Out Come The Knives" is mellow but no less psychologically damaged. Red Worms Farm is an interetsting band as well, though they seem to follow the Unrest formula a little too close; their songs are heavy on the instrumental moments, "Jelly Bean" appears twice, and the remix is much more interesting than the regular version. The bands mix quite well together, actually, and though this isn't the pAper chAse's strongest release, it's still quite enjoyable.

(There are two videos, for both "I'm Your Doctor Now" and "Pop Song," but I'm unable to watch them.)

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.thepaperchaseband.com
Artist Website: http://www.halleynation.com
Label Website: http://www.robotradiorecords.com

American Werewolf Academy "Devil Spit it Out"

From the manifesto on their web site to the presentation of their actual songs, Denton’s American Werewolf Academy position themselves as ambassadors of fun, unpretentious rock and roll. No less than three of the songs on their debut EP Devil, Spit It Out have the word “Rock” in the title. Almost all of the EP’s songs celebrate the redemptive power of playing and/or listening to rock music, especially while drinking and dancing with your friends. All seven songs are short blasts of adrenaline that climax with a big chorus, and run out of steam before you do. The band name-checks the Replacements, Guided by Voices and Cheap Trick as influences. They’re definitely as raucous as the first band, as concise as the second, but not quite as technically skilled as the third (though drummer Tony Harper makes a decent case for himself with a series of wickedly fast fills). Of course, their songwriting doesn’t reach the classic heights of ANY of those bands, but at their best they certainly seem capable of it.

When guitarist Aaron Thedford hollers “You load up the station wagon/I’ll bring the alcohol/Are you going to the rock show tonight?,” you’ll get caught up in his frenzy. On another song, Thedford gives you a choice: “Would you rather rock song/Or do you wanna cry all day long?” On band anthem “Welcome to the Academy,“ he sums up the redemptive power of rock and roll in three lines: “You got to dance/You got new shoes/Here’s your chance to be anything you want to be!“ However, the band’s focus on rock and the various forms of rocking out wears thin over the course of an EP; an entire full-length of these sermons could prove to be as monotonous as the whiny emo that Thedford rails against. Plus, it doesn’t help that Thedford is a terminally hoarse singer whose voice soars a full half-step above the music when he gets excited.

The ballad “Goodnight, My Pumpkin Pie,” which bisects the EP, is a nice attempt at branching out. It laments the death of fairy tales, and boasts a wonderful verse about Captain Hook entering a mid-life crisis (“Pan and Tinkerbell, you both just go straight to hell/Leave me alone with my rum”). However, the REST of the song is full of nonsensical lyrics with obvious rhymes, and several other songs have the same problem. If the band can broaden their subject matter, tighten up their lyrics, and get Hedford to calm down a little bit, it shouldn’t be too long before American Werewolf Academy start nipping at the heels of their influences.

--Sean Padilla

Artist Website: http://www.americanwerewolfacademy.com

Headlights "The Enemies"

Born from the ashes of the late, great (and criminally ignored) Absinthe Blind, Headlights offer themselves to you with a humble, mail-order only release, entitled The Enemies. If you loved Absinthe Blind--or are simply in love with gorgeous atmospheric rock--then Headlights will be a surprise treat for you....but not really, because The Enemies isn't that different from their Absinthe Blind days. Personally, I'm glad they're still making music; Rings should have been their breakthrough...but, alas, it went ignored, and the band quietly (and probably quite frustratingly) disbanded.

"Tokyo" starts the EP off with a bit of noise, but then it takes a turn for the country, with some really nice, gentle guitars and the gorgeous boy/girl vocal exchange between Tristan Wraight and Erin Fein. In between the gentle vocals and guitars, though, are little twitches of feedback and washes of beautiful atmospherics, very similar to Rings. "Centuries" is a rather upbeat rocker, too; it's minus the shimmering sheets of sound, but it still sounds real good. "Everybody Needs a Fence to Lead On" is the record's highlight, starting off with some drop-dead gorgeous vocals from Erin which then turns into an upbeat pop song with that excellent boy/girl lyrical exchange. "It Isn't Easy to Live That Well" closes the record, and even though it's probably the weakest song on the record, Erin's singing is nice and the music is engaging--I love their use of vibes.

So welcome to the world, Headlights! Very rarely does a four-song EP make a stunning impression, but The Enemies certainly leaves me wanting more. It's a really nice little start, and here's hoping you talented folk get the recognition Absinthe Blind always deserved.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.headlightsmusic.com
Label Website: http://www.polyvinylrecords.com

wrangler brutes 'zulu'

Wrangler Brutes is a 'supergroup' of sorts, with members of all sorts of bands like Universal Order of Armagedon, Monorchid, Born Against and other names you probably don't know outside of hipster circles and/or Punk Planet. When you open up the sleeve, you'll find the lyrics hand-written a la Aaron Cometbus, and if you're literary minded, you'll quickly be drawn in, because these lyrics are profound, intelligent and funny as all get-out. It's really a shame, then, that I had to ruin the experience by listening to the album that accompanies this little collection of literary rants.

Zulu is eighteen punk rock blasts in twenty minutes. That tells you much right there. It's hardcore punk rock by veterans of the scene, and for the most part, you can't understand the rather brilliant lyrical content. That's kind of a shame, because there are some rather hilarious moments on here, including "Driving," "Snooded" and "Unmentionables," and you might not really get the full brilliance of the proceeding by listening. Maybe Wrangler Brutes are simply trying to turn a generation of brain-dead punk rockers onto that thing we call reading? Perhaps. Funny and fun songs that sound better when you don't listen to the record...who knew?

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.wranglerbrutes.com
Label Website: http://www.killrockstars.com

The Blow "Poor Aim:Love Songs"

The best moments of the Blow’s first official full-length, 2003’s The Concussive Caress, were the result of a shy indie-pop girl using mainstream R&B as a template through which she could explore the nuances of her sexuality. The contrast between Khaela Maricich’s pretty but unassertive voice and the funky drum programming that constantly threatened to overwhelm it gave the songs a tension that made Caress a more rewarding listen than the average K record. Caress was based on a musical that Maricich had been performing at her live shows. Because of such, the album was littered with mid-song tangents and between-song interludes that could’ve confused listeners who had never seen a Blow performance. Maricich’s new EP Poor Aim: Love Songs is an improvement over her previous album because, with the exception of the brief, jarring “Let’s Play Boys Chase Girls,” each song works well completely on its own.

At least half of the songs on Poor Aim are sparer and funkier than anything Khaela’s done before. The backing track of opener “Hey Boy” coasts on retro girl-group harmonies, featherweight guitars, and a tuneful synthesized bass line. The handclaps and rapid-fire drum breaks of “The Love I Crave” are pure 1980s roller-rink groove, with computerized vocal cutups that would make Prefuse 73’s Scott Herren proud. Last but not least, Maricich’s heavy breathing and vocal syncopation on “Hock It” is just as sensual as any of the R&B divas that she takes inspiration from. Her vocals have become comparatively more assertive since Caress; she rides the beats now, whereas before she occasionally sounded as if she could barely keep up with them. Other songs on Poor Aim borrow more from the sterile, dinkier synth-pop of the Postal Service (most notably “Knowing the Things That I Know”).

As always, the Blow’s songs are sung from the point of view of a woman who’s still young enough to analyze the minutiae of every fleeting crush, but too mature to treat unrequited love like it’s the end of the world. The lyrics to “Hey Boy” read like a LiveJournal entry barely shoehorned into verse/chorus format, as Khaela ponders every possible explanation for why a certain boy didn’t call her: “Susan said maybe you were scared/Shelley says there is always a reason/and Chris said you’re probably surrounded by girls/and I’m just not one of them that you’re needing.” On “The Sky Opened Wide Like the Tide,” Khaela spends all night on the town, searching in vain for her friends. She mentions specific Olympia landmarks in the lyrics, but the wanderlust she sings about still feels universal, a trick that only the best semi-autobiographical pop can pull off.

EP closer “Come on Petunia” begins with a twee recasting of the Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” but then becomes a spoken-word chronicle of the seedier underbelly of unrequited love: an obsessed woman who considers cutting the man she wants into pieces, guys competing with each other to see who can get laid first, etc. That dark horse aside, Poor Aim: Love Songs is as sweet and sexy as indie-pop gets nowadays. I am certain that Khaela Maricich’s best and sultriest work is ahead of her. What else would you expect from a woman whose website is called “the Touch Me Feeling”?

--Sean Padilla

Artist Website: http://www.thetouchmefeeling.com
Label Website: http://www.statesrightsrecords.com

Chin Up Chin Up "We Should Have Never Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers"

I gotta hand it to Chin Up Chin Up--their decision to soldier on in the face of overwhelming tragedy is admirable. After releasing a very promising EP, the band had commenced working on their debut album last winter, but on Valentine's Day, after declaring his love to his girlfriend at a show, bassist Chris Saathoff was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Such a devestating and sudden loss would have been an honorable enough reason for the band to retire--but they decided to continue on, realizing that Saathoff's legacy would not live on otherwise. To preserve his memory--and to honor their lost bandmate--the band made samples of Saathoff's bass lines from other recordings and built their songs around them.

It was worth the effort.

