“...as the answer to life’s great quest.”
-the portastylistic
*I Proud To Recommended!!!*
Hype aside, The Temper Trap’s debut album is like a journey without any real quest, writes CHRIS JOHNSTON.
The Temper Trap are Melbourne’s newest internationalists – festival this, backstage that, record deal this, worldwide that – and the common perception will soon become an accepted wisdom and that will be that debut album Conditions is an epic.
Which is interesting, because it isn’t. It gives a magnificent illusion of being so, however. The music, technically, is spacious. It is, on the surface, “big”. It appears to go a long way, to fly, to travel vast distances, to be on an adventure or a quest or, indeed, on a mythical journey like one of Joseph Campbell’s archetypal cinematic heroes. It is music that is supposed to sound like it has found The Rapture after 80 dark days and 81 blinded-by-the-nights but it’s all a glistening mirage, a strange kind of magic trick.
It’s very good, of course. On a technical level. Like a circuitry diagram might be useful and correct, say. Or an educational video for use in schools. But I think it’s cold, and I think a lot of the apparently epic qualities within it are a conceit. Ironically the songs that reach the highest and strive for the most are the ones which on close inspection are the shallowest. Whereas the best song or two have some real spontaneous-sounding fire within the endless icy tundra of the production job here, a smooth and breathless and beatific soundcard done by the guy who did the Arctic Monkeys. These ones – ‘Fader’ and maybe ‘Fools’ – appear at first to be insignificant filler among the grandiose, radiant serenity of Conditions. But it’s them which turn out to be pretty good.
Strange huh? You wonder where this weird reversal of intent comes from. You wonder why it can happen. One thing I know - it makes you crave little unambitious music with blood that just is what it is. In the big interviews so far The Temper Trap talk about their encyclopaedia of influences and it seems to be a matter of some pride and self-awareness that they have dipped into a whole lot of stuff in the past, as if a liking at some point for drum ‘n’ bass or electronica explains the whole widescreen thing.
"Ironically the songs that reach the highest and strive for the most are the ones which on close inspection are the shallowest."
That kind of thinking – and also the kind of music journalism that allows this to go straight through to the keeper, smacking hard into the gloves, no questions asked, another major label triumph of hype and control – reminds me first of U2 around Achtung Baby when it was all about them listening to Krautrock and My Bloody Valentine and such. It became the point of difference required to effectively market that record, and it worked. It became part of the myth, the accepted wisdom, however fake.
The Temper Trap certainly can tend to sound quite a lot like U2. It’s about the guitar playing, the delay. In ‘Fools’, there’s a looped bit that sounds just like Edge guitars, but it isn’t guitars, which when you think about it is quite an odd thing to do. But it’s also about that Rapture thing: the illusion of reaching for the light. To me what they’ve done with Conditions is pretty much make the perfect sheen-blasted modern commercial rock record where the great depths and great insights through mystery and intrigue are a cipher. This is how I feel about Coldplay and Bloc Party too. And of course U2, or most of it. There’s a distrust, which is a horrible, unwelcome emotion. With Bloc Party and Coldplay I think it’s about them not having a discernable warmth or even sometimes an empathy with the subject matter.
That’s what I think The Temper Trap can tend towards and that’s why the songs that everyone will hear about – or have already heard (this is all quite big-time on NOVA, that perfectly complete bastion of self-satisfaction, safety and stereotype) – are empty vessels. Things like ‘Love Lost’, ‘Sweet Disposition’ and ‘Science of Fear’: of these, ‘Love Lost’, the album’s opening track is perhaps the most wrong, but only because it’s so mathematically right; a puzzle in which the solution is found before the task is even begun. There’s a little lead guitar flourish in it, between the quiet bit and the skyhigh soaring bit, which I would even describe as smug: “… a love was lost and now we’ve found it….”
Which is why a little unprepossessing track like ‘Fader’, buried in the middle with no wank about it all, no grand designs or genetic engineering, is so lovely and so, well, fun. It’s a song about nothing much at all and it’s delicious and full of joy and life and big exhalations. There’s a sun in it and the words describe how that sun can burn the bones. There’s dirt in the song too; it’s not some sterile laboratory experiment. It’s unclean but contagious like ‘Song 2’ by Blur, for example. ‘Fools’ I like because it gets carried away within itself, it goes too far. It misjudges its own journey – so it drones and becomes quite isolated and is informed more by strange electronica and even rave in that piano riff than by anything widely and blithely accepted by the mainstream as the answer to life’s great quest.
Indie(Rock),Pop,Australia A PRETTY GREAT!!!
Patiently written down dates, noted with a piano and carefully collected on cassette tapes, one by one. An assiduous attempt to keep books of time, to sketch the events, the landscapes and neighborhoods with melodies and recordings of sound. For several years Joel Danell has been writing songs on a piano, all given the names of dates as if they were diary notes. The kind of notes where the writing, more than the words themselves, recounts for the moment of them being written: times of accumulation where the letters stand close to each other and reach far into the margin, moments of pensiveness where lines have been crossed out and others have been added and moments of excitement where the letters have gained in size and defied the ruling of the sheet."Datum" is the retelling of these notes with the help of violin, whistling, guitar, accordion and Dobro, recorded in Blackeberg January 2008. Pieces that recount for an otherwise forgotten day in April, that describe the view from a balcony in a Stockholm suburb in late October, that is a remembrance of the rushing bicycle and the passing landscape in the beginning of June.
Piano,Acoustic,Experimental,Intrumental GOOD!!
Bibio takes his name from the inconspicuous black & red fishing fly, known amongst anglers as the bait to lure in colourful rainbow trout. With a nod to happy childhood memories fishing with his father on the Welsh rivers, parallels can be drawn in name to this quietly spoken artist and purveyor of this joyous summery music, where startling melody lines unexpectedly emerge out of grainy, glorious lo-fi.
