pop*eye...Indie is In!*2

Mélanie Pain - Compilation Song

Delivering confessional folk-pop chansons in English and French with the coy, breathy vocals of an ingénue, Mélanie Pain has the sort of oeuvre and style that inspire descriptions like “sugar and spice”, “naughty but nice”. As one of the main voices of Nouvelle Vague since their debut album in 2004, she seduced audiences with sassy sweetness on originals and covers like This is Not a Love Song, Teenage Kicks, Killing Moon, Ever Fallen in Love and Dance with Me. Now Mélanie has come up with My Name, her own debut solo album which incorporates personal reflections and influences such as Françoise Hardy, Nick Cave, Claudine Longet, Nancy Sinatra and Leonard Cohen in an intimate, charming mix of French pop with a dash of folk and Americana. If the music doesn’t take you into the faintly smoky echoes of an imagined, vintage Parisian coffeeshop, it will surely ease you, semi-intoxicated, into the night.

NOUVELLE VAGUE!!

The Little Hands Of Asphalt - Leap Years (2009)

The Little Hands Of Asphalt is the solo project of Sjur Lyseid, the singer in the Norwegian indie-pop band Monzano. As TLHOA, he makes warm, sensitive folk-inspired songs, often performed with an acoustic guitar as the main instrument. Sjur Lyseid is a great storyteller and his lyrics are always worth listening to. The song we have for you is a Music Alliance Pact exclusive, taken from his forthcoming debut album Leap Years which will be released in March 2009.

GOOD!!

Fredo Viola - Red States (2009)

Fredo Viola is an American singer/songwriter and multi-media artist. He was born in London, England but has resided in the US for most of his life. He currently lives in Woodstock, NY. He graduated from Tisch Film school at NYU - but has always been most passionate about music. Viola lists some influential artists as Shostakovich, Britten, Bartok, Stravinsky, and Belle & Sebastian to name a few.

GOOD!!

The Hopefuls - Now Playing At The One Seat Theatre (2008)

Three years after the release of their first record, Minneapolis favorites have finally released their sophomore album, ?Now Playing at the One-Seat Theatre?. It should come to no surprise that it?s taken them as long as it has to complete this new record. Things have changed a good bit in the past number of years for these guys as they?ve had some obstacles to overcome.

Shortly after their debut album, the oh so powerful counsel of Olympics made them change their name from The Olympic Hopefuls to simply, The Hopefuls. Then, as the success of Erik Applewick?s band, Tapes ?n Tapes, started to grow the choice was made and he left The Hopefuls to focus on his own project. And let?s not forget that lead singer, Darren Jackson, has been busy with his other busy band, Kid Dakota. Beyond that, several other members have children to raise and jobs to tend to. Not to worry though, fans of their first record are sure to be pleased with their follow-up.

The bottom line is, there?s a good chance The Hopefuls might make, like, a gazillion dollars or so with this new record of theirs. It starts off with the powerfully poppy song ?Edge of Medicine? which seems to be about pill poppin? and feelin? good. Definitely Weezer influenced thru and thru. In fact, the entire album mirrors the Weezer influence. I tend to enjoy Weezer myself; however, this record has an atmospheric feel to it which is somewhat interesting and redeeming. Since Applewick left the band, keytar player and vocalist John Hermanson (also in the band Storyhill), has filled the gap by writing and singing several tracks, including the albums highlight song, ?Stacey?, which is, of course, equally as poppy as the rest (the frickin? song has been in my head for days on end, usually the sign of a good pop hit).

The ironic thing about these guys is the first time I heard this new record I told a friend that their music would be fitting for The O.C. Then, when I did some research on these kids, I found out that they?ve actually had their music on that show. No baloney, an altogether true story. I?m not gonna lie when I say that when I listen to this new record I get the urge to pull my old skateboard outta my closet, bleach my hair blonde and move to SoCal. The whole album is a little too perfect for my taste but I?m just one man. For those of you teenyboppers out there, look no further. The whole package is 11 songs with catchy melodies and enough vocal harmonies to go around for everyone.

GOOD!!

The Wooden Birds - Magnolia (2009)

Watching birds in the springtime. Plants begin to bud, landscapes are full of anticipation, trees bend and creak in the morning sun.

The Wooden Birds like these kinds of close-ups. The percussive aspect, the reduced and at the same time concentrated rhythms, is the central motif of Andrew Kenny’s new musical venture, aside from his warm and very close voice, of course. The latter is already well-known from the albums he wrote with mellow indie favorites American Analog Set, and the split-EP, Home, released together with Benjamin Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) on Morr Music in 2006. Andrew Kenny has also performed as a guest artist with the Album Leaf, Her Space Holiday, Styrofoam, Ola Podrida, Arthur & Yu, and most recently the Broken Social Scene.