We Should Have Never Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers is an excellent debut album. The band's songs are tight, with a rhythm that will make your feet move to the beat. With a sound that recalls--but doesn't imitate--the styles ofMoon & Antartica-era Modest Mouse and late period Dismemberment Plan, it's clear that Chin Up Chin Up are onto something good, because their music is just....cool. Check out the Jeremy Bolen's suave singing on the title track, the cool rhythms of "Virginia, Don't Drown" and "Collide the Tide" and the awesome dance groove beat of "Get Me Off Of This Fucking Island," and you'll be instantly won over by Chin Up Chin Up's charm. Occasionally the album sounds clunky and awkward, but considering the circumstances behind the album's creation and that this is but the band's debut album, you'll quickly forgive any lesser moments.

In fact, you shouldn't even worry about it, because when you get caught up in the music, you won't even notice. We Should Have Never Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers shows that Chin Up Chin Up is a very special band indeed, and that overcoming their sadness by soldiering on was a wise decision. An excellent album by a great young band, and I'm glad they're still around.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.chinupchinup.com
Label Website: http://www.flameshovel.com

Yowie "Cryptozoology"

Cartoon dinosaurs on the cover eating each other. Sadly, that's the most interesting thing about Yowie's Cryptozoology. As you'd expect from a Skin Graft release, the music inside is challenging, but the challenge here is to actually make it through this album's seven songs. Even though it's only a half hour in length, it feels longer than the four hours I spent in the dentist's chair recently--and it's probably more painful, too. All the song titles are names for women--with a focus on black women--with names that start with the letter T. As for the "music," it's a schizophrenic mess, as it sounds like three guys who want to show the world how badly they can play. Guess what? You guys win. To be fair, "Towanda" has a groove that grew on me. Then it ended. The sheer cheek of Cryptozoology is confounding and amusing. Three guys who make intentionally bad music just took a half-hour of my life. Ha Ha Ha!!! I admire your balls, they're probably smirking somewhere, and this review's done.

--Joseph Kyle

Label Website: http://www.skingraftrecords.com

thirdimension 'permanant holiday'

Thirdimension's debut album, Protect Us From What We Want, appeared in 1998, but did not appear in the US until last year. It was a loving gift from the folks at Parasol, as it rescued a really great record from the bin of Scandinavian obscurity. It also showed that The Soundtrack Of Our Lives and The Hives were not the only Swedish rock bands in town. That album's highlight, "Other Side of Town," should have been a summer Modern Rock radio hit, but it was not meant to be. Permanant Holiday, the band's second album, finds them turning up the guitars and tuning into a more melodic pop style.

Not that they've really changed the formula, but after six years, you'd expect the band to mature a little bit, and they've aged quite nicely. Their youthful bursts of energy have turned into a confident, steady swagger, and though they still possess that garage-pop element that coated their debut album, their songs have a new depth that sets them apart from their colleagues. Apparently, they've discovered that adding a darker atmosphere to their music gives it a new depth; just listen to the mellower moments like "Black And Blue," "MondayMachine, " "Save Me" and "Silver Eye"--all masterful moments--and you'll be impressed. The atmospherics owe more to bands like New Order and Coldplay than they do to the Rolling Stones and Oasis; in fact, they save the balls-out rock for only one track, "Ex-Song," which is easily the best song that Liam and Noel never wrote. (A caveat: "We're Not Gonna Take It" is not the Twisted Sister song, so don't be disappointed!)

In a perfect, non-Clear Channel world, Thirdimension would be in heavy rotation, because this album is radio-friendly in the best possible sense. Permanant Holiday is yet another piece of evidence that shows that Sweden has a better understanding of smart Rock Music than we do. Kudos to Thirdimension for reminding me the good that rock music can do, and let's hope they don't take six more years on their next record!

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.thirdimension.nu
Label Website: http://www.parasol.com

Joe Anderl "Purple Hearts and the Typesetter"

Upon hearing the first notes of Purple Hearts and the Typesetter, you’d think that you were going to be listening to that crazy rock and roll music that’s so popular with the kids these days. While it sounds great, I’m still kind of in a somber mood due to the last compact disc I listened to (see the Mundane Sounds review of Southeast Engine’s “One Caught Fire”). As if Joe Anderl could somehow tell I’m sad and drunk at this point, the album miraculously switches gears by the second track, a wistful number played on a banjo. Sticking primarily to this theme throughout the remainder of the album, I’m really wishing I had more beer… even though I am aware that, at this point, it’d probably be a bad idea. The album’s production shines just as much as the songs do. Great guitar work, awesome backing vocals, Rhodes piano in all the right places…it’s as if Joe Anderl has figured out how to produce a tear in my beer. It doesn’t get much better. Well, yes it would. If I weren’t out of beer right now, things would be better. At least, they would be right now. Tomorrow morning, however, is another story.

--Kyle Sowash

Artist Website: www.joeanderl.com
Label Website: www.teamevil.com

So L'il "Revolution Thumpin'"

Remember when, in the late Nineties, cultural pundits declared electronica the next big thing?

Yeah, I'm sure you're reminded constantly about that. I just had to bring that up, though.

Revolution Thumpin', the debut full-length from So L'il reminds me of those times, but not in a bad way.

So L'il is an electronic band, but you won't be hearing them at the next rave you might hypothetically go to, nor will your local IDM hipster be down with their groove. Revolution Thumpin' is not an album of repetitive dance grooves that you have to be on narcotics in order to appreciate for more than half an hour straight, and it's certainly not full of boring blip-bloopy noise that you'll have to pretend to like in order to make people think you have discriminating taste. Instead, So L'il has created a sophisticated electronic record, but with enough pop elements to keep it digestable. It's a great mishmash of pop, psychedelia, and trip-hop that pays homage to many of the great electronic acts of the '90s. It has the indiepop vibe of Land of the Loops, the rough sensuality and inventiveness of Tricky, and the funkiness of classic Massive Attack. Revolution Thumpin' certainly brings back to the days of the late '90s before hipsterdom almost totally spoiled electronic music for me.

Of course, some might think that my description of So L'il makes them sound like a cheap throwback to the past. Well, isn't most of today's electronic music just stuffed with '80s nostalgia? Anyway, rather than being a knock-off of the '90s sound, So L'il is picking up where they left off, trying to bring electronic music back in the direction it was going before '80s nostalgia and IDM took over. If you still think that they're just a cheap homage, the merits of the music itself prove otherwise. So L'il's beats are dope, both the male and female vocals are well done, and they do an excellent job at varying their musical arrangements and making every song sound different. Besides that, they manage to give songs titles like "I'm Bored, Wanna Fuck" and "Fuck Them Hordes of Aliens" and still come off as sophisticated.

If you think electronic music has gone too far back and needs to move forward a decade, So L'il are your new heroes.

--Eric Wolf

Artist Website: http://www.solil.net/
Label Website: http://www.goodbyebetter.com/

Various Artists: Music From the OC Mix Two

Ah, the O.C. For the longest time, I avoided this show like the plague. I never was a fan of 90210 or Melrose Place or The Heights or any other night-time soap opera that FOX had to offer, mainly because I never let myself pay attention to the storyline. I was well aware that The O.C was playing great music on their show; as I understood it, Adam Brody’s character was waaay into Death Cab for Cutie. An interesting idea for a soap, but I’d managed to steer clear...until now.

See, my old lady is a big fan. She bought the DVD, and on Sunday, we watched about 8 hours of this show. Like any other soap opera, it sucks you in once somebody makes you watch it. It is for this reason that all throughout 2001, I planned my day around Passions. The O.C.’s plot is so bad it’s good. An attractive rich family adopts an attractive kid from the wrong side of the tracks, and he and his new attractive friends go to a lot of parties and get into a lot of trouble. He falls in love with his next-door neighbor, who is still hung up on her ex-boyfriend, who is, in turn, having sex with her psychotic mom. It’s so ridiculous..yet it’s enticing!

Thumbs up to this show’s music director. She makes such great use of music on this show; I recall a show last season that played “That’s the way we Get By” by Spoon during the opening credits. I bet she could make a great mix cd. Wait, she can! In fact, she released two of them on Warner: Music from the O.C. vols. 1 and 2. Apparently, volume two’s content is to be used during the second season. Songs from Death Cab for Cutie, Nada Surf, Interpol, the Killers, Beulah and more riddle this disc like a new generation indie rock girl’s Ipod. Like a good mix cd should, there isn’t a song on there I don’t like. Some I like more than others, i.e. Jem’s cover of “Maybe I’m Amazed”, and the Killers’ “Smile Like You Mean it” On a sidenote, this show is helping launch the careers of many bands. Millions of teeny-boppers tune in to this show every week, and they see that Seth Cohen listens to Death Cab for Cutie. They then go right out to BEST BUY and buy the cd. When Death Cab comes to town, they are first in line to buy the concert tickets, causing the show to sell out before the slackers get to buy their tickets.

While this new sudden popularity has alienated some of their fans who have been around since they were but a mediocre struggling indie rock band, they are now selling more records then they ever have before. To show how the times have changed, the short-lived My So Called Life (another popular teen soap) had a soundtrack, but I don’t remember the teenyboppers flipping out over Buffalo Tom or Archers of Loaf. When the Flaming Lips appeared on 90210, they slipped further into obscurity. The Walkmen are slated to appear on The O.C. this season. We’ll see what good fortune may come their way. So I guess I’m all for The O.C. after all. The show’s plot is addicting enough, and when you include music such as this, it’s must-see TV. Excuse me, I gotta go, I’ll be in front of the idiot box if you need me.