A lover of texture and colour and noise, his first outing as a recording artist started 5 years ago on Mush Records. Having completed a trilogy of albums, Bibio’s departure to Warp also reflects a difference in musical output.
Anyone listening to ‘Ambivalence Avenue’ will be immediately struck by the unusual array of music. Neither electronic nor rock, this album can not actually be classified.
A diverse collection of music, each track on this opus has a distinct identity and stands apart from the next, some vocal, some instrumental, from vintage disco beats to swirling expansive pieces to plaintive guitar songs.
Pop,Folktronica,Ambient,Experimental, Good!
A lover of texture and colour and noise, his first outing as a recording artist started 5 years ago on Mush Records. Having completed a trilogy of albums, Bibio’s departure to Warp also reflects a difference in musical output.
Anyone listening to ‘Ambivalence Avenue’ will be immediately struck by the unusual array of music. Neither electronic nor rock, this album can not actually be classified.
A diverse collection of music, each track on this opus has a distinct identity and stands apart from the next, some vocal, some instrumental, from vintage disco beats to swirling expansive pieces to plaintive guitar songs.
Pop,Folktronica,Ambient,Experimental, Good!
Simone White is back with her second album for Honest Jon's, after the acclaimed release two years ago of 'I Am The Man', which included the 'The Beep Beep Song' which was used in an Audi advert.On this album - Yakiimo has a more pared-down, western sound.
The mood is bitter-sweet and nostalgic, but spiced with longing, fantasy and hopefulness, musing in a daze (sometimes child-like) on lost love, lost innocence, lost years. Marked by high and lonesome fiddle and some lovely guitar-picking, strikingly centre-stage are Simone's beautiful voice, and the magnificentsong-writing, with four new originals by her friendsFrank Bango and Richy Vesecky, and seven by Simone herself.Hawaii born Simone White was a part of Damon Albarn's critically acclaimed 'Honest Jons Revue' which toured in July 2008 to the Barbican Center in London, Les Nuits Fourviere Festival in Lyon, and the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. The Honest Jons Revue included the artists Tony Allen, The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Damon Albarn, Kokanko Sata Doumbia, Lobi Traore, Afel Bocoum, Candi Staton, Simone White and Victoria Williams.
Pop,Folk,Singer-Songwriter GOOD!!
" Superb!!! "
2009 mix from the Australian Dance producers and studio boffins This is an eclectic off the wall mix CD that starts with Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys before mixing into the Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, Felix Da Housecat, Guns 'N Roses, DJ Zinc, Missy Elliot, Queen and lots more before ending with another appearance from The Beach Boys! Saloon.
Electronica, Dance, Experimental Mashed Up!!!
They came to exist originally as the remix and production duo of Alex Payne and Aaron Gilbert, and in no time released a series of acclaimed remixes of artists as diverse as Depeche Mode, New Order, Electric Six, and even our favorites The Enemy.
They soon started working on their own material and after a series of singles released their debut album through Payne’s own indie label Critical Mass.
They glossed up their sound soon after with the addition of Heidrun who was previously from electronic act Gus Gus, and there was no turning back. They spent nothing on marketing then and the record still sold over 30,000 copies.
Their version of light progressive electro/house cuts right through our heart so naturally we are excited.
Roulette effortlessly ranges in styles; from the best moments of vintage electro-pop on the euphoric lead single ‘Metropolis’, to the darkest recesses of electronic-indie on ‘Executive’, featuring Tom Smith of Editors on vocals. It will appeal to dance/electronic/indie/pop fans alike. (Source)
They soon started working on their own material and after a series of singles released their debut album through Payne’s own indie label Critical Mass.
They glossed up their sound soon after with the addition of Heidrun who was previously from electronic act Gus Gus, and there was no turning back. They spent nothing on marketing then and the record still sold over 30,000 copies.
Their version of light progressive electro/house cuts right through our heart so naturally we are excited.
Roulette effortlessly ranges in styles; from the best moments of vintage electro-pop on the euphoric lead single ‘Metropolis’, to the darkest recesses of electronic-indie on ‘Executive’, featuring Tom Smith of Editors on vocals. It will appeal to dance/electronic/indie/pop fans alike. (Source)
Electronic, Indie, Pop VERY GOOD!
"This record was recorded in many different locations. a closed down bookshop, my apartment, the studio and our friend Brandi Carlile's house, who sang on a couple of songs. There are a lot of traveling songs on it, quiet songs, and bigger songs with big string arrangements. it took about a year to make. i called it "This Empty Northern Hemisphere" because thats what the songs feel like to me. i think its about leaving, and coming home. and growing up. and we had so much fun making it."
Gregory Alan Isakov has been described by Boulder Weekly, "Strong, subtle...a lyrical genius" and has been compared to his influences, Bruce Springsteen, Kelly Joe Phelps, Iron & Wine and Nick Drake. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in Philadelphia, Isakov moved to Colorado at the end of the last decade. He recently was named 2008's Best Acoustic/Folk Artist by the Denver Westword (Audience Award) and was named by the Denver Westword as the Best Singer/Songwriter 2007 (Critics Award). Isakov is also the 2007 winner of the Telluride Troubador Songwriting Competition. Gregory Alan Isakov has shared the stage with numerous artists such as Ani Difranco, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Richie Havens, and Fiona Apple. He has appeared at music festivals such as South by Southwest, Falcon Ridge Folk Fest, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Monolith at Red Rocks. On the heals of his latest full length release, "That Sea, The Gambler", Gregory Alan Isakov tours as a solo artist as well as with his band, The Freight. Recordings available at cdbaby.com and iTunes.
