Jonk Music

The Naked and Famous

2010-09-05T15:15:00.002-05:00

"Young Blood"
from the album Passive Me, Aggressive You
2010

Auckland band The Naked and Famous are well on their way to becoming what the latter part of their name promises.

Their latest single "Young Blood" debuted at Number 1 in the New Zealand single charts in June (the first single to do so since Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls" back in 2007) and was named one of the five songs short-listed for the prestigious APRA Silver Scroll Award.

The masterminds behind the group — named after a line from a Tricky song -— are singer/lyricist Alisa Xayalith and songwriter/producer Thom Powers. The couple met three years ago at Auckland music and audio school, but dropped out and teamed up to write songs instead.

Soon after, they added second producer Aaron Short to the line-up, which was completed last year with David Beadle (bass) and Jesse Wood (drums).

Like Kids of 88 and Computers Want Me Dead, The Naked and Famous are part of an emerging scene of bands who are putting an electronic produced edge to their music, treading the borders between catchy pop-songs and rugged indie-rock.

They released two EPs, This Machine and No Light, in 2008 and are now following up with their debut album Passive Me, Aggressive You.

While their singles are topping the charts and their music videos becoming favorites on music channel C4, The Naked and Famous don't think that the success will change anything in the way they work.

"We are actually an independent band and it's a funny term because now it is used to describe bands with Telecasters (guitars) and tight jeans," Powers says.

"People consider that indie; but indie-band actually means an independently run band, a band responsible for what is happening.

"We are doing the songwriting and the producing and have put out the album through our own record label; Universal Records just distributes us," he says.

Since the release of their EPs two years ago, the band's sound has taken a big step up.

"Everything you're hearing on the album is a pretty much more evolved version, partly just due to our skills improving on the production side but also because we're running now with a five-piece band which allows us to have so much more added into the recording," Short says.

"A lot of the electronic production was done at home," Powers adds.

"That is kind of where everything starts and a lot of what you hear on the album is bedroom-recorded stuff and then we went into the studio and recorded live instruments, drums and guitar and lots of the vocals," Powers says.

"It generally starts off with Thom and Alisa developing a song, which is then passed on to me as the production evolves and extra layers were added or taken out from the songs and at that point it gets also passed on to the band to practice the songs for the live version and to adjust things for the recording to fit," Short explains.

The young band — all in their early 20s — was already dubbed New Zealand's answer to MGMT, but the Naked and Famous have their own take on things, not shying away from tapping into influences from all over the board.

Apart from catchy electro tracks, the album also contains dark, industrial vibes, tracks reminiscent of 80s pop, 90s trip-hop and songs on which the band let loose and thrash their instruments in good old punk rock tradition.

The band agrees that there has been a growth of electro-based bands in the last year or so, but Powers thinks that guitar music is making a comeback as well.

"It's been a lot of cookie-cutter kind of pop on the radio over the last few years. I think guitar music is something people are craving. It is obvious that we have some relation to what is happening in electronic music at the moment. But I guess when you hear the album there's also a heavier site to it," he says.

The Naked and Famous are not only hailed for their song-writing and producing but have made themselves a name as a live band.

The quintet played the CMJ alternative music convention in New York and Big Day Out, but their most memorable gig so far was opening for one of their favorite bands, Nine Inch Nails, last year. "We heard that they were coming over and so Alisa and I went to the promoter and just begged that they send out stuff over to the band and see if we could get a support slot," Powers says.

Their initiative paid off and they were picked by NiN to open their show in Auckland's Vector arena. "The most thrilling moment was backstage when (guitarist) Robin Finck came to our dressing room and introduced himself and said thank you for supporting them. I was really star struck at that time," Xayalith remembers.

Later NiN head Trent Raznor dropped by and told them that he liked their show. "It was an amazing experience and quite an honor, we could have retired right after that," Powers laughs.

~ Julie Scherer, NZPA

Arcade Fire

2010-09-03T00:00:00.000-05:00

"We Used to Wait"
from the album The Suburbs
2010
iTunes

In "We Used to Wait," a restlessly mutating song deep in the recesses of the Arcade Fire's ambitious new album, The Suburbs, Win Butler sings about a time when handwritten letters were the norm, and we waited for correspondences to wend their way through the postal system.

But Butler, the lead singer and principal lyricist for the Quebecois band, isn't nostalgic by practice. "By the time we met," he admits, "the times had already changed. So I never wrote a letter. I never took my true heart. I never wrote it down." Later he says he will do these things, but it's safe to file that under "the broken promises we make to ourselves in the instant gratification age." Sure, and less time on Facebook as well, right?

One promise that the Arcade Fire keeps is crafting an old-fashioned, back-to-front exploration of one topic. In this case, it's suburbia, the album's most immediate symbol of complacency. But Arcade Fire's third album doesn't seek to condemn; the band knows that whether in a city — its Montreal or in Los Angeles — or a subdivision outside Houston, (where Butler grew up), we're all grasping for meaning. We're searching in the shadows of the shopping malls that singer and multi-instrumentalist Régine Chassagne observes endlessly rising in "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)."

Claiming seven members, though often swelling to more in a live setting, Arcade Fire first gained recognition in indie circles with its 2004 debut, Funeral, which established its talent for combining the symphonic with a certain wiry punk agility. By the time its follow-up, Neon Bible, landed in 2007, Arcade Fire was headlining venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, where it first played in 2005 with admirer David Byrne.

Arcade Fire tends to cleave to singular concepts, wrenching elaborate but intimate orchestrations from both the big strokes and nuances, but on its previous efforts, the results were sometimes too pristinely chilled on art-rock ice.

Occasionally, the band gets trapped in the same frost on The Suburbs, but the moments when it strikes warmth are some of the best of its career. Arcade Fire seems to have borrowed ideas from such bards of the wasteland as Bruce Springsteen. And while they don't fashion songs with the immediate hit potency as "Dancing in the Dark," the band members find a way to tap into the same approachable frustration and tenderness.

"Modern Man" is an impeccable showcase, a mature, controlled song that features a vision of the so-called Modern Man waiting in line, going nowhere, bothered by some ineffable sense of opportunity unfulfilled. It's underscored by rough, cottony guitars that almost occlude the song’s chillier synth effects.

In one of the record's many wonders of sequencing — a lost art in the download age resurrected on The Suburbs — "Modern Man" is followed by "Rococo," a resplendent epic wound up by near-hysterical strings that encases one of the album's trickiest sentiments: Making fun of the modern kids. It's hard to tell if Butler was once one of them or not. Is it a swipe at what he knows all too well, or is he simply casting disparagements? Either way, Butler sounds angry. He nearly spits out the word "rococo," as if the fanciful living rooms of old — picture the Draper household in Mad Men — will explode into flames from his very force.

A kind of meta-commentary is used to brilliant effect throughout the album. As much as The Suburbs seems to be a stubborn reinforcement of the pleasures of a complete, multi-song work of art, it also critiques the very impatience that resulted in listeners abandoning the album format. In "We Used to Wait," he sings, "we used to wait for it, now we're screaming, 'sing the chorus again.'" In "Suburban War," Butler laments that "music divides us into tribes," though his band, first crowned by cool-arbiter Pitchfork for its debut, has benefited from such tribalization as much as anyone.

Beyond the lyrics, the musical inspiration suggests a certain amount of nostalgia as well. There are Springsteen and Neil Young, but they mine the '80s and '90s as well, shuffling in the synths and pulsing dance beats of New Order and Depeche Mode.

Bloat, however, occupies The Suburbs just as it does Orange County. The album inevitably sprawls too far; a few songs could have been sacrificed without losing the central conceit. "Sprawl I" is uncomfortably maudlin, and "The Suburbs (Continued)" only unmoors the complicated emotional balance of the title track.

All the same, The Suburbs is an accomplished love letter that radiates affection as much as bitterness. Don't forget the album, they seem to urge, the slow read, the long stretch of night uninterrupted by e-mail or text messages. In doing so, Arcade Fire offers "hope that something pure can last."