--Kyle Sowash

Red Eyed Legends "Mutual Insignificance"

Red Eyed Legends--led by Chris Thomson (Monorchid, Skull Kontrol, Circus Lupus, Ignition)--return with a new (and better sounding) EP, this record finds the band honing their style. While their previous release was simply too messy (rumor has it the record was EQ'ed and mixed wrong) to make any impression, Mutual Insignificance finds Thomson in fine--and familiar--form. Quirky, off-key and highly intellectual lyrics pepper the funky rock and organ-driven grind of his backing band, and the sound is, as usual for a Thomson band, lo-fi as hell and oddly danceable, too. You either love Thomson's style or you don't, and I've been hooked for a long, long time.. "Go-Go Girls" and "Cold In The Sun" are easily his best compositions since his Monorchid days, and the other song--especially the fun "Guilded Longhorn"--are good, if not lesser. Skip The High I Feel When I'm Low completely and come here for your Red Eyed Legends/Chris Thomson needs. A belated start to a potentially great band--though, if Thomson's past is any indication, you better jump on this train now, because the band won't last much longer!

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.redeyedlegends.com
Label Website: http://www.file-13.com

Various Artists "My Favorite Song Writers"

Emo as a genre is...well...let's not get into that debate, shall we? It's not really worth getting my blood pressure up, and besides, it's really a fruitless and pointless argument. (Not as pointless as what is and isn't 'punk,' mind you--that's always such an interesting debate. Please.) Regardless of the now-tired genre, I will still admit I have a thing for music that contains sincere emotional content; a good melody is always a good thing in my book and I've never denied a song's excellence, even if it is "emo."

Thus, I felt a little uneasy at the prospect of Five One Inc's latest offering, a compilation entitled My Favorite Song Writers. The premise of this is simple: get friends from indie-rock, punk and emo bands away from their normal outlets and have them write a song all on their own. A fair enough concept, and even though it was interesting, I was a little concerned; as the friends come from bands such as Pollen, No Knife, Hey Mercedes, Sparta, The Good Life and Pretty Girls Make Graves, I thought the 'emo' thing might run heavy throughout the album.

Surprisingly, stripped away from their bands, several artists do a quite good job of impressing this hard-to-impress critic. Tim Kasher's "Stranger Than Strangers" is a fascinating little computer-made number; it's sad in that breakup kind of way, but it's made up for by both excellent lyrics and interesting music. I liked "I'd Rather Be Wine Drunk" by Bob Nanna (Hey Mercedes, Braid) a little more than I thought I would. Two songs are instrumental noise collages, and two songs are sung in Japanese. The song that makes this compilation worthy, though, is Cave In's Stephen Brodsky's solo "Beautiful Break-Up." This guy, I swear, he's got the best understanding of the concept of 'atmosphere.' Cave In's an awesome band, but here, Brodsky's quiet singing and simple guitar accompaniment quietly roar louder than anything his band's done.

Though these songs are moody, sad and sometimes a little melodramatic, that doesn't take away from the fact that My Favorite Song Writers is an enjoyable little compilation, highlighting some of today's surprisingly better (and often unknown) songwriters.

--Joseph Kyle

Label Website: http://www.fiveoneinc.com

Men in Fur "Men In Fur"

I first heard Men in Fur on the Way Things Change 7" compilation on Red Square Records. Their song on there, "Set Us Free", was written from the point of view of rabbits trapped in a laboratory, pining away for the green grass and warm sun of the outside world. When I heard that, I knew that Men in Fur was going to be something big, and I couldn't wait for their full album. And here it is. This CD is full of what the liner notes describe as "new wave songs about animals." But it's so much more than that. Rather than being an album-length vegan tweepop guilt trip, the debut Men in Fur CD is a loose concept album that mixes elements of science fiction and naturalist propaganda.

The science fiction element of the Men in Fur story is introduced on the first track, "The Messenger". From a city in outer space, where everyone speaks in poetry, this messenger came to remind the human race of what it used to be. Later in the album, "The Shepherd Song" elaborates on this theme, when a shepherd dreams of a time in the past "when animals and people got along, when birds taught children how to sing their songs, before a forge had ever made a sword, before our rights had turned into our wrongs." Another song, "Sister Moon" appears to document the time when the messenger's people left Earth in their rocketships, sung from the point of view of two people separated because one of them went on the ship and the other stayed behind.

The rest of the album contains all those aforementioned new wave songs about animals. "The Tiger Song" is about a sheep and tiger jealous of humanity's power of fire, and it humorously recounts their failures to build their own fire by rubbing sticks together. The cute singing of "baas" and "meows" on this song is worth this entire disc. "Elisa" is a moving song about a brother and sister abandoned in childhood who were raised by wolves. The lyrics are sung from the point of view of the brother, finally revealing to his sister why they're different from the other creatures of the forest ("Elisa, we are not wolves. Although we live in the woods, we're just a couple naked children. We are not animals"). Another highlight is "The Birds & the Bees", which is actually much more innocent than the title implies. Taken literally, the lyrics seem to be a love song that a bird and a bee sing to each other. (By the way, if you wonder how the animal songs are related to the sci-fi material, my guess is that they represent the parables and stories passed down by the messenger.)

Frankly, I love the concept of this album and I'm glad that Men in Fur had the ambition to lyrically aim high on this debut. I think they hit the target, managing not to seem too pretentious (a charge often levied at pop concept albums), but also managing to be cohesive and dedicated enough to the concept to have a story for those who read into it. Besides that, the songs actually stand so well enough on their own that many could make great singles. And yes, the musical portion of this material is good, too. It's a warm mix of acoustic and electric guitars, tweepop keyboards, live and programmed drums, and some other electronics. While the lyrics are the big deal on this CD, there are a couple great musical moments that really stand out. I love the backwards guitars and bubbling sound effects at the beginning of "Sam the Salmon". And the noisy fuzz guitar solos on "The Monkey Song" and "The Snake Song" are incredible. They rock with a good amount of feedback, yet they don't disrupt the general tweeness of the songs... if that makes any sense to you.

Simply put, this is just an incredible CD, a successful tweepop concept album, and all tweepop fans should get it immediately. All fans of animals should check this one out, as well.

--Eric Wolf

Artist Website: http://meninfur.heartonmysleeve.net/
Label Website: http://www.hhbtm.com/

Southeast Engine "One Caught Fire"

Being nationally known for being a party town, there is no need to say that the beer flows like water in Athens, Ohio. Finally, Athens has a soundtrack to all that beer. Or at least something worthwhile to listen to while you’re drinking it. Southeast Engine’s songs about loves lost, smokin’ cigarettes, and being sad kind of make me sad. The songs are so well-written, and they’re arranged so wonderfully...it’s really something. Southeast Engine falls somewhere between the sadder side of Spoon and the awesome song-craftiness of Wilco. The end of the year is approaching, and this is the first disc I’ve heard this year to really pull on my heartstrings. I’d like to see someone try to top this one. But first, let me make another beer run. I just drank my last six-pack.

--Kyle Sowash

Artist Website: http://www.southeastengine.com

Saint Etienne "Travel Edition 1990-2004"

First things first, shall we? There's no way to capture the greatness of Saint Etienne on one disc. Like many of their influences (Beach Boys, Bacharach), one disc filled to the brim is only going to offer only the briefest of highlights, and someone somewhere will always grumble about the tracklist not being complete or fairly representative or missing one or two killer songs. (I unapologetically include myself in that category.) Considering Saint Etienne's prolific nature and their prediliction for obscure releases, it's not a real stretch to say that they're the indie/dance-pop equivalent of Guided By Voices. (I'd rather look at Sarah Cracknell, though!)

Greatest hits records do serve a purpose, though, and that's to either wrap up an excellent career or to introduce a band to an audience who might have missed them the first time around. To be fair, Saint Etienne's had a long, interesting career, but when it comes to America, they've spent more time flying under the radar than they have flying high in the pop charts. As Europe's much more varied and receptive to Saint Etienne's style, consider Travel Edition. 1990-2004 to be a wake-up call of sorts, a reminder that there are some really great pop bands that have thrived without any spotlight.

While I initially grumbled over the tracklist, I'm not that unhappy with it, because there's simply no way a pop-music lover could ever be unhappy with Saint Etienne. In fact, consider Travel Edition a nice little reminder of what makes them so special. Besides, when was the last time you heard their breakthrough "Only Love Can Break Your Heart?" Why, that's too long! Listening to it thirteen years later, it's amazing how fresh it still sounds. Heck, many of those early songs like "He's On The Phone," "Like a Motorway" and "Avenue" transcend dance-pop's curse of sounding dated. Later songs like "Sylvie," "Burned Out Car" and "Heart Failed In The Back of a Taxi" find the band maturing into a sound that's all their own while still retaining that pop element that made them so great in the first place.

Okay, so Travel Edition 1990-2004 might not satisfy this purist's needs, it does provide the one thing the younger generation needs: a proper American introduction to this really great (and sadly unappreciated) band. There are some really, really wonderful pop songs to be found, and though you'd need more than one disc to fully try to capture the genius of Saint Etienne, the utter brilliance of these songs make this compilation utterly necessary. (PS. The only other complaint I have is there aren't enough pictures of the gorgeous Ms. Cracknell!)

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http:www.saintetienne.com
Label Website: http://www.subpop.com

Slomo Rabbit Kick "Horatory Examinations EP"

I'm sure you're curious as to what kind of a band would call itself a name like "Slomo Rabbit Kick". The hilarity evoked by the mental image of a rabbit kicking in slow motion has motivated you to read this review, right?