Gregory Alan Isakov has been described by Boulder Weekly, "Strong, subtle...a lyrical genius" and has been compared to his influences, Bruce Springsteen, Kelly Joe Phelps, Iron & Wine and Nick Drake. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in Philadelphia, Isakov moved to Colorado at the end of the last decade. He recently was named 2008's Best Acoustic/Folk Artist by the Denver Westword (Audience Award) and was named by the Denver Westword as the Best Singer/Songwriter 2007 (Critics Award). Isakov is also the 2007 winner of the Telluride Troubador Songwriting Competition. Gregory Alan Isakov has shared the stage with numerous artists such as Ani Difranco, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Richie Havens, and Fiona Apple. He has appeared at music festivals such as South by Southwest, Falcon Ridge Folk Fest, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Monolith at Red Rocks. On the heals of his latest full length release, "That Sea, The Gambler", Gregory Alan Isakov tours as a solo artist as well as with his band, The Freight. Recordings available at cdbaby.com and iTunes.
Folk,Singer-Songwriter LOVELY..Y!!!
On Among The Oak & Ash, Pennsylvania-born New Yorker Josh Joplin and the Mississippi-bred, Nashville-based Garrison Starr lend their distinctive voices to a dozen traditional folk songs drawn from rural Appalachian and Anglo-American musical idioms. Although much of the material is centuries old, the songs' eloquently simple melodies, and their universal themes of love, loss, longing, cruelty and death, give them a timeless resonance into which Joplin and Starr tap effortlessly.With the duo's evocative harmonies complemented by spare, stripped-down arrangements, Among The Oak & Ash is a powerful testament to Joplin and Starr's interpretive abilities, and to the ageless appeal of these ancient tunes. "These songs are about the human condition, and that's something that doesn't change," Joplin asserts. Indeed, the album's 12 songs span a broad range of human experience, encompassing themes of injustice ("Hiram Hubbard"), longing ("The Water Is Wide"), doomed romance ("Pretty Peggy-O"), spirituality ("Angel Gabriel") and death ("All the Pretty Little Horses"). "A lot of people think of folk music as something that's sweet and gentle, but so many of these songs are raunchy and brutal," Joplin notes. "They cover everything from God to the devil, from unrequited love to murder." The seeds of Among The Oak & Ash--the name is borrowed from the title of an old folk song--were planted during Joplin's teen years. It was then, as an itinerant high-school dropout, that he was introduced to Appalachian musical traditions via the repertoire of the unsung Indiana combo Hurricane Sadee, whose performances of folk and bluegrass standards opened Joplin's eyes to a new world of lyrical depth and musical expression. A well-worn Hurricane Sadee cassette became a touchstone for Joplin, and it was from the group that he first learned several of the songs that appear on Among The Oak & Ash. Hurricane Sadee leader Cari Norris is guest banjoist on the album's version of "Shady Grove." As he built his own musical career, Joplin discovered a close friend and kindred musical spirit in fellow singer-songwriter Garrison Starr.
Starr, like Joplin, had signed to a major label while still in her teens, and had spent much of her adult life performing her compositions for audiences around the world. So when Joplin began to consider making an album of the folk songs that had influenced him so profoundly, it was natural that he would call upon Starr to collaborate on the project. Although she had little background in traditional folk, Starr soon embraced the challenge. "Josh came to Nashville, played me songs and talked about his concept," she recalls. "When I saw how passionate he was about it and we actually sat down and started playing together, I just fell in love with the songs, and fell in love with playing music with Josh. I ended up getting excited about the project because of Josh's passion for the music." Joplin and Starr then called upon a pair of highly regarded Nashville-based players, bassist Brian Harrison (Shelby Lynne) and drummer Bryan Owings (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin), to complete the project's instrumental lineup. Recording in the relaxed atmosphere of Harrison's Nashville home studio, the four musicians approached the sessions with a sense of organic intimacy that's reflected in the album's heartfelt performances.
Rock,Folk HMM!!
Originally from the Washington DC area, Liz has since relocated to Northampton, MA. She is a singer-songwriter and guitar player whose current work incorporates her broad musical background that includes classical training on the upright-bass and studying as a major in sound art at Hampshire College. She's toured extensively- from Maine to Minnesota and all along the eastern seaboard. Her performance resume includes shows with Mount Eerie, Little Wings, David Thomas Broughton, Head of Femur, Curtains, Chris Garneau, Deer Tick, Hockey Night, Thanksgiving, and many others. Her debut album, 'Seeport, Seaport, Seeport' was released by Leisure Class Records in 2006.
Spotlight feature in Northeast Performer Magazine: "Isenberg is a true testament to the DIY aesthetic, and to the idea that makes indie music relevant: if you look hard enough for brilliant new music, you'll be rewarded with someone like Liz Isenberg - a diamond in the rough in a sea of anonymous artists with a guitar, microphone and internet connection....On the heels of a record which is so immediately accessible yet aesthetically challenging, Liz might not remain indie-folk's "best kept secret" for long".
'Seeport, Seaport, Seeport' was ranked the #5 record of 2006 by Indie Folk Forever: "A totally immersive and intimate album of miniature epics from Liz Isenberg, full of great melodies, incredible texture, and an elastic, inscrutable voice that makes every line into an aside you maybe shouldn't hear. Fans of Lou Barlow's Sentridoh, Mirah, Julie Doiron and early Cat Power are all missing out if they haven't got their hands on this."
"This is really gorgeous stuff"- Dave Howell, President of Fat Cat Records
"Listening to Liz's music, I almost feel like an intruder. The way they were recorded as well as the lyrics have such an intimate feel you want to be quiet even when it's just an mp3 playing on your computer." donewaiting.com
Folk,Singer-Songwriter GOOD!!
I'm generally reluctant to participate in 6th-grade English teacher crusades against the words "pretty" and "nice"; it's a war sold on completely bogus intelligence. Sorry, Mrs. D: Sometimes these adjectives do aptly modify their subjects. In fact, Brooklyn singer-songwriter Chris Garneau's debut, Music for Tourists, could almost have been a bold assault on behalf of pretty niceness. Instead, it's a reminder that most of us self-proclaimed nice guys eventually turn into drunken a-holes.