~ Margaret Wappler, Los Angeles Times

Delphic

2010-09-02T00:00:00.001-05:00

"Doubt"
from the album Acolyte
2010
iTunes

One of the most promising new British bands to emerge in 2009, Delphic made their eagerly awaited full-length debut with Acolyte, an impressive alternative dance album that adds eight songs to the previously released singles "Counterpoint" and "This Momentary." Like those early singles, Acolyte finds the Manchester band making blissful dance music with fellow Englishman Ewan Pearson in his Berlin studio. While Delphic are new on the scene, Pearson isn't. He's an ace producer with a reputation for remixing the best in the business. He's a celebrated DJ with several mix albums to his name. Moreover, he's the producer of Tracey Thorn's solo albums. Here on Acolyte, Pearson works with a faceless young band eager to follow his lead. Delphic and Pearson embrace the Manchester style wholeheartedly, reviving not only New Order but acid house, too, and they come up with a sound as contemporary as Bloc Party or Hot Chip. Even better, Delphic are an able live band. Part of their up-and-coming buzz came from their tour of the 2009 summer music festivals, when people got to see them performing on-stage in the flesh. No question about it, though, Delphic are at their best when they're in the studio with Pearson. His production wizardry is a joy to behold on Acolyte, above all on the title track, a nine-minute epic that wouldn't sound out of place on one of his DJ mix albums. In addition to "Counterpoint" and "This Momentary," highlights include a couple songs with catchy vocal hooks, "Doubt" and "Red Lights." The album unfortunately starts to drag with "Halcyon" at the album's five-track midpoint. "Counterpoint" is the only late-album highlight. Pearson's dazzling production carries the album only so far. The aforementioned handful of highlights are really amazing, though, making one wonder what the future holds for Delphic, if they stick with Pearson, who casts a tall shadow over them, or if they go in a direction of their own.

~ Jason Birchmeier, allmusic

Greg Thomas

2010-09-01T00:00:00.002-05:00

"Vested"
from the EP Atlantic/Pacific
2010
iTunes

Can you share a little information about yourself?
Absolutely. I grew up in a suburb of Chicago called Arlington Heights. As a kid, I spent a lot of time in my room, practicing guitar and learning every Jimmy Page guitar solo I could. By the time I was in high school, I played in a few bands, finally settling in a band that can only be described as "Caribbean Rock" which, as bad as it sounds, was actually a great band. I moved to Colorado for college when I was 17, and music took a back seat for a bit while I enjoyed the mountains. When I was 21, I started writing again, and I recorded a (terrible) demo and started playing local open mics. A year later, I moved to New York and I started co-writing with a bunch of very talented musicians, and I really started to begin to break out of my shell as a singer/songwriter. After writing songs and playing in my bedroom for a while, I put together a band and starting playing shows around Brooklyn. I had a great time playing shows, and one night someone handed me a note that said "you should really get some recording done." I took their advice and started planning what would be Atlantic/Pacific. In between all the music stuff, I watched a lot of Gilligan's Island and played a bunch of text-based RPGs.

You've read this blog and I've visited your MySpace page. So now that it seems the Internet isn't a fad, what are your thoughts on the power of the web in relation to helping or hurting an artist?
There's so much that could be said. I feel like I should put together an outline or PowerPoint presentation, but I'll try to give my opinion best I can.

In a sense, the Internet is the greatest thing that happened to a musician. It opened the doors so an artist can now be heard across the globe and can sell a track to someone, instantly, 1000 miles away. There are so many ways to get your music heard by so many people, but at the same time, there are now millions of musicians trying to do the same thing. The walls that discouraged a lot of people before have come down, which has encouraged a lot of people to write, record and release material. But, there is so much more music in the marketplace now that a listener has to sift through to find what they want. Back in my day (which isn't long ago), people discovered music through radio, MTV and friends. Now, people discover music through YouTube, MySpace, Last.fm, Facebook, iLike, etc. There's a lot more of a discovery element out there for a listener, and a ton more content.

It's a lot easier now to be heard, but it's harder to make people care about your music. Depending on your goals as a musician, this can be tough. Even if someone likes you, you have to keep their attention, and you have to be persistent, or else you'll fall out of their mind as quickly as you popped into it.

If used for good (meaning: not just to reach for fame and fortune), the Internet can be a really cool thing. There are some really talented, hard working musicians out there that really should be heard.

Could you describe the recording process of Atlantic/Pacific?
Atlantic/Pacific was recorded at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn with a great engineer/producer named Aaron Nevezie. Playing on the record was Steve Purcell on drums, Tim Lappin on bass, and Kirk Schoenherr on guitar (Kirk produced as well). We recorded the EP over five days, taking as much time as we could to experiment with different tones that we had wanted to add behind the songs. We did about a song a day, which was great because it gave us time to add some of the textures to the record that we had all wanted to hear. I had been listening to a ton of Wilco, Radiohead, and Sigur Ros, which definitely influenced the recording process and the sonic themes behind songs like "I am a Fishbowl." I'm really proud of what we put together in that short period of time, and I owe it all to the guys that were in the studio with me.

Are there any current bands or records or websites that you enjoy and would recommend people seek out?
There are a lot of great bands coming out of Brooklyn right now that I hope grab people's attention. I'm really loving Great Elk's record, which is one of the best local bands I have heard in a while. Jessi Robertson is putting out a record in the next few months and she just put out the first single this week, which is absolutely gorgeous. I spend a lot of time seeing Kevin Johnston's Unnamed band play. He has one of the greatest voices I've ever heard, and I find myself singing along to every song. Besides that, I'm loving the new record by Arcade Fire, and the accompanying Google Video release they did. The new record by The National is also fantastic. I heard one track by Mumford and Sons, and I am buying that album tonight. Atomic Tom just put out their record, and it's been on repeat on my ipod. In terms of websites, I've been spending a lot of time on thesixtyone.com and have found some great music on there.

Parting words?
For anyone that takes the time to read this or listen, I really appreciate it. Jonk Music - thank you for your support, your blog is one of the best I've seen. I'll be in Madison in December, so let's hang out.

Hurts

2010-08-31T13:00:00.001-05:00

"Wonderful Life"
from the album Happiness
2010

On meeting fast—rising Mancunian duo Hurts we are not prepared for a religious experience. Yet the venue seems strangely appropriate, seated as we are in the chapel of St. Barnabas House, deep in Soho. Our voices echo slightly, while the clink of a coffee cup turns into a near—deafening crash.

As befits their tradition, Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson are immaculately dressed, the former with his hair slicked back in a manner recalling Jude Law, the latter slightly more at ease but still with a sharp waistcoat and jeans combination that cut a dash.

Hurts — or HURTS, depending on your persuasion — are back in town for the first time since an appearance at Lovebox, "when we were almost dying of poisoning," says Adam. "When I came off stage half of my head had been in the sun the whole gig, and this side of my head was almost black and this side was pale Mancunian," he recalls.

"Also," says Theo, "we'd traveled for about 15 hours from Berlin, and we had a really shit old 1970s bus which was so bad all the fumes from the exhaust were coming in the air vents, so we spent 15 hours on a bus inhaling exhaust fumes. We only just got there in time, thought we were going to be sick but then had to go straight on." "I'm actually worried about that now," says Adam, "because we thought it was a laugh at the time but I was actually inhaling carbon monoxide for 12 hours, and it's like 'what happened to me?!'"

The band played in searing heat to the denizens of Victoria Park, and as Adam says, "playing in the daytime and playing in the sun is always a bit weird, because of how the music is, but it does kind of work". Is that because their music exists on two levels, with light and shade? Theo nods appreciatively. "That's the perfect observation! It's what we've said as we've gone round playing gigs in different environments at different times of day, different kinds of venue. You do realize that about your own music, that it has different sides to it. We went to Japan last week, and people there do see the light to it. Even though they don't speak English it's because the music is often hopeful, whereas the lyrics are often quite sad. They just get the melodies, and the rest of it doesn't register."

So what is the ideal Hurts venue for a live gig? "We played the first gig in a church like this", says Theo. "For me the best one is KOKO," says Adam, "as the whole gallery thing is amazing. It's kind of intimate but a big space too." "That kind of theatre is what we saw in our head when we wrote the songs," agrees Theo, "but then playing in a tiny club in Berlin can also be the most intense show in the world, and it kind of works on that scale. Maybe we should play an oil rig, or a cruise ship or something!"

Hurts polled fourth in the BBC Sound of 2010 poll at the start of the year, a billing that has brought their music to a lot of people, as Theo has found. "One thing we've noticed as we've been going around is that we get asked about that everywhere. Even in Japan every interviewer asked us about that, so it must carry a lot of weight." "I think what's important about that is people getting a chance to hear our music," says Adam, "because it offers people an alternative to the music that exists in their life, music that we don't think is available that often." "That poll was based on one song, 'Wonderful Life,'" says Theo, "and a video, which was great because we already had all the other songs written, so it gave us confidence to finish the record. We didn't falter but it gave us that extra bit we needed."

The duo dress to impress, both in their videos and on stage. It's clear this is important to them, and for Theo the origins run deep. "We want to make it very minimal, but funnily enough the way we dress comes from an odd place, quite different to what people would think. When we were on the dole, which was for about three years, we were working on our music every day and trying to learn what to do. Every Wednesday you've got to go to the job centre and go 'I'm a loser, please give me some money', which is a fucking horrible experience. If you go in there in a suit or looking smart, you come out with a little bit of pride left, and we'd go back to our flat and go 'Ah, we're not losers!' The more it goes on the more you do it. We'd be meeting record companies and stuff, and we'd have to get a Megabus overnight from Manchester, and feel worthless doing it. So it all comes from there."