Well, Slomo Rabbit Kick is a Washington indie pop band, the project of Jay Chilcote, formerly of the Revolutionary Hydra (another interesting band name). I'm not into the Revolutionary Hydra, but I dig Slomo Rabbit Kick. Slomo Rabbit Kick seems to me like the sort of indie pop band a graduate student would start, with intelligent lyrics and communist undertones (check out the cover art featuring a drawing of Asian female revolutionaries). So far, they've released one full-length, Bass Monster Lives In the Bass Forest. On this new EP, they retain the same basic sound they had on the album, which is new wave-tinged indie rock with some Make Up-style funkiness thrown in. Catchy stuff.

While Bass Monster had a little bit of filler, this time around Slomo Rabbit Kick just focus their efforts into five great songs. First is the very new wave "Two Timing", a catchy number with a little bit of Pavementesque abstractness in the lyrics. Verses like "All roads lead to Old Man River, all roads lead to the 70s. All dogs like to lick your face, all dogs like to stand while they pee." lead in to the perfectly straightforward chorus, which justifies the song's title: "I saw you watching me, you seemed to despise. But you're so attracted to me you'd compromise."

After that is "Smell Camino", a song from the soundtrack to a film that John Hughes never made. The second highest point on the EP, it's a very twee concoction evoking the very '80s image of an uncoachable, unapproachable girl with feathered locks who holds even the jocks in her thrall. The title is named after the type of car that she drives. Great female backing vocals on this one really sell it.
The middle song is "Man's Routine Is to Work and to Dream", a song about the futile predicament that many people seem to face, which is being stuck in a dead-end job that they can only pretend to like. I told you there were communist undertones. For me, this is very depressing subject material, but the arrangement, with awesome indie virtuoso guitar playing reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr., makes it easier to cope.

"This Long Parade", the fourth song, is worth the entire CD. According to the press release, this track, recorded and released before the presidential election, is based on a conversation with a "security mom" who wanted to vote for Kerry, but had misgivings. In the context of Bush's re-election, this song assumes a special poignancy. The lyrics reflect an scared electorate willing to support "this long parade of shameful carpetbaggers" to feel more secure, even though they know that it's really hurtful and counterproductive. With the outcome of the election, lyrics like "give the rich a tax break and tell the poor it's for their sake" and "happiness comes to those who have no fear, but there's a catch: cuz when you're god-fearing you have to fear everything" seem all the more powerful. It's like an indie pop version of the classic singing journalist style of Phil Ochs. Buy the EP just for this song. If you're a left-leaning college radio DJ, you'll want to play this song over and over again until America pays attention to the lyrics and realizes what a moron it has been.

The last track is "Pseudo-Science", a catchy piece of abstract lyrical ridiculousness. It's a good song, but with lyrics like "brandish your pseudo-science, proves a nasty reliance on the things you feel, your love is a banana peel", I guess it does sound trivial after the powerful "This Long Parade". Still, it ends the EP on a fun note. Besides, after these great fourteen and a half minutes, you'll definitely want to go back and listen to "Smell Camino" and "This Long Parade!"

--Eric Wolf

Artist Website: http://www.slomorabbitkick.com

Cake "Pressure Chief"

Cake defined their sound about ten years ago and have been fine-tuning it ever since. It’s hard to describe what that sound is…picture Blood, Sweat and Tears and Dr. Dre collaborating in the year 1992, and you’ll have something in the right ballpark. Upon first hearing them, I honestly didn’t think they would last, yet I secretly hoped they would. Thankfully, my prayers were answered, and Cake wound up having a successful musical career. Pressure Chief is the latest addition to their resume. While it’s not much of a departure from anything they’ve done in the past, the stuff is good. They have a knack for both making light of society via catchy hooks on songs as “No Phone” and “End of the Movie”. I like that a lot. However, with the exception of a couple songs, this album is a rather melancholy one for Cake. Gone are the fun numbers which riddled their previous releases, like “Going the Distance”, and “Sheep go to Heaven”, and present are slow ones like “Dime” and “Take it all Away”. Who would have thought that Cake could put out an album you could drink yourself to sleep to?
(I’ve always believed their album Prolonging the Magic, is one of the best break-up records of the 1990s—ed.)

--Kyle Sowash

Artist Website: http://www.cakemusic.com

Conshafter "Fear the Underdog"

Bombco, a label that some Chicagoan friends of mine used to run, lived by a sarcastic but apt motto: “Indie-rock isn’t a sound; it’s a business model.” Let’s be honest, though. When most of this site’s readers hear the phrase “indie-rock,” they think of white guys with odd singing voices playing guitars and drums unconventionally and recording on cheap equipment. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that --- THIS black guy will certainly fly the flags of Pavement, Sebadoh, GBV and Boyracer until he dies. Nonetheless, if one must get technical about it, any rock band that operates without the aid of major labels and/or corporations could be called “indie-rock.” Virginia quartet Conshafter definitely fits this looser definition, but even a cursory listen to their debut album Fear the Underdog gives their ambitions of mainstream success away. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that either --- what band WOULDN’T want their music to reach as many people as possible? However, this band makes an unconvincing case for itself by emulating the styles of as many radio-friendly unit shifters as possible without adding anything of their own that could be considered distinctive or substantial.

Conshafter’s basic sound is what Weezer would sound like if their songs were played at Superchunk speed, with choppy power chords, a muscular rhythm section and an off-key lead singer whining on top of oodles of wordless background harmonies. It isn’t the most original sound on the planet, but it would be tolerable were it not for the endless supply of unforgivably bad lyrics and stylistic clichés. “Love Song Hypocritical” begins by bemoaning its own existence: “I know it’s sort of kind of lame. All these stupid love songs --- they sound the same!” However, self-awareness isn’t its own reward, and Conshafter don’t do anything to make the song stand out among the trillion others of its kind…four more of which appear on their own album! The lyrics of “Enjoy the View,” “Autopilot” and “Joey Ramone” are filled with rhythmic placeholders (“Wait for a second, I reckon, before you throw me out/I’ve got something to say, without a doubt”) and obvious internal rhymes (“Think it’s time for a change/Feel deranged, estranged and chained/And it all ends up the same”).

The band uses up every trick in its collective sleeve by the middle of the album. There are two tracks that begin with menacing spoken verses and climax in loudly sung choruses. There are four tracks that abruptly shift into disjointed breakdowns that sound nothing like the rest of the song, yet don’t make the song any better. Then, there are the ill-advised attempts to sound like completely different, yet equally popular, bands. “Springville,” a piano-driven song about small town decay, sounds like the band’s attempt to pull of a Rufus Wainwright. The even worse “Autopilot” is crammed with tired drum loops and turntable scratching. It sounds like the Dust Brothers remixing an Oasis outtake, which made it all the more shocking when I read that the song was co-produced by Keith Shocklee of THE BOMB SQUAD!!! Somebody needs to reissue the classic Public Enemy albums soon so that Shocklee won’t have to associate himself with bands this bad just to get a check.

The best thing that Conshafter has going for it is its rhythm section. Drummer Craig Nelson has an endless supply of cool fills, and bassist Rob Teague inserts some really tuneful melodies into otherwise excruciating songs. Singer Chris Konstantinos and guitarist Dave Cykert aren’t necessarily bad at their instruments, but I wonder how much better the band’s music would be if the other two guys wrote the songs instead of them. Unfortunately, Conshafter inspire pity more than they do fear. I know that they’re reaching for the brass ring, but right now they don’t have what it takes to become more than underdogs. This may be one of the blandest albums I’ve heard all year.

--Sean Padilla

Artist Website: http://www.conshafter.com

dizzee rascal 'showtime'

East London rap superstar Dizzee Rascal’s debut album Boy in Da
Corner was such a breath of fresh air. I know that I wasn’t the
only one rabid enough about the CD to purchase a steep import of it in 2003, months before Matador released it domestically this past January. Boy in Da Corner was three years in the making, with at least one song (the single “I Luv U”) created when Dizzee was merely 16 years old. Traces of the MC’s youth appeared all over the album; Dizzee spent almost as much time being silly as he did issuing stark reports of ghetto reality. Times have changed, of course, and Dizzee’s sophomore effort Showtime reflects these changes, revealing a portrait of the artist as what Cedric the Entertainer calls “a grown-ass man.” Like Tupac, Biggie and many legendary emcees before them, Dizzee has developed a rep for sick lyrics, even sicker beats and a checkered past that threatens to catch up with him at any moment. This 19-year-old has lived through things that not even most superstars in his age group could fathom. Although Dizzee’s sense of humor hasn’t completely evaporated, his new album unsurprisingly finds him in slightly heavier spirits due to these experiences.

Many critics have already called Showtime an attempt to appeal to a broader, more mainstream audience. The lyrics are occasionally peppered with American slang (“word is bond,” “what’s really good”) and multiple allusions to Jay-Z. “Face” ends with an angry woman watching Dizzee on TV and begging someone to change the channel to a Jay-Z video, and closing track “Fickle” sports a sped-up soul sample a la The Blueprint. It also has to be said that none of the beats are as flat-out weird as, say, the gamelan-meets-garage hybrid of Boy in Da Corner‘s “Brand New Day.” Despite all of this, though, I am happy to report that said mainstream ambition proves unsuccessful. Dizzee’s thick accent (from his mouth, the word “paper” becomes “pay-paw”) will still render many of his words unintelligible to unprepared listeners, and the speedier rhyming style he adopts throughout the record doesn’t help matters much. Furthermore, at least half of the beats on this record are minimal and dissonant enough to make the Neptunes blush. (Be sure to peep the cybernetic Miami bass of “Stand Up Tall” and the synthesized sitars of “Learn.”) Calling Showtime a more mainstream version of Dizzee’s sound is almost like calling Quadrophenia a slightly less ambitious record than Tommy.