To put it as gently as I know how, Music for Tourists makes early Damien Rice sound musically adventurous. Garneau reduces Elliott Smith's archetypal misery to the level of cliché, with Prozac-commercial poetry and a high, fluttery whisper that sounds like Elmo tickling Sufjan Stevens on suicide watch. People cry and people die-- sometimes in the same couplet-- as piano and strings lend dreary accompaniment, sheathed in sterile production work from has-been MOR folk-pop darling (and now budding Broadway composer!) Duncan Sheik.
Over meandering piano chords on "We Don't Try", Garneau sings, "It's easy if you cry, because you feel bad for yourself." And that's pretty much Music for Tourists. The album rarely misses an opportunity for tell-not-show bleakness. After a pizzicato cello opening, waltz-time "Castle-Time" reminisces about an elementary-school teacher's death, forever ago. "Let's cry about it," Garneau urges in grim multi-track harmony. Maybe if he did a little more convincing.
Sometimes Garneau waxes philosophical, too. "Our lives, they won't keep us alive," he laments on wobbly solo number "Blue Suede Shoes"-- unfortunately not a cover. But hidden track "Between the Bars" is, and cries out for a metronome as the singer takes a melodramatic shit on the aforementioned Smith's fucked-up memory. Garneau also cops a Jeff Buckley vibrato on "Black & Blue", moaning, "I wanna catch my death of cold/ 'Cause I'm scared I'm growing old." That's just terrible.
At least Garneau shares my taste in diction. On mopey blogger fave "Not Nice", he squeaks, "When you're not being nice/ You're not nice/ You're not nice/ You're not nice," brushing against a Chris Martin falsetto. The plodding indie-gypsy of "First Place!!!" adds bent acoustic guitar notes and a pack of backing singers, as Garneau describes a house with "nice things inside." But melismatic "Hymn", with electric organ replacing piano, proves more telling than any other track here: "Try and think of nice things to say," Garneau pleads. Hmm. Maybe I'd better not say anything at all. (PITCHFORK 2.3)
Pop,Singer-Songwriter Pretty Niceness!!!
Born in 1877 in Calw, on the edge of the Black Forest, Cameron McGill was brought up in a missionary household where it was assumed that he would study for the ministry. McGill's religious crisis led to his fleeing from the Maulbronn seminary in 1891, an unsuccessful cure by a well-known theologian and faith healer, and an attempted suicide. After being expelled from high school, he worked in bookshops for several years. His first collection, 'Stories of The Knife and The Back', describes a youth who leaves his mountain village to become a poet. The lush instrumentation and beautifully crafted melodies, belie the darker nature of the song content. Mostly focusing on personal admissions of guilt and failure, the album's characters struggle in coming to terms with their mortality. All throughout, they simply try to find a friend and fall in love.
This was followed by 'Street Ballads & Murderesques', the tale of a schoolboy totally out of touch with his contemporaries, who flees through different cities after his escape from home. The collection of material on Streets...takes pop musick to the dark libraries of your old house, inhabits a stark and desperate corner of the mind, and simply tells a good story. The wildly vibrant characters offer their most honest interpretations of the dishonest life. They travel time, fall in and out of love, miss and are missed. These are songs of imminent regret, class IV rapids, European gypsies, pre-renaissance Germany, cities with chips on their shoulder, veterans of domestic war, handwritten letters and handmade harmony, foreign wines and local girls, break-ups and breakdowns, and post-war divorcees.
World War I came as a terrific shock, and McGill joined the pacifist Romain Rolland in antiwar activities--not only writing antiwar songs, but editing two newspapers for prisoners of war. During this period, McGill's first marriage broke up (reflected in "It's Not Right" off of 'Street Ballads & Murderesques'), he studied the works of Freud, eventually underwent analysis with Jung, and was for a time a patient in a sanatorium. In 1919 he moved permanently to Switzerland, and brought out Cameron McGill & What Army, which reflects his preoccupation with the workings of the subconscious and with battles against depression...but mostly focuses on learning how to have fun. His most recent document is the dense 'Hold on Beauty' which was released last winter amongst intense fighting.
April of the new year, sees the release of 'warm songs for cold shoulders' by the forward thinking Parasol label. He never won the Nobel Prize, but his mother always loved him. Until his death in 2056, he lived in seclusion in Illinois.
Folk,Singer-Songwriter GOOD!!
This was followed by 'Street Ballads & Murderesques', the tale of a schoolboy totally out of touch with his contemporaries, who flees through different cities after his escape from home. The collection of material on Streets...takes pop musick to the dark libraries of your old house, inhabits a stark and desperate corner of the mind, and simply tells a good story. The wildly vibrant characters offer their most honest interpretations of the dishonest life. They travel time, fall in and out of love, miss and are missed. These are songs of imminent regret, class IV rapids, European gypsies, pre-renaissance Germany, cities with chips on their shoulder, veterans of domestic war, handwritten letters and handmade harmony, foreign wines and local girls, break-ups and breakdowns, and post-war divorcees.
World War I came as a terrific shock, and McGill joined the pacifist Romain Rolland in antiwar activities--not only writing antiwar songs, but editing two newspapers for prisoners of war. During this period, McGill's first marriage broke up (reflected in "It's Not Right" off of 'Street Ballads & Murderesques'), he studied the works of Freud, eventually underwent analysis with Jung, and was for a time a patient in a sanatorium. In 1919 he moved permanently to Switzerland, and brought out Cameron McGill & What Army, which reflects his preoccupation with the workings of the subconscious and with battles against depression...but mostly focuses on learning how to have fun. His most recent document is the dense 'Hold on Beauty' which was released last winter amongst intense fighting.
April of the new year, sees the release of 'warm songs for cold shoulders' by the forward thinking Parasol label. He never won the Nobel Prize, but his mother always loved him. Until his death in 2056, he lived in seclusion in Illinois.