As with American Analog Set, Andrew Kenny’s stories have become intimate once more. After nearly six years in Brooklyn, NY, Andrew Kenny has returned to his hometown, beautiful Austin, TX. Recollection and reduction – Magnolia is an album in its most direct and never affected state. Between Andrew Kenny and these recordings, there is little more space than for a carefully positioned microphone. The pauses between the sounds are as important as the sounds themselves. Intimacy is after all one of the basic motifs of The Wooden Birds. At the same time the songs tell that it is not that easy with love. “Believe in Love” it goes whispering as well as imploring.

The Wooden Birds also includes Ola Podrida songwriter and David Gordon Green film score composer, David Wingo, along with co-producer Chris Michaels. Vocalist, guitarist, and American Analog Set guest artist, Leslie Sisson, and Lymbyc System drummer, Michael Bell, round out the lineup.-www.hexadance.com

FINALLY!!

Pattern Is Movement - All Together (2008)

Pattern Is Movement's latest album is one of those things that's starting (sadly) to be a relative rarity -- a winsome avant-pop album with rock roots that actually is a treat instead of an overfrosted wedding cake. The fact that the opening "Bird" starts off sounding like a sample from some dreamscape '60s kids show but is in fact a full original is a wonderful treat; one gets the sense that the two-man band actually wants to keep people guessing from the start. Throughout All Together that feeling of a soundtrack to an unsettled but still welcoming Technicolor world continues, part Joe Meek concept album and part funhouse ride. It's probably no surprise that Andrew Thiboldeaux's main credit is "beauty" rather than "vocals," as there's a real sense of that quality throughout -- not in a twee way as often understood, but almost in that breathlessly rich sense Mercury Rev last conjured up on See You on the Other Side. (Though in amusing contrast, bandmate Chris Ward is credited as "beast." Perhaps unsurprisingly some of the least involving moments occur when his work is toned down or kept well in the background.) The layering swell of keyboards and tones on "Peach Trees" is one prime moment, while the kettle drums and starburst twinkles on "Sound of Your Voice," not to mention the horn fanfares (mock or not), all add to the joy

GOOD!!

The dreamers - day for night (2007)

The Dreamers are an Anglo/Swedish duo featuring Sarah Nyberg Pergament and Kevin Wright. Sarah has previously recorded as Action Biker and Kevin as Always and Mr Wright (recordings from the last 20 years on labels such as él, Le Grand Magistery and Siesta). Meeting at a Swedish music festival in 2004 the pair began by writing the song “Petit Nuage” in late 2005. Encouraged by this an album began taking shape being recorded mostly in London with Sarah’s vocals being sent from Stockholm and Helsinki. The Dreamers’ influences combine many disparate elements including jazz pop and soundtrack music. Although the music is often melancholic the Dreamers hope to make (to paraphrase Michel Legrand speaking of Tom Jobim) “the sad music that makes the world a better place.”

Influences: Stan Tracey, Caetano Veloso, Colleen, Francoise Hardy, Kryzystof Komeda, Matching Mole, Anna Karina, Bill Evans, Monica Zetterlund, Nara Leao, Bernard Herrmann, Nico…

FINALLY!!

Torngat - La Petite Nicole (2009)

Pietro Amato (french horn), Mathieu Charbonneau (keyboards) and Julien Poissant (drums) founded torngat in 2001 with ex-bass player Sylvain Delisle. Sylvain left the group in 2003 shortly after the release of their first full lenght cd (self-titled, 2003). Since then, the trio has released a live cd and most recently, an EP (La Rouge, 2005). Torngat has presented its music in numerous types of venues such as rock clubs across Eastern Canada, popular music festivals (Pop Montréal 2004,2005), new music festivals (Radicaliberté 2003) and as a part of contemporary dance shows (Catherine Lebalnc’s A-miss). Playfully avoiding every possible pigeon hole, Torngat’s compositions and improvisations engage listeners with beautiful melodies, and unexpected surprises.

Described somewhat oxymoronically as an "ambient power trio", Montreal's Torngat return for a second album. In typically angular fashion the opening track is titled 'Interlude', setting you up for a hazy, eerily atmospheric sequence of events. Ghostly keyboard figures take the lead with a distorted organ creaking into life, gathering up momentum for the haunting title track - a piece of music that owes as much to Harmonic 33-style library music pastiche as it does to instrumental prog and post-rock. Throughout the record the sound takes on a warm, muffled and generally rather enigmatic feel that's just the right side of lo-fi, with the comparatively full-blooded closing number 'Going What's What' permitting just enough of the track's lamenting brass melodies to poke through the mix. A beautiful album, and one that doesn't quite sound like anything else.

GOOD!!

...sit back, relax and close your eyes