As insinuated in the previous paragraph, Dizzee’s skills have grown by leaps and bounds on this album. He’s slightly toned down his crackly squawking, and his delivery is crammed with hyper-kinetic syncopation and internal rhyme. Even when the beats are slow and menacing, as on “Graftin’” and “Respect Me,“ Dizzee raps in double-time. You’ll find none of the slow limericks of Boy in Da Corner’s “Vexed” here. Lyrically, Showtime‘s three main themes can be broken down as such: 1) The streets from which Dizzee came are still as gritty and grimy as ever, and 2) The list of closet haters and public enemies has grown since his rise to fame, therefore 3) Dizzee will hurt anyone who poses a threat to him without thinking twice.

“Graftin’,” “Get By” and “Imagine” fit under the first category, as they outline Dizzee’s internal struggle between transcending his upbringing and alienating the people he grew up with. “Hype Talk,” my personal favorite, addresses the various rumors that have sprung up since Dizzee’s ascension. It boasts both the album’s most memorable hook and a beat that sounds like it is running forward and backward simultaneously. “Face” addresses leeches who try to use him for his fame. On two songs (“Respect Me“ and “Knock, Knock“), Dizzee vows revenge against the unnamed man who stabbed him shortly before the release of Boy in Da Corner. Ironically, the threat on “Respect Me” is followed by a verse in which Dizzee pleads with his acquaintances to stop trying to drag him back into an illegal lifestyle. You can hear the desperation in his voice when he commands, “Stop that so I can do this!” “Knock, Knock” finds Dizzee ranting about promoters and bouncer who hassle him at his own shows, and audiences that consist of men who want to shoot him and women who ignore him. I’m not even going to count the number of songs in which Dizzee threatens an imaginary antagonist physical harm.

The two songs that stray furthest away from defensive braggadocio are sequenced right next to each other. “Dream” is a beat-less ditty that’s cheeky enough to sample Captain Sensible. The sample reeks of intentional treacle, but Dizzee counters it with a rap that thanks and encourages his fans with all of the sincerity he can manage. “Girls” is a typical ditty about having sex with gorgeous women in the club, but Dizzee manages to be lascivious without being misogynistic (Ludacris is one of the few American rappers who can pull this trick off). Also, “Girls” boasts a guest appearance from Marga Man, whose light, octave-leaping voice delivers some sorely needed comic relief. Judging from his contribution to this song, I look forward to hearing an entire full-length of Marga Man material.

Showtime isn’t a perfect record. First of all, a couple of songs suffer from hooks that aren’t up to the quality of the beats of the verses. Second of all, Dizzee created most of the album by himself in the studio, and it sounds like it. There aren’t as many guest appearances as there were on his debut. The solitude in the music and the paranoia in the lyrics occasionally make Showtime sound claustrophobic. These quibbles aside, the album is definitely an improvement over Boy in Da Corner, proving once and for all that the cross-continental hype attached to Dizzee Rascal’s name is completely justified. Discover his genius for yourself. The album’s available in the States NOW at a reasonable domestic price.

--Sean Padilla

Artist Website: http://www.dizzeerascal.co.uk
Label Website: http://www.xlrecordings.com

Cheval de Frise "self titled"

If you think that Hella is the final frontier of math-rock, have I got a surprise for you! Cheval de Frise is an instrumental duo from France that, on the surface, bears a couple of similarities to Hella. First of all, both bands are aptly named. The guys in Hella live up to their name (a slang adverb used to connote extremity) by playing their broken-metered riffs “hella” loud and “hella” fast. The guys in Cheval de Frise live up to theirs (which, although it means “Frisian horse” in French, is used in English to describe any spiky obstacle) by turning each of its songs into discursive journeys that aren’t always easy to listen to. Second of all, both duos consist of a guitarist and a drummer who have a chemistry and tightness that borders on telepathy. When listening to either band, I don’t even THINK about the absence of a bassist because I’m too busy wondering how they manage to keep up with each other. Both duos sound so close to spinning out of control that the addition of another instrument would most likely push their music into total chaos.

However, Cheval de Frise carve out their own niche in an increasingly cluttered sub-genre through a mastery of texture and timbre. Thomas Bonvalet uses an acoustic guitar instead of an electric, a strategy that reaps dividends on many levels. For one, his choice of guitars underscores his sheer technical mastery of the instrument. Most guitar geeks will agree that it’s harder to play well without amplification, Bonvalet’s ability to do tricks that most guitarists would need electricity and distortion (which Bonvalet uses rather sparingly) to accomplish supplies the requisite “wow” factor that even the least egotistical math-rockers strive for. Playing acoustic allows the band to execute dynamic changes that most musicians can’t when they’re playing with amplification due to compression. On many songs, the band’s dynamic shifts are smooth enough to sound like engineered fadeouts. Bonvalet’s playing style is just as percussive as comrade Vincent Beysselance’s drumming, which makes the duo’s rhythmic lockstep sound positively effortless. Vincent’s no slouch himself --- he has the ability to wring a nearly infinite array of tones from his cymbals, and his jazzy yet firm grip on the endlessly shifting meters posits him as a kinder, gentler counterpart to Hella’s Zach Hill.

By no means are Cheval de Frise neophytes --- their first two albums were recorded in 2000 and 2002, respectively, but neither of them hit American shores until earlier this year. Their self-titled debut is the more energetic and raucous of the two. Opener “Connexion Monstrueuse Entre un Objet et Son Image” begins with strumming so hyperactive that the guitar sounds like it’s being run through a delay pedal (although it isn’t); the drums later follow suit with equally stuttered rhythms. From that point onward, the song goes through more changes than most bands put on entire albums: metallic drop-D riffs, Gastr del Sol-style meandering, pointillist finger-tapping, etc. “Constructions d'Écorces d'Arbres” is dissonant enough to suggest being composed in “just intonation.” Its rhythmic accents are so lopsided that even when the band’s playing in 4/4 it feels like they aren’t. The contrapuntal finger-picking on“Incliné et Chenu” sounds like an out-of-tune harp. Throughout the album, every strange riff that Bonvalet ekes from his guitar is matched by an equally outlandish rhythm from Beysselance.

The duo’s second album, Fresques Sur Les Parois Secretes du Crane, is a more even-keeled distillation of the group’s sound. The production is damper here than on their debut, with more reverb filling in the open spaces. There are more moments of quiet nothingness; the changes in key, meter and volume aren’t as frequent, which makes tham sound slightly more violent when they actually occur. On this record, both musicians seem a bit more eager to use their instruments as noise generators. For instance, the midsection of opener “Lucare des Combles” sounds like a factory of broken watches, and the grinding slides that Bonvalet makes on his fret board can make unsuspecting listeners seasick. Later on in the record, “Deux Nappes Ductiles” finds Bonvalet bending his strings so subtly that his guitar sounds like it’s being run through a chorus pedal (although it isn’t), and on “Songe de Perte de Dents” his palm-muting technique makes his instrument sound like an orchestra of plucked violins.

Whereas the self-titled record sounds like two musicians trying to outdo each other, Fresques is Bonvalet’s show, with Beysselance restraining himself in order to follow the guitarist’s lead. That’s not the real surprise, though. On the title track and “Phosphorescence de l'Arbre Mort,” Cheval de Frise are augmented by a third musician. Simon Quinoillant, who contributes bowed drones and tape manipulations that sound like anything from hurdy-gurdies to howling cats. The result sounds like a jam session between Storm & Stress and Pelt. The combination shouldn’t work, but it does, mainly because Bonvaley and Beysselance step back and let the drones take center stage. In fact, these two songs leave me hoping for more collaborations with Quinoillant on future releases. The songs on Fresques are spacious and deliberate enough to withstand additional instrumentation without sounding cluttered, which can’t be said for those on their debut.

Overall, both Cheval de Frise albums are proof that subtlety doesn’t have to be anathema to math-rockers. If I’d have known about Cheval de Frise during the era of “freedom fries,” I’d have tried to use their music as a catalyst for cross-cultural unity. Somebody tell those guys that all is forgiven, and that they should tour here soon!

---Sean Padilla

Label Websites:
http://www.sickroomrecords.com
http://www.freneticrecords.com

Malachai "These Sounds of the Spirit World"

Lexington, Kentucky native Malachai (pronounced ‘mala-cha’) a.k.a. Mike Fossum brings you 14 tracks of snarky, lo-fi indie pop reminiscent of Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, and early Beck. To put it simply: the man’s short on songs and even shorter on humor, the latter of which he uses amply to make up for the lack of memorable songs. “O’Amy” is a great Sebadoh-inspired tune, while the Gary Wilson-ish “Draw These Legz” is a fantastic little synth-driven number that brings the personality and hooks in spades. But it seems that it’s all downhill from there for Malachai as each successive track descends into irritating frat boy humor (“I just got to get in your business/Like Harrison Ford did to Kelly McGillis” goes “Who-Shot”) and bland, hookless mid-90’s indie rock. Even worse is the group’s embarrassing Har Mar Superstar-like attempts to incorporate hip-hop (“Love A Man”) into the fray. My suggestion for Malachai would be to leave the 3rd bass and Superchunk records in the garage and focus on writing some decent songs instead.