Folk,Singer-Songwriter GOOD!!
Building on the local success of V, in their DJ guise Van She Tech have given their magical remixing touch to a selection of singles from the debut LP. Ze Vemixes is essentially an hour of heavily dancefloor-oriented and completely new Van She music, bundled together in a 2 disc set with the original V album.
New-Wave,Synthpop,Remixes YAYY!!
New-Wave,Synthpop,Remixes YAYY!!
Lazy Acre Records is very happy indeed to be releasing the excellent “Spit Back At The Rain” ep by Oslos finest purveyors of bedroom folk pop THE LITTE HANDS OF ASPHALT.
We first stumbled across the guys in a very snowy Oslo a couple of months ago and we have been in love with their Elliot Smith-esque brand of alt folk.
The first part of Lazy Acres FULL STOP TO BAD POP campaign (which will see a new free digital ep released every month from this very site) the bands six tracker features the five tracks that made up the bands first release on How Is Annie Records with the addition of a new track “Oslo” from the bands new album Leap Years. (Source)
Bedroom-Pop,Acoustic,Singer-Songwriter HHMM!!
Josephine is a weighty, mature album about real loss and dislocation, bringing forth a more minimalist aesthetic than the band has attempted to date. For Josephine, the band teamed once again with engineer Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago for what proved to be an emotional recording session.
About halfway through Josephine, there is a noticeable shift in weight. It's a release of some sort — the kind that comes when you give up holding back the tears. It's a heavy kind of freedom coming to the forefront, an empowering sadness. And when chief Electrician Jason Molina delivers the line "an hour glass... filled with tears and twilight from a friend's dying day," the mood becomes clear. The band is on its heels, yes, but they are going to fight back in the only way they know how.
Molina's concept album is an honest-to-God effort on the part of Magnolia Electric Co. to pay tribute to the life and spirit of fallen bassist Evan Farrell (R.I.P. December 2007). Molina said each tune is a good faith attempt to make real Evan's hopes for the record. And in doing so, Evan's spirit becomes part of the concept. The loss of Josephine becomes the loss of Evan. Molina's familiar lyrical allegories are still in tact. But here, in what is no doubt the strongest set of songs Molina has written since the inception of Magnolia Electric Co., those classic themes take on new meanings. Molina has approached the universal loneliness before, but never in such a focused, directed manner as found on Josephine.
Josephine is also an experiment in Molina's songcraft, introducing some real lessons in brevity as he whittles a handful of tracks into well-under three minutes. There are cues taken from great songwriters like Willie Nelson and Warren Zevon, ie the horn section throughout the record and the especially the sax solo on the Zevon-esque lead track "O! Grace," or the doo-wop leanings found in "Rock of Ages." The album closer, "An Arrow in the Gale," acknowledges that Magnolia Electric Co., as the road warriors they have truly become, are still blazing the trail with the line "Lightning on our tail, we better go, Jo."
Pop,Folk, GOOD!!
Three years after her major-label splash Begin to Hope, New York pianist Regina Spektor went back into the studio with four (!) multiplatinum producers of varying pop backgrounds, including Dr. Dre/Eminem/Fiona Apple enabler Mike Elizondo and former McCartney/Harrison/Wilbury collaborator and ELO founder Jeff Lynne. Yet despite so many hands at the controls, the only prints and smudges to be found are Spektor's own. Far snuggles between her previous efforts, linking the heady sweep of 2003's Soviet Kitsch to the roundabout pop treats of Begin to Hope.
On lead-off track "The Calculation," Spektor purrs a scenario of love and hurt that plays out in the breakfast nook, her rubberband vocal tics flush with an almost Caribbean piano hook. In fact, the hiccups that drove songs such as her last album's hit single "Fidelity" sweeten the melodies even further here. "Eet" takes its title from the hilly phonetics of its near-yodeled chorus, while "Folding Chair" features Spektor singing as she dreamed dolphins might.
Her Joan Osborne–esque look at G-O-D on "Laughing With" is heartbreakingly sharp. But it's "Folding Chair," which refines Spektor's blend of classicist flourish and pure pop sense, that best encapsulates her talents and gnarly eccentricities. After opening with ivory wisps of the sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen," she quickly guns it back to the islands, unfurling a balmy new melody like a beach towel. Just in time for summer.
Piano, Singer-Songwriter YAYY!!
On lead-off track "The Calculation," Spektor purrs a scenario of love and hurt that plays out in the breakfast nook, her rubberband vocal tics flush with an almost Caribbean piano hook. In fact, the hiccups that drove songs such as her last album's hit single "Fidelity" sweeten the melodies even further here. "Eet" takes its title from the hilly phonetics of its near-yodeled chorus, while "Folding Chair" features Spektor singing as she dreamed dolphins might.
Her Joan Osborne–esque look at G-O-D on "Laughing With" is heartbreakingly sharp. But it's "Folding Chair," which refines Spektor's blend of classicist flourish and pure pop sense, that best encapsulates her talents and gnarly eccentricities. After opening with ivory wisps of the sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen," she quickly guns it back to the islands, unfurling a balmy new melody like a beach towel. Just in time for summer.
Piano, Singer-Songwriter YAYY!!
To celebrate the June 23rd release of The Trouble With Flying, Orba Squara took to the road on a first ever 10 day road trip across country. The idea was "...to play some new music, meet some new people and, along the way, see what we've been missing." The entire trip has been beautifully documented as a really fantastic web project (the likes of which none of us here at VivaIndieRock have ever seen!). We highly recommend you check it out. Not only will you feel like you are part of the journey, but you will also get to preview all of the tracks on the new record as you explore.(Source)
Pop,Folk FINALLY!!
Their first album is coming out on June 15th 2009 in France on their label 3ème Bureau featuring the single “Hey you” They’ve released their first demo CD in 2004 including three tracks Gettin’ Drunk On You, Easy Cash and my TSNM Love (which original name was my Tsunami love, but the band decided to change it because they didn’t want to be a politically commited band).