He takes a sip of coffee, retaining his poise while doing so. "It retains some dignity, and that's really important. But also with the presentation we wanted things to be simple. We didn't want to clutter the music with it being overly presented, because pop music covers that sort of thing up a lot. We wanted to be bold and say 'there's the music', and just let people judge the music alone. It's a good stance, because it is brave to do that."

Much is made of their discovery of slow disco in Italy. Theo laughs. "That's our boring trip to Verona, which has somehow become the most romantic thing ever! It was cheap — the cheapest place where Ryanair did flights. We had no money, and Verona's kind of not that brilliant. It's not like Romeo and Juliet. So we went out and got drunk, and met this guy who asked us what sort of music we made. We were talking about Italian disco and Savage, stuff like that, and he said 'your music sounds like this!' And we were like, 'you haven't even heard it!' but he said 'I can see it happening'. We'd been so interested in how European and Western music is perceived, without any sort of agenda, just pop music for the sake of it. But then it was a bit of 'what was that guy about', and we took from that. We've taken a lot from Italy, our videos are influenced by Italian films. Those places are a million miles away from where we wrote the music, in the rain in Manchester, and then to go there, and to perform in Greece, it was so weird. Songs about Bristol and suicide, they connect somehow. People say they're exotic, but not in the way we imagine exotic to be."

Does that mean their music has its roots in club music? Anderson shakes his head. "Not particularly." "The funny thing with that," says Theo, "is that when we started we did listen to a lot of Depeche Mode and Tears For Fears, and then we moved away to people like Coldplay and even Nine Inch Nails, for the production. The constant challenge with our music I think was to make it modern, which is very difficult. To position an idea in the modern environment was a big thing, so we were even listening to people like Take That."

The band have their own operatic singer, who performs with them live. "Hopefully it separates things from the album, pushes it on a bit," says Adam. "It's something nobody else is doing. He always gets his own round of applause though, and gets a bigger round than we do, which is kind of annoying!"

Was being on the dole has been their primary inspiration for writing music thus far? "The inspiration is not to go back there!" is Adam's take. Theo expands further. "I think a lot of our music is about escape, which is why there are the dramatic and cinematic elements to it. We've sat there in the bedsit, we put all of our desperation into the songs in a way of never going back there again. We thought if we could just work hard enough, we won't have to live this life. Now we're in a perpetual state of 'keep it going, keep it going', and now we've been given the opportunities our brains are just wide open. It's a big thing, that, escape, and the way it's presented and the live shows. Unknown to ourselves we created a world around us and what we wanted to do, as a means of escape."

Will that continue to be their influence? Adam thinks a while before responding. "It'll be interesting when we start writing music again, because when we started writing this album our world was so tiny. My world was a bedsit in Gorton in Manchester. Your comfort zone expands so much with traveling around, I can feel it already, which way we could go. In the beginning it was simple and small ideas."

Does that mean what they've heard on their travels will inform their musical choices? "For the 18 months or so that it took to write the record we weren't listening to anyone, which is mad! We were so desperate to not make it sound like anyone, we were only listening to our own songs, which drives you mental. There were weeks where we would think, 'are we doing the right thing, shall we get some perspective', and it was like 'NO!' But it's good, because now we've started to see it again, we've got a lot out of us."

"It's really nice to do that again," continues Adam, "because we're rediscovering music having been locked away, and collecting influences again. So it's very inspirational, and makes you think what could come. Going to Europe makes things bigger, and makes you realize what parts of your songs connect with people, and what things you do make sense to people, how you can get things across. Because we put a lot of layers in the songs it's great when people say 'I see what you're doing now'.

Those are the musical layers that come across either on headphones or in a club, presumably. "Exactly, that's the point. If you put all that effort in to it, which we've done, whether it's being perfectionist or being neurotic or whatever, it's offering people an alternative. Pop music doesn't have to all be one dimensional, on the surface. If you ask people who their favorites are, people like Michael Jackson, Prince and even Madonna, there's not one layer to it, there never was. There's a responsibility for people to put that effort in, and not just make it a simple thing. Some people can just take a melody, which is enough, but we want people to go further."

"People say pop music is disposable," he continues, "but it's not that really, it's the type of music that makes it disposable. It's why someone like Lady Gaga sits astride the world, because her songs work in a car on the way home from college, in a nightclub, but also on a level where you can sit at home and just watch."

A lot has been made of how Hurts might be perceived as something of a boy band, but Adam professes himself more than happy with their record label RCA's vision. "It's been easy from the beginning with them. Before we were signed we spoke to them about every part of who we are, and they completely supported the vision and have never really challenged us." His band mate is in full agreement. "It's amazing in this day and age to find a record label who will just let you be yourselves. I personally know people who get pulled around and personalities get lost, so they've allowed us to retain that. We put in a lot of work before to make it a fully formed idea, and it gives you faith in the music business when someone says 'OK'. You need to show your personality, every part of your personality, and everything — the videos, the production — needs to come from the same place. We know how much we need them as much as they need us. It's a give and take situation — a no brainer really."

So the fact the album is called Happiness — given the conversations we've just had — isn't more than a slight irony? "Not at all," says Theo, "there's a contrast in everything we do, with light and shade. All the songs are about the pursuit of happiness, which is often quite sad — everybody's journey towards that can often be quite tragic, but also very hopeful. For us it's very telling of our situation. A year ago today we were on the dole, very, very unhappy and very insecure about what we were going to do. Then we finished the album and all of a sudden we feel more secure, confident in ourselves and happy."

The strong sense of inner conviction is clear to see. "It's blind, yeah!" says Theo. "You can't falter from it for one moment. That's why you can be on the dole for three years and lose all your friends, because they tell you you're chasing a dream. When it's pop music the ceiling is so far away you've got to aim right up with it. Once it gets in your blood it carries on, so if we enjoy and value every day, we will be OK — but we can't have a day off."

~ Ben Hogwood, musicOMH

Philip Selway

2010-08-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

"By Some Miracle"
from the album Familial
2010
iTunes

Drummers don't always get the credit they deserve. They sit in the back and dutifully fill their role while the lead singers and guitarists get all the attention. Whenever the members of a beloved band strike out on their own, the drummer is usually the last person fans look to for a solo album. So I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard that Radiohead drummer Philip Selway was putting out his own record. As a member of one of the most accomplished rock bands in the world, the bar is set pretty high. But when you listen to the beautifully produced pieces Selway came up with on Familial, out Tuesday, it's easy to see him not as a percussionist but as a genuine singer-songwriter.

A self-proclaimed "bedroom noodler," Selway says he mostly gave up songwriting once he became a drummer in his late teens, and only recently began working on songs again during breaks from Radiohead. Now, even he admits his new record is a surprise.

"It's a cardinal sin for drummers to come into rehearsals with the comment, 'I've got this song.' I don't think anyone knew I played guitar or sang," Selway says. "[Even] I didn't think I could sing before."

But Selway can sing, and he's got a wonderfully nuanced voice. It's a more natural falsetto than heard in Thom Yorke's wails on the last several Radiohead albums, but it's no less memorable. And the songs Selway wrote sound heartfelt and inspired.

"I've made this record more or less at the midpoint of my life," Selway says. "In one sense, you've reached the height of your powers in terms of responsibility and experience, which is a very heady time. If you stop and take it all in, it can become a scary place. So don't look down — keep going."

Now 43 with a wife and three kids, Selway wistfully explores themes of growing older and the importance of family (hence the album title), and even steps into darker territory like fear and depression. The tracks are imaginatively packaged, with some nice digital glitch-textures, without trying too hard to resemble Radiohead songs.

"If stuff came up that sounded very 'Radiohead,' I'd edit it out," Selway says. "But at the same time, I wouldn't do so to the detriment of something I felt was genuinely me as genuinely Radiohead, too. I don't want to cut off an arm for the sake of it."

In addition to Selway, Familial also features the haunting voice of singer Lisa Germano, former Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche.

~ Robin Hilton, NPR Music

Dirty Projectors + Björk

2010-08-29T00:00:00.001-05:00

"All We Are"
from the EP Mount Wittenberg Orca
2010

"If you grow up in the river, the river's all you know."

Let's get the rather strange yet essential set-up out of the way first. Stereogum writer Brandon Stosuy invited Dirty Projectors and Björk, mutual fans of each other's music, to collaborate on a benefit show performance at a New York bookstore. After discussing what to play, the two camps decided to collaborate on brand-new material for the performance instead of just cranking out their greatest hits.

Later that month, Dirty Projectors vocalist Amber Coffman witnessed a family of whales on the Northern California coast near Mount Wittenberg, and Projectors songwriter/frontman/crazy man Dave Longstreth connected the two ideas by writing a 20-minute song cycle about the experience, designating each vocal performer a corresponding whale character. Longstreth plays the part of Coffman; Coffman and fellow vocalists Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle assume the roles of baby whales; and Björk, the mother of all weird, alternative vocalists, appropriately plays the family matriarch. Mount Wittenberg Orca is the result, and the proceeds will be donated to the National Geographic Society, helping create "international marine protected areas."