--Jonathan Pfeffer

Artist Website: http://web.qx.net/malo/malachai/malachai/index.html
Label Website: http://www.4xbeaver.com/

Gunshy "No Man's Blues"

An artist's voice can often be a factor that makes or breaks a band. Some artists have such a unique sound that, though grating at first, can often grow on you--think Stephin Merritt, Nick Cave or Will Oldham. Some artists possess a singing voice so wonderful that they can sing any crap (and often do) because they can, and they'll make said song sound totally, utterly beautiful--witness Scott Walker, Marc Almond or Jeff Buckley. Some artists sing in voice of such unique quality--like Joanna Newsome, Danielson Famile or Jandek--that you're polarized instantly.

I mention this because the first--and most overwhelming--thing you'll notice about The Gunshy is Matt Arbogast's voice. It's rough...to say the least. It's extremely rough. It's extremely gruff. At times, I can't tell if he's singing or if he's grunting, because his music is so...hard...to listen to. Going for a rustic country sound, with a little bit of folk and a hint of Dylan, No Man's Blues is a record of painful songs sung by a voice that's painful to listen to. Seriously, it was difficult listening to songs like "Congratulations" or "Stories" because his voice is just so overwhelming rough and harsh. Sure, it's one thing to have a gravel-rough voice, but it's an entirely different matter to sound like a pile of rocks.

Complicating the matter is that a. the songs themselves are really good and b. the musical accompaniment is even better. I wonder what "I Will Die Alone" and "Breakin' Some Bad Habits" would sound like with different vocals. Those songs are quite pained and touchingly wonderful, but they're hard to listen to due to the vocals. The backing musicians are quite excellent, too; the accompaniment is quite varied and accomplished, too--with banjo, flute, acoustic guitars, strings, harmonica and piano. And, to be fair, when he tones down his vocals on "Mistaken" and the title track, the results are quite excellent and rewarding. When he doesn't tone down his voice...well...

I don't know how tolerant you may be towards really rough singing, so be warned: No Man's Blues is a rough patch. Complex and pained, The Gunshy's music isn't for everyone, but if you like rough, painful songs written by a man with an even rougher singing voice, then you might find something to love here.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.thegunshy.com
Label Website: http://www.latestflame.com

Kill Yourself "soft touch of man"

England’s a cold, grimy place, which might explain why in recent years a number of English bands have taken a shine to that dirty, grimy Midwestern sound spearheaded by groups like The Jesus Lizard, Tar, Shellac, and maybe even Dazzling Killmen. And with the recent successes and quasi-successes of Giddy Motors and McClusky (who actually might be Scottish), could this Chicago infatuation eventually turn the British Isles on its head? Will all the Radiohead baby bands who have populated the airwaves here and there now become worshippers at the altar of Steve Albini and David Yow? From the looks (the cover features a stark portrait of a muzzled canine) and sounds of Kill Yourself’s debut recording, it could very well be so.

Taking most of their cues from the growling, hard-hitting intensity of Shellac, the trio run through an industrial, gray set of 7 songs in an equally industrial, gray 26 minutes. Factory-like, staccato, heavy-handed rhythms sit alongside weird chords that don’t quite sit with you. Every few minutes a guy whose voice falls somewhere between a less provocative Steve Albini and a gravelly English longshoreman appears to rant and rave about moustaches, coffee, computers, ribs, and ID’s. Check out these colorful excerpts and you might get the picture: “I am a watchtower/I am a real man” (from Computron 2000); “I have a moustache/but I ain’t no homo” (from “Moustache”).

While Kill Yourself may be the obvious product of their influences, the group manages to put enough of themselves to keep it interesting and, judging from the lyrical content, damn entertaining. The Soft Touch Of Man is a respectable debut in my book.

--Jonathan Pfeffer

Artist Website: http://www.obscenebabyauction.tk
Label Website: http://www.gringorecords.com

Quintron "The Frog Tape"

Frogs.

You may think you know what they sound like, you may think they simply go 'ribbit', but in all actuality, they're the source of some of the more disturbingly mysterious sounds you'll hear at any forest or lake. Emitting a low-cycle hum, mixed with other odd, inexplicable noises, if you're ever in the presence of a large group of frogs, you'll hear a sound that's most...unsettling.

Of course, it would require a swamp-raised musical marvel like Mister Quintron to fully realize the potential of frogs as musical collaborators, but he's done it, and here it is. Actually, The Frog Tape was first released as a tour-only cassette, but then some people complained that this surprisingly ingenious collection needed to be reissued, and here it is. Enlisiting the assistance of the Boys Club Swamp Frogs, Quintron and his cast of thousands has created what is perhaps the best Halloween mood music since The Exorcist soundtrack.

True, there aren't very many 'songs' on here; a cover of "Stray Cat Strut" is nothing more than the melody line from the song repeated over and over on organs with the frogs in the background. For the most part, it's just haunting-sounding organ and the frogs. As novel as the concept may seem, The Frog Tape is far from a novelty record. In a weird way, it's quite the entrancing listen; the frogs are heard throughout, providing a disturbing hum over Quintron's signature organ accompaniment. Sometimes you can't really hear them, sometimes their presence is overwhelming, but those frogs, they're there, man. If you don't like frogs, then I highly suggest you skip over the final magnum opus, the 15-minute frog symphony entitled, quite simply, "Frogs."

The world needs more halloween music--and The Frog Tape would actually be quite the compelling soundtrack for haunted houses, twisted parties and just plain old weird folk. And, true, you might not listen to it outside of the last week of October, but then again, do you really listen to your Christmas records after the 25th?
Didn't think so. All Hallow's Eve just got a new addition to the canon.

--Joseph Kyle

Label Website: http://www.skingraftrecords.com

Styrofoam "Nothing's Lost"

Nothing's Lost is the third album by Belgian electronica composer Arne van Petegem, better known as Styrofoam. A staple of the German scene (based around influential label Morr Music), Styrofoam's sound is a gentle atmosphere pulsed by a soft undercurrent of electronic beats and various electronic sounds. For this record, he's enlisted the help of several notable musicians, including members of American Analog Set, The Notwist, Lali Puni and Death Cab For Cutie/The Postal Service. Considering the help he has, it's no surprise, then, that Nothing's Lost is an interesting mesh of both electronica and more traditional rock influences.

Styrofoam's stylistic blend is nowhere near as awkward as that description might lead you to believe. After all, Ben Gibbard impressed and surprised a lot of people with his new project The Postal Service. Indeed, "Couches in Alleys" sounds very much like a continuation of the ideas found on Give Up, and this song finds Gibbard in particularly rare form. His naturally sad lyrics play well against Styrofoam's gentle, heartbreaking beat, and it's quite clear that Gibbard is a man who can tackle any style with great aplomb. Though it would not be unsurprising that Gibbard's track would serve as the album's focal point, that doesn't mean that the rest of the album pales in comparison, nor would such attention serve justice to Styrofoam's music, because "Couches in Alleys" is not the best song on Nothing's Lost

"Inspired" is perhaps the best adjective to describe Styrofoam's selection of guest vocalists. Lali Puna's Valerie Trebeljahr's detatched singing on "Misguided" is a must-hear, and the rap of Anticon's Alias adds a certain depth that most electronical lacks. "Anything" follows up on that initial blast of boy/girl vocal exchange; Das Pop's Bent van Loy's lead vocals are rough and are nicely accompanied by the song's beat and the utterly heavenly vocals of Pitchturner's Miki make the song even dreamier. Perhaps the best moment would be "Front to Back," which features the vocals of American Analog Set's Andrew Kenny. He sings with a very lush croon and he sounds quite at home with Styrofoam's gentle, soft world.

Indeed, Nothing's Lost is an invitation to a sensual, dreamy world of sound; it's a record full of meaningful moments and quiet reflection and gentle yet heart-poundingly soft rhythms, sure to set your slow-dancing emo heart on fire. A gentle pleasure, this record--so gentle, in fact, it made me forget the fact that I generally can't stand the music of Ben Gibbard.

--Joseph Kyle

Label Website: http://www.morrmusic.com

Tree of Snakes "Peanut Butter & Smelly"

Columbus, Ohio’s Tree of Snakes have finally released something. The band’s beer-soaked three-chord-basement indie punk has been getting Ohio drunk for the past three years or so, and now we get a release from them. 8 songs, each clocking in at under 2:00. Yet, much to our surprise….it’s acoustic! While quite a departure from their usual stylings, Unplugged really works for them. It sounds wonderful, too. It showcases the band’s songwriting in a different light. These guys are not out to prove anything; they’re having a great time, and it shows. One listen to this disc will tell you that Tree of Snakes are definitely a great time. The songs are catchier than the flu, most notably “Serious Knife Fight” and “Earl”. The album’s closer, “Beerless in Seattle” comes all too quickly (each song being under two minutes), but word on the street is that these dudes are going to release a rock album at the beginning of the year. Keep your ear to the ground for that, and while you’re waiting, pick up Unplugged.