They’ve recently decided to go back on tour and are touring in Germany and France and they’ve posted on their myspace new songs “right from their studio!” : Springbreak My Heart, First Date Mullet, and Star Survivor. Other Songs are Sad So Sad And Sunshine, Tender Engine…
They used to wear enormous sunglasses on stage like the band Devo and due to their “over sensitivity to light on stage”. One of their greatest influences is Weezer, especially the album Pinkerton.
They’ve participated to “Les Préseléctions du printemps de Bourges” at Le Fuzz’yon on November 25th but didn’t win. Their guitarist, S have decided to leave the band in order to work on his solo project They like another power pop band called This Is Pop also coming from Nantes.
Electro,Powerpop FINALLY!!
Starlight MiNTS is an indiepop band from Oklahoma. The psych-pop pranksters latest release is 'Change Remains' and is available digitally today, while the CD comes out July 21st.
Starlight Mints are a group of beautiful pop mutants: five singular musical minds whose love for archetypal pop music and AM radio has provided, over the course of three previous acclaimed albums, a rock-solid foundation for a whole bunch of inspired uniqueness, all baked to perfection under the hot Oklahoma sun. Allan Vest (vocals/guitar), Marian Love Nunez (keyboards), Javier Gonzales (bass), Andy Nunez (drums), and Ryan Lindsey (keyboard / guitar) began jamming together in the '90s, giving birth to their own unusual brand of instrumentally complex, surrealistically worded pop sound.
Starting the album off is an all-instrumental surfy track called "Coffin R Us", perfect for any B-Movie classic theme song. What follows are nine tracks that feels like it was recorded at another time, particularly in the 60s and 70s. Also, the vocal range is pretty interesting too, for instance, Allan Vest does your typical rock vocals on "Natural" but then takes it down a bit with trippy-hippie vocals on "Paralyzed" followed by the indie rock stylings of "Black Champagne"
There's no downer songs on the entire album, you'll find yourself wanting to dance to each song "with your soft shoes and purple JB". Maybe you can wear that to one of their shows - they are on tour in the States through the Midwest and down South, ending in Florida.
Pop, Electro, YAY!!
Starlight Mints are a group of beautiful pop mutants: five singular musical minds whose love for archetypal pop music and AM radio has provided, over the course of three previous acclaimed albums, a rock-solid foundation for a whole bunch of inspired uniqueness, all baked to perfection under the hot Oklahoma sun. Allan Vest (vocals/guitar), Marian Love Nunez (keyboards), Javier Gonzales (bass), Andy Nunez (drums), and Ryan Lindsey (keyboard / guitar) began jamming together in the '90s, giving birth to their own unusual brand of instrumentally complex, surrealistically worded pop sound.
Starting the album off is an all-instrumental surfy track called "Coffin R Us", perfect for any B-Movie classic theme song. What follows are nine tracks that feels like it was recorded at another time, particularly in the 60s and 70s. Also, the vocal range is pretty interesting too, for instance, Allan Vest does your typical rock vocals on "Natural" but then takes it down a bit with trippy-hippie vocals on "Paralyzed" followed by the indie rock stylings of "Black Champagne"
There's no downer songs on the entire album, you'll find yourself wanting to dance to each song "with your soft shoes and purple JB". Maybe you can wear that to one of their shows - they are on tour in the States through the Midwest and down South, ending in Florida.
Pop, Electro, YAY!!
t the crossroads of baroque pop and earthy folk, Diving With Andy’s second album Sugar Sugar, is in the tradition of the great Anglo-Saxon artists. The masterstroke of the French trio, made up of Juliette Paquereau, Rémy Galichet, and Julien Perraudeau, is to have created music as sophisticated and daring as this in English. With its title Sugar Sugar setting a sweet note, the new album focuses on Juliette’s voice and the stories she tells: ten magnificent tracks of orchestrated pop and voluptuous folk. There are no guests or collaborators on this album. Diving With Andy chose to produce the disc themselves behind closed doors with the idea of creating a piece of meticulous, sophisticated, craftsmanship since Rémy and Julien play all the instruments, and Juliette’s writing possesses all the magnetism of her voice. Sugar Sugar is an acid-drop pop ballad, both British and french, bewitching as an English daydream permeated with all the charm of Paris.
Pop,France GOOD!!
Piano and pop don’t mix- at least that’s the conventional wisdom with regard to “popular” music. Yet Chris Garneau defies expectations. Since releasing his debut album Music for Tourists in 2006, he has consistently proven that in the hands of a capable musician, 88 keys can indeed, be cool to listen to. Two years later, he’s back with a sophomore album El Radio and far from slumping. The record is a orchestra of sounds capturing emotional highs and lows- more lows than highs.
Aside from the aforementioned orchestra, the record is an orchestra of symphonics, cello, and of course Garneau’s own piano. “Dirty Night Clown” finds Garneau and friends rocking cello and drums to an atonal, discordant beat. “No More Pirates” is an upbeat, horn laden ditty about forgiveness. On “Fireflies,” Garneau channels his inner Tin Pan Alley artist, composing a tale of musical suspicion worthy of an off-Broadway play. Foghat this is not.
Despite the eclectic nature of the record, the album does have its downsides. The eerie tone and subject matter of the songs (several deal with death- natural or otherwise) may turn off audiences who are more used to upbeat faire from Top 40 than introverted, complicated songwriting. There are sleepers too. The slow strumming of “Raw and Awake” is more lullaby than pop song. Yet this is an exception to the rule.
Though the album is far from upbeat, overall the record speaks to the diverse range of Garneau’s material. From instrumental tracks to Tin Pan Alley style songs, there is little that he is incapable of. Far from being typical singer-songwriter faire, the album is a sonic expression of our common emotionality- both good and bad.