Got that?

Helping marine life is certainly a worthwhile cause, but as much as Björk and Dirty Projectors want to raise awareness about whales, Mount Wittenberg Orca will ultimately raise awareness about their music, which is a worthwhile cause all on its own. As an encore for Dirty Projectors' highly acclaimed 2009 full-length Bitte Orca, Mount Wittenberg Orca is a knockout. It works completely, even when removed from its unorthodox origins.

Then again, "unorthodox" is pretty standard stuff for Longstreth and company. Their music has a tendency to mix the extremely foreign and experimental with the catchy and familiar. Longstreth is a master of mood and color, pairing the most unusual of musical elements ("How about a string quartet, and then we'll do a electro beat ... or how about some white noise?!"). A track like "Stillness is the Move" from Bitte Orca is their most pop moment, with its R&B vocal stylings and bright production, but the twisted guitar figures and layers of sound keep it firmly planted in the strange.

On Mount Wittenberg Orca, both the experimental and the pop tendencies are toned down somewhat, due in large part to the template. Here, the distorted batshit guitar solos and drum kit explosions are replaced with acoustics, in keeping with the original bookstore performance. There are no surefire breakthrough singles, either. Instead, this EP finds the band trying out something a bit new for them: sonic consistency. With most of the noise and half of the layers of instrumentation removed, Mount Wittenberg Orca ends up giving priority to flow and ease instead of shock and flair.

The players revel in this new setting. Nat Baldwin's acoustic bass sounds warmer but still powerful. Brian Mcomber, one of indie rock's most unique drummers, still explores the outer limits of his kit, but this time focuses more on nuance, favoring snare rim clicks and bass drum accents over his trademark bursts of John Bonham-like thunder. Longstreth still plays like a classical guitarist who fronts a noise outfit on the weekends, exploring more of his melodic fingerpicking previously displayed on tracks like Bitte Orca's "Two Doves."

Björk fits in perfectly, which is no surprise. She and Longstreth have mutually odd melodic sensibilities, so much so that an album of Björk covering Dirty Projectors songs (or vice versa) really wouldn't sound like anything out of the ordinary. It's no wonder, then, that their styles mesh so seamlessly, almost to the point where Björk simply sounds like another from Longstreth's gang of female vocalizers. When she takes lead vocals ("On and Ever Onward," "Sharing Orb," "All We Are"), it's clear that her melodies could have been written by Longstreth or all on her own.

"On and Ever Onward" immediately demonstrates the breathtaking synchronicity between the two camps. Björk throws in the line "Tempur Pedic is the ocean," which, with both its vivid imagery of being swallowed in bed and strange product placement (think back to Longstreth's Gatorade plug on Bitte's "Temecula Sunrise"), lets you know you're in good hands. The gang chant "Our love is all around us," atop a bed of bouncy bass and arpeggiated acoustic guitar, is probably the happiest they've ever sounded. Listen to it through headphones and feel the plink of the guitar strings, the encompassing vocals disorienting and enlightening with precision and warm breath.

I first heard 'When the World Comes to an End' on a Twitter video posted by Roots drummer Questlove, showing the band rehearsing the track backstage with nothing more than an unplugged electric guitar and the surround-sound ping-ponging vocals of Coffman, Deradoorian, and Dekle. Questlove was so stoked by the performance, he could hardly keep his camera phone still, frequently capturing his own entranced reaction shots.

You can't blame the guy.It was a startling, arresting performance for such a limiting environment, especially for a band thriving on sonic chaos. Luckily, the intimacy and simplicity of that performance has carried over to the studio version. Dirty Projectors have always been a "headphones" band, but seriously: put on your nicest pair, sit back, and marvel at the encompassing magic of the wordless "ahhs" and "oohs." There's also a spirally electric guitar solo which, along with lead vocals on all tracks, is the only occasion of overdubbing on the album.

The claps, drum clicks, and stereo-panned vocal undulations in "Beautiful Mother" are quintessential Dirty Projectors, not all that different than some of the brighter moments on Bitte Orca. It's a perfect summation of what this EP does best: demonstrating a warmer, more spontaneous Dirty Projectors, and quite possibly an even more exciting one, if that's at all possible.

That Mount Wittenberg Orca is an acquired taste goes without saying. Yet no one else makes music like this.

~ Ryan Reed, PopMatters

Everything Everything

2010-08-28T00:00:00.002-05:00

"MY KZ, UR BF"
from the album Man Alive
2010

When it comes to a group like Everything Everything, being taken aback is par for the course. Their tight, falsettoed sound is unlike anything else out there today. Theirs is the sort of music likely to lead fellow musicians to ask themselves: "Why didn't I think of that?"

Everything Everything aren't even just for show and their album wasn't a formulated, calculated attempt to stir up some new scene. They emerge from Manchester with a debut album to their name in the same year as neighbours Delphic and Hurts, but their sound couldn't be further removed from either. And why should everything sound the same just because it originated from the same city in northern England, after all?

Sporting successful singles, re-recorded demos, and sparkling new efforts, it's a debut album that should displease no one. Production aligns with the band's erratic character, beginning with a rampant opening trio of songs likely to leave you flabbergasted. The old-fashioned joke that Everything Everything live up to their name in every respect won't be going away any time soon. This is a unique listen.

The slick giant that is "MY KZ, UR BF" ("My Keys, Your Boyfriend") opens the album with unrivaled confidence, the worthy high-speed-car-chase soundtrack "Qwerty Finger" and the frighteningly inventive "Schoolin'" following. That's the listener won over right there. The opening precedes a more diverse two-thirds, blending tenderness and subtleties with unabashed, full-frontal pop.

Jonathan Everything's vocals switch gloriously from 90-decibel heights to softer hues. His Mancunian-tinged falsetto dictates the altering pace, varying between the vulnerable Leave The Engine Room to the jerky eccentricity of "Photoshop Handsome." As the band ceremoniously walk amongst R&B, acapella, and synth pop, Jonathan sounds comfortable within any surroundings.

The variety on show is one thing. But most impressive is the band's ability to cross genres in the space of one song; "Schoolin'" begins as a candidate for future Justin Timberlake hit before scattering its parts into a cacophonous, sweetly-sung jewel, its previous melody disposed of.

Inevitably, this all leads to an incohesive mess, to some extent. There's the naivety that strikes many a band when recording a debut album of such energy and experimentation. It's comparable to Late of the Pier's debut Fantasy Black Channel; a lot on show but with hints of greater achievement. But Man Alive is a step up from that. It could well be their masterpiece; their scatterbrained work of art.

Should everything (everything) go according to plan, Man Alive will cause a shift in the ground. Whilst an abolition of N-Dubz might be too much to ask for, there's every chance that post-2010 hits will have a rejuvenated feel to them. If however — and this is the more likely of the two — Everything Everything fail to break the higher ranks of the charts, they'll embed themselves as a cult phenomenon with this debut.

~ Jamie Milton, musicOMH

Lissie

2010-08-27T00:00:00.003-05:00

"Bully"
from the album Catching a Tiger
2010
iTunes

With her freckles and flaxen hair, Lissie Maurus conjures up images of her native Midwest, full of unruffled country charm. But in reality, the Illinois-born singer grew up listening to gangsta rap. By age nine, she was starring in the musical Annie. She then headed to L.A. to work on her music, which attracted some cool connections; after the EP Why You Runnin', produced by Band Of Horses bassist Bill Reynolds, she returns with her debut album. It's helmed by Jaquire King, best known for his work with Kings of Leon.

Lissie is living the Americana dream, a musical reverie nestled between country, folk-rock and a tinge of pop. Catching a Tiger opens with the atmospheric "Record Collector," her voice captivating us over a track that exudes a mix of melancholy and joy. Assertive drum beats lead the way for "When I'm Alone," channeling Stevie Nicks. "In Sleep" navigates between different registers and arrangements, the intensity in her voice rising and falling like that of the Fleetwood Mac legend. The piano highlights the mellow "Bully," the keys echoing her voice. With its banjo providing the main sound, "Little Lovin'" is perhaps the most country accented song on the album, but it eventually amplifies to something with even more body and mood.

And mood is aplenty on "Stranger," set somewhere in the late '60s/early '70s. It's Old California replete with sea breeze, desert winds and country air. Her delivery is faultless, the arrangement is immaculate, the song just plain fun. Pop-rock echoes through the equally catchy hooks of "Loosen the Knot." And that is a key element in Lissie's songwriting: her ability to write memorable, radio-friendly tunes reminiscent of early Sheryl Crow. "Cuckoo" misleads with its opening guitar riff, but it quickly falls into radio pop/rock territory, the sort of thing that's been done and redone a thousand times over yet still finds listeners and buyers.