--Kyle Sowash

Label Website: http://www.usedkids.com

DJ Krush "Jaku"

Jaku, the thirteenth album by reknowned Japanese electronica genius DJ Krush, is an amazing blend of beats, blissful ambience, traditional Japanese instrumentation and many other hypnotic sounds. The resulting mix is so contageous and narcotic, I seriously do not recommend you listening to this while operating heavy equipment. That sounds like record reviewer hyperbole, but it's not; Krush's trance-like rhythms can easily lull you into an enlightened, distracted state.

Instead of a pulsating, schizophrenic dance beat, DJ Krush has opted for a much more cinematic landscape, in the literal sense; almost all of Jaku feels theatrical, but it's never melodramatic. As a result, it's not uncommon for you to feel as if you know these songs already; you'll swear you've heard "Still Island" before, even if you don't know where. Jaku is an album of heady incidental music, but don't let that term put you off, because it's easily some of the darkest, foreboding incidental music you'll ever hear--the jazzy "Stormy Cloud," for instance, sounds like a dark alleyway on a stormy Wednesday night. If you feel uncomfortable, that only means DJ Krush has done his job right.

As is often the case with such music, it would be rather easy for Jaku to become monotonous, and Krush wisely breaks this tendency by using several guest vocalists, including Mr. Lif, Aesop Rock and Akira Sakata. While Sakata's contribution is traditional Japanese folk singing, both Mr. Lif and Aesop Rock add a hip-hop touch. Krush's choice of collaborators is inspired, and both songs--especially "Kill Switch"--are some of the better hip-hop tracks I've heard all year. Despite their quality, because of the general nature of the rest of the album, both songs are incongruous with the mood of the Jaku; the beat is amazing, the rhymes even more so, but for this record, they simply feel out of place.

That's a minor quibble, though; Jaku is still an excellent record, even with those songs. If you're looking for brooding mood music for a dark, stormy Sunday night, or you simply want to liven things up in the bedroom by creating a tense, near violent atmosphere, then DJ Krush will serve you well. Just be warned, though, if things get disturbing.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.djkrush.com
Label Website: http://www.sonymusic.com

Monorail "A Whole New City"

I don't know what the story is about DC-via-Florida band The Monorail, but I really would like to learn more. This Jacksonville-based foursome has just released A Whole New City, which I am assuming is their debut, and it's an interesting, if not wholly satisfying, collection of fresh new sounds. It's quite clear that these guys have some major pop druthers, and it's also quite obvious they're quite fond of le Indie Rock, but they have enough talent to blur the lines between those styles, and they do so with very little effort.

Seriously, though--it's rare for such a young band to sound this..this...TIGHT, especially on their debut. These guys have some great singing (think Clem Snide's Eef Barzelay meets Dismemberment Plan's Travis Morrison, if you must), their rhythm section is top-notch and always on the beat, and there's plenty of hard, crunchy guitars--so soundwise, they're quite varied. From the tight, funky rhythm of "The Shizampah" to the mellowed out dance beat of "The Club" and the jazzy "Writing Has No Volume," these guys clearly prove that they can deftly take on--and master--fast-paced rockers and mellow ballads.

Normally, I'm not keen on emo-ish rock, and there are moments here and there that kind of edge towards that direction, but thankfully they move away from those murky waters quite quickly. Though The Monorail's sound is great, I'm also a little bit antsy about the singing. While Andy Matchett occasionally sounds a lot like Braid/Hey Mercedes' Bob Nanna, it's not a problem that makes me dislike their music. There's also a really, really cool Dismemberment Plan-style vibe running through the entire record, most obvious on "Writing Has No Volume." Making this song even more interesting is that it was written in 1998, and though I have no history of this particular song, I can't help thinking these kids beat Travis to the punch.

I'm impressed by this little record. The Monorail's a great little band, and I think it's time you help out a great little band by checking these guys out. You'll enjoy this little record, and there's enough evidence that their forthcoming album, A Thousand Reactions is going to be brilliant.

--Joseph Kyle

Label Website: http://www.milquetoastrecords.com

AM "Francophiles & Skinny Ties"

With a swagger straight out of 1979, Brooklyn band AM rock and rock hard on Francophiles & Skinny Ties, their debut mini-album. With a sound that's torn someplace between that whole 'new rock and roll' thing from a few years ago and pure British punk--Buzzcocks, not Sex Pistols--this threesome blend unapologetic rock riffs ("Sex N Drugs") and hard yet gracefully melodic moments ("Quiet N Dayglo"), AM deftly pulls faces at all that come in its wake. Poppy at times, full of drunken swagger at others--and James Jones is easily the best snotty singer since Mclusky, the eight songs on Francophiles & Skinny Ties does exactly what it needs to do and then get the hell out of here--not a moment of the eighteen minutes on here is wasted in the least. Could they offer more than that? Probably, but too much would weigh it down. A quick blast of rock and roll music, just like they used to make it.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.amtheband.com

Silver Sunshine "silver Sunshine"

Silver Sunshine prove to be a bit of a confounding little group. They're a tight little four-piece who, unintentionally or not, are a retro group. It's clear they've got a sweet tooth for the Sixties, and it's also quite clear that they've got a penchant for the indie-rock bands of the 1990s who had a sweet tooth for the Sixties. So which are they-- are they inspired by the inspired, or are they inspired by those inspired by the inspired? Think about it.

Thought about it?

It's hard--if not nearly impossible--for a young band to avoid sounding like those who inspire them, and though that's true, it's hard to listen to Silver Sunshine, because the songs occasionally sound too similar to more familiar tunes. "Trinkets," for instance, sounds a bit like The Beatles' "Rain," and it doesn't help that the singer sounds a dead ringer for John Lennon. But don't think they're going for a Beatles style, either; "If I had The Time" sounds too much like "Last Train to Clarksville" for my taste, and let's hope that the lawyers of the writer of "Happy Together" don't hear "Way Up In the Big Sky," either. What makes these blatent rip-offs so frustrating is that it's obvious these guys can play quite well. Good musicians shouldn't resort to such...thievery?

When they're not sounding like the hitmakers of the past, they tread the same territory as Beulah, Stereolab and Of Montreal, and though they might not have the most original sound, it's on songs "Velvet Skies," "Miranda May" and "Greenfield Park" that they start to form their own musical identity. It's not always prevalent, but it's there. In the future, Silver Sunshine should focus on less distinctive styles, so that their next record won't seem so--unoriginal.Silver Sunshine means well, but a little more work should be spent on developing their own identity.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.silversunshine.com
Label Website: http://www.wishingtreerecords.com

Absinthe Blind "Winning Is Our Business and Business Is Good"

Champaign, Illinois' Absinthe Blind were one of those great bands you never heard about. Led by members of the Fein family, this sibling group blended indie-rock with Britpop and shoegazer, mixed it all together with a great deal of melody and stunning atmosphere resulting in obscure album after album of really beautiful music. Their last album, Rings, was easily their best; that it was their final farewell makes the album's excellence even more frustrating. It should have been a bigger album; it should have been one that established Absinthe Blind as more than a really good regional band. It didn't; leader Adam Fein left the band, and they regrouped as Headlights.

Winning Is Our Business and Business Is Good is a wrap-up of the band's loose ends; this double Cd-R package is a labor of love from the band, and is a fitting farewell. That it's compiled on handmade cd-roms with printed-up sleeves only adds to the intimate, labor-of-love feel that made the band so likeable in the first place. It doesn't really seem right that the band would have to revert to such budget-string tactics, especially considering the quality of their music, but such is the fickle nature of this business. It's a shame, for if any record deserves lush packaging, it's this one; there should be an ornate cover with detailed history and photographs and recollections and song descriptions...but alas, it is not to be.

But where to begin? There's plenty of ground to cover, but, ultimately, the sound always remained the same. Like all good bands, they occasionally experimented with their sound, but they never strayed from their post-shoegaze Britpop-inspired dreampop style. From loud, powerful rockers, such as outtake "So You're The Hero" and B-Side "Doing Exactly What You Want" to quiet, atmospheric acoustic numbers (witness the title track, "Worth The Time" and "Phoenix") to blissed-out numbers that were heavy on both power and beauty ("Orphans,""Small")--they could handle it all. Heck, even two risky dance remixes--"It's Your Life"and "The Threat" (based on "The Truth That Paints Your Eyes" and "Do You Know What You Mean To Me, respectively) work quite well. The only time the collection really falters are on the good-but-you-shoulda-been-there-instead live covers of "Shout" and "Don't You Forget About Me." They're well-performed, but in this collection, they seem out of place.

So as the final chapter of Absinthe Blind closes, a new one begins; from the remnants of their career, Winning Is Our Business and Business Is Good not only shows that Headlights have a lot of work ahead of them if they wish to better Absinthe Blind's greatest heights, but it also gives ample evidence that they should have no problem carrying the torch. A fond, fitting farewell to a really great band.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.absintheblind.com

the eames era 'the second ep'

The Second EP by The Eames Era is a quick blast of jangly mid-1990s indie-pop, and boy, does their sound take me back! Lead singer Ashlin Philips could pass for Velocity Girl's Sarah Shannon, and that crunchy guitar work and occasional boy vocal reminds me a lot of Mr. Archie Moore. Philips sings softly ("I Said"), sweetly ("Could Be Anything") and sassy ("All of Seventeen"), and I'm not complaining about that one bit! The only thing I'd want to warn this young band is that they should probably work on a sound that's a little more varied from song to song, else you could get trapped in your style--just like what happened to Velocity Girl.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.theeamesera.com
Label Website: http://www.cstudentrecords.com

oRSo "my dreams are back and they are better than ever"

Chicago's oRSo, the free jazz-slash-country-slash-whatever the hell you want to call it project of Phil Spirito (Rex, Red Red Meat) has delivered yet another utterly wonderful little record filled with all sorts of sounds, and it's about time. Bearing the same sort of pleasantly unclassifiable roots folky whatever songs that made them so appealing with Long Time By, the appropriately titled My Dreams Are Back and They Are Better Than Ever proves to be a wonderfuly confounding yet always quite enjoyable listen.