While “El Radio” may not be for everyone, it is certainly worth paying attention to- even if it is macabre at times
Pop,Folk,Singer-Songwriter WOHOOO!!
Sparrow and the Workshop are a threepiece alt folk/country/indie outfit based in Glasgow, formed in the dew of January 2008 under the heavy fog of yeast from the Tennents Factory. The American/Scottish/Welsh trio play a stripped-down drumkit, a crashbox, a very white bass, a smallish acoustic guitar, a mellow yellow electric slide guitar and occasionally an old french violin. Tinged with elements of country and folk but incorporating a huge range of references from motor city to Seattle, their sound ranges from punky and harsh to sparse and sensitive, allowing boy/girl vocal duets, various instrumentation and a penchant for storytelling to shine through Sleight of Hand - A 6 Track Short Player is due to be released in Early May on Distiller Records - 10” Vinyl, CD, Download, Available in all good Record Stores.
Pop,Female-Vocal HMM!!
Skint & Demoralised are an English band formed on MySpace in May 2007. Originally just Wakefield performance poet Matt Abbott, the act became a duo when Abbott responded to an offer of collaboration from a mysterious Sheffield-based songwriter/producer known as MiNI dOG.
A songwriting partnership quickly developed over the Summer of 2007 and in August of that year they assembled a live band of numerous Sheffield musicians. Uploading their demos onto a free download site, they eventually received over 8,600 free downloads before signing a deal with Mercury Records in March 2008.
The band’s initial success came after sending a demo in to BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq, which was first played in early November 2007. Several Radio 1 plays followed before the band attracted attention from numerous record labels. Originally planning a limited single release on Stiff Records, the band eventually opted to sign a deal with Mercury Records.
In June 2007 they flew-out to New York City to start recording their debut album with The Dap-Kings at the Daptone Studios in Brooklyn, New York. The Dap-Kings recently played on Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’ and Mark Ronson’s ‘Version’ records. Recording of the album finished at RAK Studios in London.
The band’s debut release, on 17th November 2008, was a limited release of ‘The Thrill of Thirty Seconds’ on London indie label Another Music = Another Kitchen and all 500 copies of the signed 7” vinyl sold-out on pre-order. Their second release was a full non-chart eligible release of ‘This Song Is Definitely Not About You’ through Mercury Records on 2nd March 2009 and is available on CD, 7” and digital download.
Pop,Soul,Singer-Songwriter,British HMM!!
Theoretical Girl makes electro-folk-pop on her 8-track in her bedroom and has been doing so since 2006.
She has released four singles, ‘It’s All Too Much’ (Fake Product),’Red Mist’ (Half Machine Records), ‘The Hypocrite’ and ‘Another Fight’ both on Salvia/XL Recordings to high critical acclaim. Also out is a limited edition 7” split covering a Tokyo Police Club song ‘Nursery, Academy’, available exclusively from Pure Groove.
Upcoming releases include a Japanese only release of ‘The Boy I Left Behind’ (an acoustic version that’s already had nearly half a million hits on youtube), a UK single release of ‘Rivals’ on 25th May and the album ‘Divided’ in August.
Having gigged tirelessly throughout Europe over the past three years, Theoretical Girl, armed either with just her guitar and backing tracks or backed by her band ‘The Equations’, has built up a formidable following, and an impressive list of bands she’s played with – Robyn, Maximo Park, Kate Nash, Lethal Bizzle, Calvin Harris, Good Shoes, Metric, amongst many others.
After years of independent EP releases, her debut Divided will be released on the 17th of August via Memphis Industries. The date is a little far way, but Amy Turnnidge just released her first single 'Rivals' in order to prepare you. And the song, as usual, is lovely, a frenetic ballad softly interpreted.
Folk,Electro,Post-Punk YAYY! FINALLY!!
Pop,France GOOD!!
Piano and pop don’t mix- at least that’s the conventional wisdom with regard to “popular” music. Yet Chris Garneau defies expectations. Since releasing his debut album Music for Tourists in 2006, he has consistently proven that in the hands of a capable musician, 88 keys can indeed, be cool to listen to. Two years later, he’s back with a sophomore album El Radio and far from slumping. The record is a orchestra of sounds capturing emotional highs and lows- more lows than highs.
Aside from the aforementioned orchestra, the record is an orchestra of symphonics, cello, and of course Garneau’s own piano. “Dirty Night Clown” finds Garneau and friends rocking cello and drums to an atonal, discordant beat. “No More Pirates” is an upbeat, horn laden ditty about forgiveness. On “Fireflies,” Garneau channels his inner Tin Pan Alley artist, composing a tale of musical suspicion worthy of an off-Broadway play. Foghat this is not.
Despite the eclectic nature of the record, the album does have its downsides. The eerie tone and subject matter of the songs (several deal with death- natural or otherwise) may turn off audiences who are more used to upbeat faire from Top 40 than introverted, complicated songwriting. There are sleepers too. The slow strumming of “Raw and Awake” is more lullaby than pop song. Yet this is an exception to the rule.
Though the album is far from upbeat, overall the record speaks to the diverse range of Garneau’s material. From instrumental tracks to Tin Pan Alley style songs, there is little that he is incapable of. Far from being typical singer-songwriter faire, the album is a sonic expression of our common emotionality- both good and bad.
While “El Radio” may not be for everyone, it is certainly worth paying attention to- even if it is macabre at times
Pop,Folk,Singer-Songwriter WOHOOO!!
Sparrow and the Workshop are a threepiece alt folk/country/indie outfit based in Glasgow, formed in the dew of January 2008 under the heavy fog of yeast from the Tennents Factory. The American/Scottish/Welsh trio play a stripped-down drumkit, a crashbox, a very white bass, a smallish acoustic guitar, a mellow yellow electric slide guitar and occasionally an old french violin. Tinged with elements of country and folk but incorporating a huge range of references from motor city to Seattle, their sound ranges from punky and harsh to sparse and sensitive, allowing boy/girl vocal duets, various instrumentation and a penchant for storytelling to shine through Sleight of Hand - A 6 Track Short Player is due to be released in Early May on Distiller Records - 10” Vinyl, CD, Download, Available in all good Record Stores.