"Everywhere I Go" is a dreamy ballad where the guitar strings are played as delicately as a lyre. Her vocal range rises and falls with grace and precision, but the song doesn't go any further. Her vocals often outshine the content, but she does build an emotional bridge with the listener. Her lyrics deal with broken relationships, and one can sense this album has been a sort of catharsis. "Oh Mississippi" adds the final note to the album, a solemn folk tribute to the "mighty river" running through her native town. It is really at Americana that she excels, whether it's the sounds of the Mississippi or on L.A.'s Laurel Canyon.

Catching a Tiger has its moments of spontaneity, marking Lissie's talent for songwriting and blending genres, but also of calculated engineering, designed to make her into the Next Big Female Songwriting Sensation. And she probably will be — if they stop attempting to make her into the next Sheryl Crow and let her talent sing for itself.

~ Talia Soghomonian, musicOMH

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

2010-08-26T00:00:00.007-05:00

"Nothing But Our Love"
from the EP Horse Power
2010
iTunes

Sometimes it seems like the last thing the music-listening public needs is another indie duo with a quirky name that weaves guitar chords, synthesizer lines and programmed drumbeats around soaring falsetto harmonies. Thankfully, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.'s debut release, Horse Power EP, not only manages to utilize those textures in tightly constructed and well-written songs, but is also executed in a refreshingly sweet and unironic way. The three original songs radiate upbeat enthusiasm rather than the dry cynicism that pervades the work of many of their contemporaries. "Nothing But Our Love" stands out as the album highlight with its beautifully layered production, sentimental delivery, and serenely optimistic atmosphere.

The group, which is comprised of Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott, demonstrates an awareness of its heritage with the Jackson 5-esque grooves on "Vocal Chords" and the well-chosen and well-executed cover of the Beach Boys' dreamy classic "God Only Knows." Epstein and Zott wisely don't diverge much from the original version, instead choosing to pare down to just a jazzy guitar and some vocals for the beginning of the tune and then adding instruments as the song's power grows. Despite the fact that this debut comes from a hip band with an ironic name — seriously, is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. the last band name left? — you will find yourself smiling when it comes to a close, and you can't really argue against results like that.

~ Andrew Werle, CMJ.com

Icarus Himself

2010-08-25T00:00:00.003-05:00

"Digging Holes"
from the EP Mexico
2010
iTunes

Upon listening to Mexico — the latest EP from Madison folk-popsters Icarus Himself — it's apparent that mastermind Nick Whetro has really learned to let his songs breathe. The old cliché of "no, no, it's the notes he's not playing" is a tired one, but it really holds its ground here. What's even weirder is that Whetro has basically added a full band to what was once a solo endeavor, and the results still sound way more minimal. When pushed up against 2009's more singer-songwriter oriented Coffins, Whetro's haunting vocal delivery sounds a bit more soulful and less forced this time around as he sparsely colors in the tiny arrangements of watery guitar, lo-fi keyboards, and low-key rhythms of tunes like "Digging Holes" and "Half Ton Load." In fact, on some tunes, Whetro only sings on every other measure, allowing his lyrics to be a vehicle for the progression rather than the other way around.

Jentri Colello, another Madison singer-songwriter, joins forces with Whetro over the Casio-disco pulse of "Half Ton Load," the EP's most infectious cut. Collelo's ethereal voice and feathery choruses give his tortured howling a soft place to land. Also, multi-instrumentalist Karl Christenson (who played with Whetro in the late National Beekeepers Society) brings his own subtle wizardry to the table, foregoing bass and opting to rumble out some baritone guitar instead. The volcanic closer "Seen It Coming (Mexico)" is a quiet killer, erupting from its delicate finger-picked chorus into an explosion of crashing drums and rippling guitar as Whetro cries out, "You're my Mexico!" Sure, Mexico tumbles into darker dives than its predecessor, but it may be Whetro's penchant for the morose and his leaning toward incorporating lo-fi electronics that help split him off of his over-orchestrated neo-folk peers.

~ Joel Shanahan, The A.V. Club Madison

School of Seven Bells

2010-08-24T00:00:00.002-05:00

"Windstorm"
from the album Disconnect from Desire
2010
iTunes

It's hard to imagine School of Seven Bells turning to Brian Eno's list of "Oblique Strategies" for inspiration. Because from the sound of its new album, it used his "disconnect from desire" suggestion in title alone. This kinetic collection of delectable dream pop and dance-inflected art rock follows through and then some on the band's 2008 debut, Alpinisms. Opener/single "Windstorm" is aptly titled, the guitars and synths whirling and twirling as singer/guitarist Alejandra Deheza takes the lead in lieu of the band's usual, literal twin-voice approach with her sister, keyboardist Claudia. Still, there's no resisting their entwined voices; they're an ethereal force singing of farewells both devastating (the gorgeous My Bloody Valentine nod "I L U") and dismissive (the freestyle-esque "Bye Bye Bye"). Ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis infuses the tracks with subtle, hypnotic parts ("Babelonia" and "Dust Devil" in particular), and they're paired with heartfelt lyrics that speak to one's inner self. For the listener, disconnecting will be all but impossible.

~ Chris W. Woods, Billboard

Arcade Fire

2010-08-23T00:00:00.001-05:00

"Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"
from the album The Suburbs
2010
iTunes

Memory, childhood, home. These are big subjects that have obsessed novelists, movie makers, playwrights and songwriters for decades, if not centuries. Now the Arcade Fire, a band not known for thinking small, tackles them all in its third studio album, The Suburbs.

When the Arcade Fire burst into sudden prominence in 2004 with its rousing debut album, Funeral, a process accelerated by the kind of viral enthusiasm normally reserved for Paris Hilton home movies and Kanye West tweets, the excitement was tempered by one nagging doubt: Was this just another built-to-implode Internet flash?

But the Montreal septet has now proven its staying power, making three very different albums in a span of six years. Whereas Funeral inspired shout-from-the-rafters sing-alongs, a blast of live-for-the-moment resolve at a time of mourning, Neon Bible (2007) was ominous and claustrophobic, a skeptical look at an era that conflates religion, war and consumerism. If Funeral was about having faith in each other, Neon Bible was about losing faith in the institutions that try to manage our lives.

The title song that opens The Suburbs signals another thematic and sonic shift. It's lighter than anything Arcade Fire has done in the past, with its bouncy piano and skip-along beat, an invitation into an album that seems to expand as it progresses, not unlike the sprawling communities it describes. The song's jauntiness melts into a mass of ghost-like voices and the tone shifts to something more evanescent. The narrator recalls the expectations and dreams he once had as a child and questions whether he has lived up to them.

"It meant nothing," he sings, and later expresses his own lack of resolve: "Sometimes I can't believe it/I'm moving past the feeling."

Band leader Win Butler and his younger brother Will grew up in the suburbs of Houston, a sun-baked sea of golf courses, shopping malls and utilitarian but largely anonymous houses. In other words, it could've been anywhere. That setting describes millions of childhoods, a vast, blank universality that Arcade Fire fills in with personal detail and a deep sense of longing.

Though "suburbia" has long been shorthand for homogenized mediocrity in the arts, Win Butler and his bandmates don't allow themselves to indulge in such easy, condescending dismissals. Instead they invest their upbringing with a mix of fondness and regret, wistfulness and disappointment, and that tension is nurtured by music that is among the richest, subtlest and most unsettling of the band's career.

Amid this disquieting beauty, the 16 songs and fragments melt one into the next, populated by interlocking characters and images. Memo to shuffle-obsessed iPod listeners: Even more so than its two predecessors, The Suburbs is an Arcade Fire album designed to be heard as a whole in a specific sequence.

Two sets of paired songs find Win Butler and his wife, multi-instrumentalist Regine Chassagne, answering each other with distinct but complementary takes on a community that feels as impersonal as a massive airport concourse. "Someone please cut the lights," Chassagne pleads on "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)," responding to her declaration in an earlier song that "In the half light, we're free."

References to cars and long drives pop up continually, not as a means of liberation and escape as in a Chuck Berry or Bruce Springsteen song, but as symbols of a transitory existence that make the concept of "home" feel increasingly elusive. In "Suburban War," desperation overtakes hope as the narrator tries to reconnect with an old friend, searching for him in each passing car.

The music fits the imagery, with lonely-asteroid keyboards, anxious strings, sadly chiming Byrds-like progressions ("Suburban War"), skeletal guitar riffs that faintly echo old Cure songs ("Modern Man") and wordless harmonies creating a sense of vastness and space unlike any previous Arcade Fire album. The beats are more mechanical, rather than the polyrhythmic rush of old. A handful of rockers break up a thicket of midtempo songs; without "Month of May" the last half of the album is in danger of sounding monochromatic. But there is so much quiet passion and rich musical detail, it's difficult to pinpoint any songs that the album could sacrifice. As if to demonstrate it hasn't forgotten what got it to this point in its career, the band brings it all home with "Sprawl II," creating an unlikely anthem out of a mirror-ball disco beat, glacial synthesizers and the pleading urgency of Chassagne's vocal.