When I say oRSo is unclassifiable, I do so with amused and impressed confusion. Each listen yielded a different interpretation of what they were setting out to accomplish, and as this review is being written, it's impossible to say with any certainty that any of these particular interpretations are right or wrong. On one listen, songs like "Wedding Day," "Everyman's Blues" and "Old Times" made me think of oRSo as a jazz band with a banjo. At other times, such as on "Milanesa Two," they sound like a country band that's inspired by early 1960s jazz innovators like John Coltrane or Eric Dolphy. After hearing "Oh Look Singing I Can Watch This" and "Crown Point," I thought oRSo sounded like an experimental string quartet who were augmented by a very distinctive folk singer. Each listen to My Dreams Are Back And They Are Better Than Ever differed ever-so-slightly from the one before,

That oRSo's stylistic inspirations are so incongruous makes their music so appealing. You really can't be sure of what's going to come next, and it's the anticipation that comes from listening that makes My Dreams Are Back And They Are Better Than Ever such an enjoyable listen. Throw in just a slight lo-fi quality to the songs, and you'll quickly discover a traditional sounding record that sounds wonderfully out of this world

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.bintofamily.com
Label Website: http://www.perishablerecords.com

Auburn Lull "Cast From The Platform"

The artwork of Michigan quartet Auburn Lull’s sophomore album Cast from the Platform consists of blurry but nonetheless strategically positioned photographs of nature scenes and architectural designs (bridges, satellites, windmills). Many of the song titles (“Jersey Narrows,” “Trenches,” “Direction and Destination”) allude to geography. After releasing their wonderful debut Alone I Admire in 1998, the band waited nearly five years to begin recording a follow-up…at a studio called the Simultaneous Workshop, no less! Take all of these facts into consideration, and you can conclude before even listening to Cast from the Platform that the members of Auburn Lull take their time crafting songs, putting careful consideration into every note, word and beat. The actual music on the CD underscores this conclusion by sounding just as hazy and deliberate as its artwork would imply.

Even from the beginning, Auburn Lull were even more reliant on pure atmosphere than their dreampop/shoegaze ancestors. The songs on Cast from the Platform sound as if they’re being recorded from the bottom of a well, with reverb serving almost as a fifth member of the band. The reverb is so thick that even when singer Sean Heenan’s breathy tenor is in the front of the mix, the lyrics remain mostly indecipherable. In a peculiar sonic role reversal, the guitars are completely stripped of their attack so that they sound almost like keyboards, and the keyboards are often percussive enough to resemble guitars. Bassist Jason Kolb keeps his presence subtle, almost to the point of being subliminal. Some of the songs don’t even have a discernible bass line. Every instrument is light and airy when heard individually, but when put together they form a dense and foggy web of sound.

Where Cast from the Platform differentiates itself from its predecessor is in the band’s occasional employment of minimalism. A number of this album’s songs use space and silence to great effect, suggesting what dub versions of long-lost Slowdive songs would sound like. On the appropriately named “Season of False Starts,” Jason Wiesinger’s brushed drums are rendered unbearably heavy by an even thicker cloud of reverb than usual, as well as the constant stops and starts in his own playing. Heenan’s voice shares center stage with the drums, while the other instruments play just enough to outline the barest sketch of a chord progression. None of the musicians play an actual chord until the last minute of the song, but by then most listeners will have already filled the blanks of the song in their heads. “Direction and Destination” begins with waves of guitar that slowly rise, ebb and disappear. Halfway through the song, Wiesinger starts playing at twice the speed of the rest of the band, unleashing a series of jazzy, machine-gun drum fills. Despite the aggression and virtuosity of his playing, the drums still sound light as feathers in the context of the rest of the song.

Most of the album’s songs, though, continue the expansive layering that Auburn Lull perfected on Alone I Admire. “Jersey Narrows” begins with a scratchy drum loop and faraway keyboard drones. Heenan’s voice is slowly run through an ever-increasing amount of delay. As this happens, the drum programming gets exponentially intricate, the guitars start getting louder and higher and the bowed celli of producer/guest musician Andrew Prinz (who, by the way, runs the Simultaneous Workshop and is a member of the equally brilliant outfit Mahogany) starts ricocheting from speaker to speaker. The song ends in a much more intense state than it began in. “Deterior” does the same trick almost in reverse: first it builds up a mass of guitars and keyboards, then it lets splashy drumming and lush vocal harmonies provide the big finish. Even on the comparatively conventional album closer “Shallow in Youth,” on which the band sounds like they’re playing in a gymnasium instead of a well, they make room for a brief outburst of hissing cymbals and white noise before saying goodbye.

It took a while for Auburn Lull to return, but it was well worth the wait --- every second of Cast from the Platform is a pleasure to listen to, a soothing soundtrack for sweet slumber. Once content to be compared to great dreampop bands from 10 to 20 years ago, Auburn Lull has now become the kind of band that can influence its own generation of neophytes. I would definitely be willing to wait another six years for a third album that will be as much of an improvement on Platform as Platform is on the band’s debut. Keep up the good work, guys!

---Sean Padilla

Artist Website: http://www.auburnlull.com
Label Website: http://www.darla.com

Method and Result "The Things You Miss"

The husband and wife duo The Method and Result have really made a mark for themselves. On their debut EP, The Things You Miss, they offer 6 songs of excellence sure to make you remember them by. The group succeeds at what the Dismemberment Plan tried to pull off during the latter part of their career with the help of their drum machine’s precision. As you'd expect, tricky time signatures and clever lyrics run rampant on this disc. Frontwoman Megan Wendel tackles topics from admiring strangers “Party List” to playing it safe “Safety Scissors”. Lyric of the week (from “Party List”): “I think I like you but I don’t know why/it comes and goes”. All in all, a wonderful release. My only gripe is that its too short. -

--Kyle Sowash

Artist Website: http://www.methodandresult.com

point line plane 'smoke signals'

Last year, Point Line Plane's self-titled debut really impressed me. I raved about their wonderfully fun screamy parts, their entertainingly weird, robotic new wave noise parts and their general devil-may-care attitude that vibrated through their music. Even though the music was far from a bold statement of artistic genius, Point Line Plane thumbed its nose at the oft uber-serious noise-rock scene. As silly and noisy and fun as Point Line Plane may have been, It wasn't hard to hear that the band have a talent that runs deeper than their music would lead you to believe. Secretly, though, I worried; it didn't seem like the band's style would translate into anything more than one fun album. I wondered if they would find a way to mature their style without losing the elements that make their music enjoyable.

Smoke Signals, their second album, isn't that grand statement, but it's certainly a step in that direction. Gone are the loud screaming blasts of noise has been replaced with a refined focus on mellower--almost gentle--ambient waves of sound. The band's expanded sound isdue to the addition of a third party, Howard Gillam. This isn't the only change to the band's style, though. The singing has gone from insane yelling to a nearly gothic/blues-based croon, not unlike a more disturbed Gary Numan. Point Line Plane's restraint and maturity over their previous records is reminiscent of Black Dice's transformation from screamo/grindcore to electronica. True, some elements of the band's past remain--check out "Descender" and "Adult Contempt" for those moments, but throughout the rest of the album--such as on the lovely "The Messenger" and "B.U.G.S."--you could be forgiven for thinking this wasn't Point Line Plane at all! So, I'm happy.

The final song on Smoke Signals, "Lights Out II," is a number that's brief, but it gives hope for their future. It's a mellow instrumental, with a gentle, repetitive rhythm. It's somewhat Eno, somewhat Low-era Bowie, and it's not really like the rest of Smoke Signals, either. If expanded by more than the 1:36 time length, Point Line Plane could easily take their music into beautiful galaxies that are far, far away from anything they've done before, and this little snippet shows that such an adventure would more than likely be quite worthwhile.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.pointlineplane.net
Label Website: http://www.skingraftrecords.com

Year Future "The Hidden Hand"

Sonny Kay's (Angel Hair/The VSS/GSL Records) newest project, Year Future, offers us three new songs, and from the quality of the material, I wonder why these guys simply haven't gotten around to going full-out for a full length. These songs are hard, in-your-face and compelling, but with a difference--they're dark and they're coated in post-punk atmosphere. It's not screamy, it's not preachy, but it's some of the most politically informed commentary I've heard in quite some time. "Nature Unveiled" is a song about society's tendency to drug itself into submission in order to simply cope with life: "If our senses served our sentences then 'truth' wouldn't be the consequence of prescription-written invitations." Deep! The other two songs, "Police Yourself" and "The Hidden Hand," are rants about the government, and though they're as in-your-face as the first song, music-wise they're not as strong. Still, The Hidden Hand shows that they're growing and maturing quite nicely; if they keep it up, they'll wind up leaving a nice impression on the bland, boring "punk rock" scene. God, I hope so.

--Joseph Kyle

Artist Website: http://www.yearfuture.net
Label Website: http://www.goldstandardlabs.com