Pop,Female-Vocal HMM!!
The band, based in NYC - USA, have released yet a 7-track EP, 2004s Pretty in Pixels, garnered critical acclaim for its glitchy, moody, atmospheric pop commonly drawing comparisons to Interpol and Radiohead. Pretty in Pixels was recorded and mixed at Headgear Production and Recording Studios (Yeah Yeah Yeah, T.V. on the Radio, The National) in Brooklyn, NY with Dan Long.
After signing with monopsone Records (Le Mans, France) in July 2008, The Fatales traveled to Chase Park Transduction Studios in Athens, Georgia to record its first album, Great Surround, with producer Andy LeMaster (Bright Eyes, Pacific UV, Azure Ray). Demonstrating more thoughtful and delicately crafted songwriting, the new compositions are nostalgic and cinematic in scope, recalling the soundtrack to a David Lynch film. The songs maintain the groups trademark sound : shimmering layers of guitars and synths, lush melodic string arrangements, and meticulously programmed electronics, all driven by a propulsive and dynamic rhythm section. The picturesque effect is dark yet beautiful - dancing in circles while toeing the line of a familiar yet slightly skewed pop structure.
An early demo of Stadtpark, a song from Great Surround, was chosen for Je taime, a record compilation including artists as Windsor for the Derby (Secretly Canadian), A Northern Chorus (Sonic Unyon), and Mark Robinson (Teenbeat, Unrest), released in March 2006 by Montreal-based Where Are My Records, also available through Darla Records. The song was also featured on NPR (National Public Radio in Washington)s All Songs Considered two years ago.
Dreampop,Shoegaze GOOD!!
After signing with monopsone Records (Le Mans, France) in July 2008, The Fatales traveled to Chase Park Transduction Studios in Athens, Georgia to record its first album, Great Surround, with producer Andy LeMaster (Bright Eyes, Pacific UV, Azure Ray). Demonstrating more thoughtful and delicately crafted songwriting, the new compositions are nostalgic and cinematic in scope, recalling the soundtrack to a David Lynch film. The songs maintain the groups trademark sound : shimmering layers of guitars and synths, lush melodic string arrangements, and meticulously programmed electronics, all driven by a propulsive and dynamic rhythm section. The picturesque effect is dark yet beautiful - dancing in circles while toeing the line of a familiar yet slightly skewed pop structure.
An early demo of Stadtpark, a song from Great Surround, was chosen for Je taime, a record compilation including artists as Windsor for the Derby (Secretly Canadian), A Northern Chorus (Sonic Unyon), and Mark Robinson (Teenbeat, Unrest), released in March 2006 by Montreal-based Where Are My Records, also available through Darla Records. The song was also featured on NPR (National Public Radio in Washington)s All Songs Considered two years ago.
Dreampop,Shoegaze GOOD!!
Skint & Demoralised are an English band formed on MySpace in May 2007. Originally just Wakefield performance poet Matt Abbott, the act became a duo when Abbott responded to an offer of collaboration from a mysterious Sheffield-based songwriter/producer known as MiNI dOG.
A songwriting partnership quickly developed over the Summer of 2007 and in August of that year they assembled a live band of numerous Sheffield musicians. Uploading their demos onto a free download site, they eventually received over 8,600 free downloads before signing a deal with Mercury Records in March 2008.
The band’s initial success came after sending a demo in to BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq, which was first played in early November 2007. Several Radio 1 plays followed before the band attracted attention from numerous record labels. Originally planning a limited single release on Stiff Records, the band eventually opted to sign a deal with Mercury Records.
In June 2007 they flew-out to New York City to start recording their debut album with The Dap-Kings at the Daptone Studios in Brooklyn, New York. The Dap-Kings recently played on Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’ and Mark Ronson’s ‘Version’ records. Recording of the album finished at RAK Studios in London.
The band’s debut release, on 17th November 2008, was a limited release of ‘The Thrill of Thirty Seconds’ on London indie label Another Music = Another Kitchen and all 500 copies of the signed 7” vinyl sold-out on pre-order. Their second release was a full non-chart eligible release of ‘This Song Is Definitely Not About You’ through Mercury Records on 2nd March 2009 and is available on CD, 7” and digital download.
Pop,Soul,Singer-Songwriter,British HMM!!
Theoretical Girl makes electro-folk-pop on her 8-track in her bedroom and has been doing so since 2006.
She has released four singles, ‘It’s All Too Much’ (Fake Product),’Red Mist’ (Half Machine Records), ‘The Hypocrite’ and ‘Another Fight’ both on Salvia/XL Recordings to high critical acclaim. Also out is a limited edition 7” split covering a Tokyo Police Club song ‘Nursery, Academy’, available exclusively from Pure Groove.
Upcoming releases include a Japanese only release of ‘The Boy I Left Behind’ (an acoustic version that’s already had nearly half a million hits on youtube), a UK single release of ‘Rivals’ on 25th May and the album ‘Divided’ in August.
Having gigged tirelessly throughout Europe over the past three years, Theoretical Girl, armed either with just her guitar and backing tracks or backed by her band ‘The Equations’, has built up a formidable following, and an impressive list of bands she’s played with – Robyn, Maximo Park, Kate Nash, Lethal Bizzle, Calvin Harris, Good Shoes, Metric, amongst many others.
After years of independent EP releases, her debut Divided will be released on the 17th of August via Memphis Industries. The date is a little far way, but Amy Turnnidge just released her first single 'Rivals' in order to prepare you. And the song, as usual, is lovely, a frenetic ballad softly interpreted.
Folk,Electro,Post-Punk YAYY! FINALLY!!
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