Her fire contrasts with the melancholy in Win Butler's voice. More than anything, this is an album not just about loss of innocence, but the erosion of ideals that aging inevitably brings. With it comes disconnection from everything that once mattered: home, friends, family, dreams.

The relationship of a rock band to its audience serves as convenient metaphor for all of the above. When Butler sings "Kids are all standin' with their arms folded tight" in "Month of May," it could be taken as a putdown of cooler-than-thou indie-rock fans. But it's actually an expression of empathy; these were once kids just like him, who grew up screaming in delight, unconcerned about what anyone else might think of them. The Butler of The Suburbs longs to regain that feeling, and the only way he knows how is to make a record that "blow(s) the wires away." But as these bittersweet songs make clear, even that may not be enough.

~ Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune

Dom

2010-08-20T11:00:00.001-05:00

"Burn Bridges"
from the EP Sun Bronzed Greek Gods
2010
iTunes

What's your favorite thing about summer? The sun? The booze? The bikinis? Summer is my favorite time of the year in almost every way, especially so for the music it brings. I live for the upbeat, happy-go-lucky albums that are bound to rule the hot summer days and I imagine anyone else who enjoys the same music probably feels the same way. I mean, just to digress for a moment, does anyone listen to metal at the beach? Tanning, with some guy loudly pig squealing about the undutiful medieval kings of yore in the background? Did the Pagan overlords ever just take a day to soak up the sunshine? Do Slayer make swim trunks? Is corpse paint water-resistant? There's a lot left unanswered.

What I can tell you is that Sun Bronzed Greek Gods is my kind of summer EP. The second lead singer Dom chimes in on synth-romp opener "Living in America" with the prolonged "It's so sexxxxxyyyyyy" hook, you just know you're about to get fuzz-fucked in the most terrific way. It's an invitation: summer's waiting, lose the winter clothes, shave that nasty beard, dig out those wayfarers, be glad for a moment that crocs are a dying trend, and get the hell out there. Dom's sound has enough edge to satisfy the critics and enough energy to satisfy everyone else, but for what it's worth, this is the kind of album you don't have to think about for even a moment; sit back, sing a long, play it in the background, it doesn't matter. Just enjoy.

Though songs like "Burn Bridges" are lyrically about disconnection and similarly dreary topics, when juxtaposed against its glimmering synths and lighthearted nature, who cares? Half the time the message of the songs (if there even is one) is foregone for a feeling that's far removed from anything less than joyful, so as far as I'm concerned they may as well all be about sunshine and pitchers of sangria because that's the kind of mood they stir up. Likewise, the huge "Hey Bochicha!" chorus could be to drunken beach parties like "Kumbaya" is to lame summer camps and it's one of the most contagious things you'll hear in a long time, powered by the restless madness of the bands titular Christopher Owens soundalike vocalist. This is dirty lo-fi pop tailor-made for teenage summer debauchery and when the weather's warm and the sun's out, why not?

~ Kiran Soderqvist, sputnikmusic

J. Tillman

2010-08-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

"Three Sisters"
from the album Singing Ax
2010
iTunes

We've been waiting patiently through the long, hot summer for J. Tillman's new album, Singing Ax, to drop. Recorded in just a few days with the legendary Steve Albini, it's a majorly stripped-down affair focusing in on J.'s powerful pipes, save for the occasional mellotron line or signature Tillman beat (he's also the Fleet Foxes' drummer, perhaps you've heard of them), and the lyrics are mostly third-person narratives, getting him out of his existential comfort zone. The bad news? We have many dog days to endure before Singing Ax drops on September 14. The good news? Mr. Tillman and Western Vinyl have provided a sneak peek in the form of "Three Sisters." A minimalist dirge with some sonic surprises, this one will hypnotize you with its epic tale of a siren-like encounter, delivered by that voice both gentle and restless that could only be J. Tillman.

~ Maddy Wyatt, LimeWire Music Blog

Zola Jesus

2010-08-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

"Night"
from the EP Stridulum
2010
iTunes

Getting to know someone is hard. Family, friends, lovers — you can spend your whole life with someone and still not know them utterly and completely. People are intricate beings, a whir of emotions and experiences constantly churning and taking on new meanings. Perhaps it's so hard to really know someone because to let oneself be known is an act that requires the utmost bravery. It's akin to standing naked in a glass box, surrounded by a constant, invasive gaze. Standing there, baring all, you can be seen but can't see out. This is the intrinsic plight of the artists who want to make themselves known to the world through their work. How much of yourself do you give to the unknowable world at large? How much of yourself can you give?

Nika Danilova, otherwise known as Zola Jesus, understands this plight very well. Growing up in the isolated backwoods of Wisconsin, far from the cultural touchstones of city life, Danilova was left to construct her own identity. In high school, she gave birth to Zola Jesus, insisting that people call her by that name as a way of weirding out her peers and thus distancing herself from being known. Obviously being a "goth girl" interested in Throbbing Gristle and Dostoevsky isn't exactly conducive to being popular in high school, but thankfully Danilova was existing the only way she could: as herself.

Now 20 and studying philosophy at a university, Danilova has truly stepped out into the world, all the isolation and individualistic pursuits giving a definite shape to the burgeoning phoenix that has taken flight as Zola Jesus. After releasing two LPs and one EP (with The Spoils garnering particularly high praise across the board), the Stridulum EP marks her fourth substantial release in the past year — not a bad output for a person who admits to being extremely self-critical. This high output coupled with Danilova's participation in Former Ghosts (alongside Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart and This Song is a Mess and So Am I's Freddie Rupert) has led to a surprisingly quick maturation. Previous Zola Jesus material was bathed in dense, rich distortion, sheathing, to a degree, Danilova's immensely powerful voice. Past production values would allow her to be placed in the Best Coast/Vivian Girls lo-fi camp, but Stridulum marks a major turning point for Zola Jesus, where Danilova throws off the shackles of hazy, obscuring production and really spreads her wings.

Stridulum is a body of work best enjoyed LOUD: sacrifice your eardrums and save your soul; allow yourself to be swept away by Danilova's blustery, operatic bellow. Having sung opera from an early age and possessing a love of dark sirens such as Diamanda Galás and Jarboe has made the voice of Zola Jesus truly formidable. In fact, it's this penchant for standing-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff dramatics that makes Danilova's work so alluring, so utterly affecting. It is honest, confrontational, and it's clear that she "means it all over her insides." In fact, most of the songs on Stridulum are stark and visceral, given an incredible weight by the undeniable sincerity of both her words and her inflection.

"Night" opens the record with a swathe of foreboding synth that brings to mind the opening seconds of — yes — Kanye West's "Welcome to Heartbreak." Like all songs offered on Stridulum, it is a slow-burner, continually gathering heft as Danilova intones straightforward, truthful laments like "In the end of the night, you're in my arms." Her words exude a longing that conveys a love so real and honest that the feelings only need to be expressed in such terms, where flowery words are rendered superfluous. "Trust Me" follows in a similar vein: "When you're lost, never look down/ When you're lost, know I'll be around" — at only two minutes, it's a powerful vignette. Meanwhile, "I Can't Stand" and "Stridulum" are both exemplary meditations on the basic feelings of love, combining determined drums and gauzy, layered synths that provide a vehicle for Danilova to intone simple yet strong lines like "It's not easy to fall in love/ But if you're lucky, you just might find someone."

For an artist who admittedly has problems with the glare of attention, Stridulum is an especially brave, confident step into the spotlight. It's a focused, naked statement of both Danilova's intent as an artist and her acceptance of being known, inside and out, by the world at large. The cleaned-up production and pretenseless songs about love and longing suggest that Zola Jesus' next record will be of mammoth proportion. Whether she becomes the next Kate Bush or the next Tara Cross is of little importance. What matters most is for Danilova to keep putting herself and her art out there, because it is completely enamoring.

~ Jordan Redmond, Tiny Mix Tapes

Yeasayer

2010-08-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

"Love Me Girl"
from the album Odd Blood
2010
iTunes

Things start bleak on Odd Blood. The second album from worldly Brooklyn art rockers Yeasayer opens with "The Children," a post-apocalyptic mix of clanks, clacks, distorted vocals, manipulated instruments and dooming electronic effects. Yet in many ways, it's a three-minute fake-out.

If the songs that follow don't get less experimental, the rest of the album isn't nearly as foreboding. "Ambling Alp," in fact, is downright inspirational, with life lessons Dr. Seuss could get behind. Sings Chris Keating, "Stick up yourself, son / Never mind what anybody else done." Animated polyrhythms lead into the celebratory chorus, and snyths bleed into guitars until it's impossible to pinpoint which instrument is which in the psychedelic mix.

Purportedly inspired, according to a Rolling Stone article, by doing a lot of acid in New Zealand, Odd Blood ultimately reveals that beneath all the weird sounds, tribal harmonies and otherworldly textures, Yeasayer are still a bunch of indie-rock sentimentalists. "O.N.E.," for instance, explores romantic idealism while kicking up the kind of cross-continental dance party that would make Peter Gabriel proud. "Love Me Girl" gets lost in a parade of glitchy electronics, clubby beats, and fiery piano lines, all of it resulting in a plea to save a relationship. The message, at times, is homely, but the trip is anything but.

~ Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times

The Pass

2010-08-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

"Colors"
from the EP Colors
2010
iTunes

Hailing from Kentucky, The Pass have been getting lots of attention for their debut EP, Colors. The four piece cite the likes of Talking Heads, Hot Chip, and '80s synth pop as their influences which is revealed within their music.

Opener "Saturn's Ocean" features funky guitar lines and front of house vocals that lead the way over a repetitive rhythm guitar. Their electro aspect enters on track 2, "Red Square," showing their wide appeal, with an easy listening chorus and techno beats. The real songs that make this EP standout from the crowd, however, are the next two. "Crosswalk Stereo" opens sounding ridiculously similar to Phoenix's "1901," a band they have been compared to. But it develops into a song of its own, with catchy harmonies and a nice balance of guitar and electronic sounds that justify their comparisons.

Title track "Colors" hits us with a barrage of questions, again over a repetitive guitar piece that gives the track a nice rhythm. Favorite line "Am I lackadaisical, using moderation for now?" is one of many delivered with a likeable style, similar to Hockey and Boy Crisis. Final track "Copper" follows the same formula, completing a positive EP that could suggest this band are the next next big thing. So if you like simple and poppy electro-indie akin to the aforementioned bands, this EP should pass with flying colors.

~ Sucking Lemons

Mountain Man

2010-08-13T13:20:00.002-05:00

"Soft Skin"
from the album Made the Harbor
2010
iTunes

Following in the grand tradition of misleading monikers (Thompson Twins, 10,000 Maniacs), Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Amelia Randall Meath are the trio of voices that form Mountain Man. And more than anything else, it is their voices that elevate Made the Harbor above the babbling brook of Appalachian folk music flowing through indie music these days. Pairing their exquisite harmonies with almost nothing else, Mountain Man creates an album that can be appreciated as much for what it achieves as for what it leaves out.

When Cowboy Junkies recorded Trinity Session in a quiet church with a single microphone, it sounded like nothing else in music at the time. Mountain Man has followed a similar path by recording Made the Harbor in an ice cream parlor in upstate New York. The natural reverb of the ice cream parlor is no less important than the occasional acoustic guitar that comes and goes throughout the album. There is no attempt to diminish the hiss of the recording equipment that sounds like leaves brushing against a glass window. The music sounds exactly as it did in the ice cream parlor with the occasional laugh or deep breath left where it arose. As a result, the mood of the album transcends the individual songs and feels impossibly intimate for a recording released in 2010.

Thematically, the albums remains rooted in the natural world with buffalo, dogs, and honeybees woven into the narratives. On "Loon Song," one voice plays the role of the bird and takes flight above the gentle plucking of acoustic guitar. While this makes for a consistent and lovely mood, the strongest lyrical moments are those centered on womanhood in the vein of Ani Difranco at her most unguarded moments. On "Soft Skin," the domestic details are just right — "cleaned up a quart of spilt milk in the moonlight" — as the woman tries to fulfill the appropriate role - "We're so wet, we're so tight / Lean me down into the floor tonight / Can't you understand / I'm trying to be a good woman" before finally begging to be let go. Wrapped in a blanket of gentle folk music, "Soft Skin" cannot hide the chilling tale at its core.

The rustling hiss of the tape provides the only background noise on "Babylon" as the a cappella harmonies of Psalm 137 soar like angels through a gothic cathedral. It is these astonishing moments that make you wonder how three Vermont co-eds in their 20's created an album completely untouched by the modern world. It is an idyllic celebration of the most emotional instrument in music: the human voice. Made the Harbor shines as a folk album but the greater achievement lies simply in its existence.

~ Jason Lent, Glide Magazine

Yuck

2010-08-12T16:30:00.001-05:00

"Daughter"
from the EP Weakend
2010

Jonny Rogoff didn't meet the other members of Yuck until after he flew across the world to join the band. The kind of guy who was always more comfortable behind a drum kit than a desk, Rogoff left the collegiate life at William Patterson University in Wayne, N.J. six weeks into his freshman year after a call from his friend, a guitar player named Daniel Blumberg, who he'd met while living on a kibbutz in Israel the year before. Formerly of Cajun Dance Party, Blumberg was starting a new band and they needed a drummer. Rogoff fit the bill, and so he jetted over to England to join Blumberg and his new Yuck bandmates: Bloomberg's sister Ilana, his childhood friend Max Bloom, and Mariko Doi, who'd come to the group by way of Hiroshima, Japan.

"I basically just picked up and left New Jersey so quickly that when I got here, I don't even think it had registered that I was in a completely different place," Rogoff remembers. But less than a year after Yuck's formation, UK independent label Transparent Records signed the band and released "Georgia," their first single. It's a fuzzy, atmospheric delight on which the delicate vocals sigh and soar above the guitar scuzz and Rogoff's persistent backbeat. The band's influences — from the psyched-out pop of the Jesus and Mary Chain to the languid rock of Pavement — are clear, and those touchstones are shared by Blumberg and Bloom's acoustic side project, the appropriately-named Yu(c)k, which has released a cassette EP, Weakend. The title track actually feels like it was recorded in space, the band members hovering above Earth and filling the space in their astronaut helmets with gorgeous echoing vocals.

This summer, the band has played Reading and Leeds, two of the U.K.'s biggest festivals, and they've shared bills with Built to Spill, Dinosaur Jr, and Modest Mouse. But in faded tour snapshots posted to their blog, they could be any other young band in the world. In one photo, Rogoff and Mari stand in front of the counter at Lisa's Ice-Cream Parlour in Fife, Scotland. They triumphantly hold up their cones of indeterminate flavor. Rogoff is a long way from home, but he's smiling. And why wouldn't he be? He's eating ice cream. In Scotland. He's in a band. He's living his dream. "The reason that I came here was to do something that I had always dreamed of doing," he says, "and really just to do something that I know I would always be happy and excited about."

~ Lindsay Eanet, Paste

Suckers

2010-08-11T21:30:00.003-05:00

"Before Your Birthday Ends"
from the album Wild Smile
2010
iTunes

It's not often that a band emerges as fully formed and fantastic as Brooklyn quartet Suckers. Of course, they've been on the scene for a year or so now and front-man Quinn Walker had previously released a couple of under-appreciated solo albums, but even their debut release as a unit — last year's eponymous four-song EP — could've been mistaken for the work of a band at their creative peak. With their costumed performances, Suckers were never going to be just another scratchy punk band, but that record must have come as a shock even to those already familiar with Walker's earlier eccentric alchemy. Produced by Yeasayer's Anand Wilder, those initial offerings combined the glam grandeur and arch poise of Davids Bowie and Byrne, with the angular leanings of New York's current art-rock crowd and a grab-bag of world-music influences. The three-part group vocals earned obvious Animal Collective comparisons, but in reality the sound was all their own; an artistic mission statement that set bloggers' fingers alight and put the band on the radar of major taste-makers, including MTV, who named Suckers their "breakout band of 2010."

Thankfully, in an age where so many new bands blow their load with their first single, Suckers' debut album Wild Smile conforms to tradition and delivers on the promise of the EP. Opener "Save Your Love for Me" is a radically reworked version of a track from Walker's 2008 Lion Land album, and immediately makes explicit the Prince influence that subtly flavoured the EP and hovers over this album like a purple haze. Maybe it's the slow-build and weeping guitars that saturate the massive finale, or perhaps it's just the hysteric falsetto Walker adopts mid-way, but there is definitely more than a hint of "Purple Rain" on display, and it is to Suckers' credit that they pull off such an ambitious homage so naturally. Next, they switch to indie-rock mode, with "Black Sheep" mining the same territory as latter-day Modest Mouse, all jagged riffs, fuzz-bass and thumping disco drums, before turning back towards His Purple Majesty for the stuttering funk and cascading guitars of "Before Your Birthday Ends," a particular stand-out among an album full of highlights.

The middle section of the album slows things down, giving the tracks room to breathe and expand, and the band a chance to display their experimental chops. On "A Mind I Knew," Brian Aiken's machine-like drumming – as muscular and single-minded throughout the album as a musical Terminator robot – is bolstered by percussive loops and sampled video-game bleeps courtesy of keyboard/multi-instrumentalist Pan. "Martha" introduces mariachi trumpets, and the floaty "King Of Snakes" features what sounds like backwards accordion, but these extras serve as textural embellishments rather than showy focal points. In the hands of another band, they could easily be construed as desperate attempts to crowbar in some ethnic influences; here, they are essential components of a carefully constructed tapestry. "It Gets Your Body Movin'," the bombastic chant-along that has become Suckers' signature song — and, as such the lone EP track to make the album — still does what it says it does, although the moving in question is more of a drunken sway.

After another over-blown Prince-ly epic in the shape of "2 Eyes 2 C," the album closes with "Loose Change," which starts out like a lonesome Nilsson ballad, before snapping into a sloppy, stop-start groove. As they do across the course of the record, Pan and guitarist Austin Fisher join in on throaty chorus harmonies, and whilst the voices are rowdier and distinctly less pitch-perfect than current touch-stones like Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective, the feeling is just as joyous. In fact, in a world of easily digestible press release soundbytes, it wouldn't be doing these guys any injustice to place them at the point where those bands overlap: experimental and accessible, primal and futuristic. But whilst Bitte Orca and Merriweather Post Pavillion both felt like the culminations of their creators' respective journeys, Wild Smile is just the beginning for Suckers, and that in itself is a truly mouth-watering prospect.

~ Michael Dix, One Thirty BPM

Secret Cities

2010-08-10T11:45:00.001-05:00

"Pink City"
from the album Pink Graffiti
2010
iTunes

Secret Cities may be the first indie band to finally put North Dakota on the map. The Dakotan experimental threepiece have seen a fair amount of buzz for their debut (under this name) record Pink Graffiti, a conceptual album about "Brian Wilson as a prism through which we view youthful things." The former Beach Boy only shows up once in name on the record, but his talent for fusing poppy harmonies with dense, experimental music is an influence that is felt throughout. While Pink Graffiti is a mess of loops, fuzz, and wild instrumentation, it is also full of very carefully orchestrated pop melodies that hold the mess together.

From beginning to end Pink Graffiti is very difficult to pin down. The record begins on an epic scale, with "Pink City"'s pounding drums taking the forefront with heavily reverberated, high pitched vocals skating over top. Underneath those two competing sounds the track is fleshed out with psychedelic sounding banjo plucking, tambourine and guitar, as well as a host of electronic distortions. And from then on the sound ping pongs in every direction throughout the rest of the record. "Boyfriends" implements a hummable penny whistle chorus to a slightly melancholy effect, while shortly after "Slacker" takes the sadness further with a heavy piano dirge that utilizes female vocals and violins. "Aw Rats" starts out as a childlike nursery rhyme before diving headlong into a dark, proggy ramble that features vocals so fuzzed out that they are completely unintelligible. And in yet another lefthand turn "Pink Graffiti Pt. 1" is a synthy dance jam that sounds like the band took a Cut Copy song and left it to twist and warp in the sun.

Although sonically the record is all over the place, Secret Cities' have an evident talent for stringing mess and melody together into epic, climactic tunes. Whether creating synth fusions, piano pop, or psychedelic rock, the melody always comes first; building throughout each track to cathartic crescendos. The band's talent is most apparent in "Color" which strings horns, xylophone, and vocals together in what would look like a disaster on paper, but generally works due to the fact that the song never strays too far from its bedrock melody. Like many of Secret Cities' songs the vocals are fuzzed out to an extreme level, but with such textured instrumentation the lyrical content generally isn't missed. More than anything Pink Graffiti shows a great deal of promise for a young band. While the record itself is no masterpiece, Secret Cities show enough talent and willingness to push boundaries that it wouldn't be a surprise if a genuine masterpiece is somewhere in their future.

~ Jon Behm, Reviler

Menomena

2010-08-09T00:00:00.001-05:00

"Queen Black Acid"
from the album Mines
2010
iTunes

Menomena is an inventive Portland, Oregon, trio with a solid 10-year history and now four full-length albums. The new one, Mines, has been a long time in the making. When you're in a band with three perfectionists, that's likely to happen, but Menomena's process also makes for a record full of sonic treats.

The band makes its music with a looping software program, created by guitarist and keyboardist Brent Knopf while in college, called Deeler, short for Digital Loop Recorder. Menomena sets a tempo in Deeler and then someone records a track, at which point that recording is passed to the next player, who lays down another track, and so on.

Menomena recorded hundreds of these loops to create the songs on Mines, assembling the loops like puzzle pieces to form the structure for a given song. All of this is just the beginning of the songwriting process for Menomena: The songs are performed, torn apart and rebuilt until they become something the whole band can be proud of — probably another reason it takes three and half years between Menomena records.

Incidentally, the cover to Mines is a stereogram, so if you hold the cardboard cover art so you can see both the back and front at the same time, the statue on the front and back cover will appear to be 3D. Yet another fun treat from a band that won't settle for anything average.

~ NPR Music

Mixtape: Summer Jams '10

2010-08-07T00:00:00.009-05:00

Mixtapes|Heartbreaks:

Jon Kjarsgaard (that's pronounced cares-guard) of Jonk Music acts as a daily curator/aggregator for songs and writing clips from around the internet — he sorts through it all so you don't have to. Jon was kind enough to volunteer to make us a mix while chatting over drinks a couple weeks ago, and compiled this lovely ode to sand, summer, and being in love. Whether you're in a cubicle or oceanside, this mix is the sonic equivalent of salt-spray on summer skin.

~ Stacey Lansing, Mixtapes|Heartbreaks

		TRACK 1 Dom
		"Living in America"

		Put your hands in the air, all my sisters and my brothers Forget about the others

		TRACK 2 The Pass
		"Crosswalk Stereo"

		Oh, the sunshine Hoping that she hears it

		TRACK 3 Best Coast
		"Boyfriend"

		I'd love him to the very end But instead he's just a friend

		TRACK 4 Wavves
		"King of the Beach"

		Let the sun burn my eyes Let it burn my back At the beach, in my dreams

		TRACK 5 Beat Connection
		"In the Water"

		In the water, in the water (In the water) Floating free

		TRACK 6 Beach Fossils
		"Daydream"

		I think I lose myself The second that I see her around

		TRACK 7 Superhumanoids
		"Hey Big Bang"

		All I want to do is love But sometimes I love too much

		TRACK 8 Foster the People
		"Pumped Up Kicks"

		You better run, outrun my gun You better run, faster than my bullet

		TRACK 9 Evan Voytas
		"I Took a Trip on a Plane"

		I would like to see what is around I would like to lift off of the ground

		TRACK 10 Rai Knight
		"New New"

		You got that new shit Baby, you should use it

		TRACK 11 The Naked and Famous
		"Young Blood"

		The bittersweet between my teeth Trying to find the in-betweens Fall back in love eventually

		TRACK 12 Lemonade
		"Lifted"

		I want to dance with someone like you I see my whole life come together around you

		TRACK 13 Sleigh Bells
		"Rill Rill"

		Keep thinking about every straight face, yes Wonder what your boyfriend thinks about your braces

		TRACK 14 Tennis
		"Marathon"

		We didn't realize that the forecast had been revised

		TRACK 15 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
		"Vocal Chords"

		For awhile I was stuck, I'll admit I was short on luck You were bright like a new day All my trouble went away

		TRACK 16 Cults
		"Go Outside"

		I think it's good to go out because if you don't you'll never make a memory that will stay

		TRACK 17 Twin Sister
		"All Around and Away We Go"

		Under purple-blue blossoms I'm smiling for two

		TRACK 18 Wild Nothing
		"Summer Holiday"

		Won't you sneak into my room and climb under the covers Talking nonsense in your sleep

		TRACK 19 The Suzan
		"Home"

		You can do what you want I hope you feel alive everyday

		TRACK 20 Minks
		"Funeral Song"

		So long, summertime Not coming back

Foreign Born

2010-08-06T14:15:00.001-05:00

"Vacationing People"
from the album Person to Person
2009
iTunes

That Foreign Born love all shades of things bright, open, and at least partially U.K.-inspired, can be heard from the opening song on Person to Person — "Blood Oranges" has soaring guitar, emotional vocals courtesy of Matt Popieluch, a thick and swooning charge, and a sense that the band's record collection — or iTunes playlist, depending — contains a fair amount of familiar suspects past and present, like U2, the Chameleons, James, Interpol, Snow Patrol, and more besides. But Foreign Born aren't simply a cover act for Post-Punk Tribute night, and whether it's other borrowings (such as the clattering drums by Garrett Ray on "That Old Sun" that recall the equally compelling start of the Beach Boys' "Do It Again") or a general spirit of élan on the peppier numbers like the slickly charging "Can't Keep Time," there's a lot of spirit evident throughout Person to Person. Its high point might be the mantra/hoedown of "Winter Games," giving Ray in particular another chance to shine with a strong performance that carries the song as a whole. This all said, Person to Person is a pleasant enough listen rather than a gripping one, somewhere between enjoyable inspiration and careful exercise, a flavoring in the general indie rock milieu of the early 21st century that, for the moment, can have no greater impact. Another album might be able to provide their breakthrough, but for now, Foreign Born are in a holding pattern, and looking good while doing so.

~ Ned Raggett, allmusic