The Kingsbury Manx - Ascenseur Ouvert (2009)
It has been four long years since we last heard from The Kingsbury Manx. But if the strength of this new batch of songs is any indication, it has been well worth the wait.
At the end of 2005, things were good in Manxville. The four North Carolina lads made the jump to a larger label (Yep Roc) for the release The Fast Rise and Fall of The South. The record was produced by Wilco keyboard player, Mike Jorgensen. The press was good, and a short stint on the road with Wilco and a full US tour with then label mates The Standard followed. The dust settled, and things started to change. Marriages happened. Houses were bought. Children were born, and for the first time, there was a second generation of lil Manxers crawling around. Priorities shiftedor did they? A funny thing happened. Main songwriters Bill Taylor and Ryan Richardson wrote more prolifically then ever. The Manx muse kept busy. Before long, the band re-convened and began playing again, working out the new material. But this time, rather than book a straight week in an out of town studio, the boys re-visited the site of their original genesis and started booking the odd day or weekend at Duck Kee.
The return to Duck Kee in late 2006 felt like home all over again. Over the course of the next year and a half, 14 brand new songs were recorded. These songs are unmistakably the same band that started recording at Duck Kee back in 1999, but Ascenseur Ouvert! is no mere re-treading of old territory. Their sound has expanded, shifted, and moved into regions hitherto unexpected. From the upbeat Brill-pop of Over the Oeuvre to the spidery guitar hooks that punctuate the shuffle of Well, Whatever to the somber chamber-creepiness of Minos Maze, this is an al-bum of pleasant surprises. Fans of the vocal harmonies will be smiling ear to ear upon hear-ing the six part vocal rondo in the coda of Indian Isle.
Ascenseur Ouvert! is broken French for Elevator Open! and is meant as a command. The Manx are too slow moving a band for the stairway, so they have bypassed it for the elevator. Up! To where? To inspiration, to newness. To take a hold of ones own destiny and realize that victory is not in sound scans or opening up for Coldplay but in a babys first step or the pleasure of fixing a leaking sink in your own house. The relief of getting off work at midnight and running into an old friend. Of still being tuned in to the celestial radio station and giving its harmonies form. The sky wont yield / inches for the field sings Taylor in the beautifully literary Well, what-ever. And its okay. The tapestry of life is rich, and the Kingsbury Manx knowing their place in it, have new resolve never to forget what was always important in the first place.
GOOD!!Halloween, Alaska - Champagne Downtown (2009)
East Side Digital recording group Halloween, Alaska has announced the upcoming release of its much anticipated third album. “CHAMPAGNE DOWNTOWN” - the Minnesota-based band’s first new music in more than three years - arrives in stores and at digital retailers on April 7th.
Having earned widespread acclaim for its atmospheric brand of synth-driven indie, “CHAMPAGNE DOWNTOWN” sees Halloween, Alaska crafting its most distinctive and disarming set to date. Songs such as “In Order” and “Gone With The Wind” are complex and thoughtful, rich with simmering textures and literate lyricism. Melding an expansive range of inventive sounds with anthemic indie-rock hooks, “CHAMPAGNE DOWNTOWN” straddles the boundary between the electronic and the organic to create a novel rethink of what pop music can mean in a new millennium.
Having earned widespread acclaim for its atmospheric brand of synth-driven indie, “CHAMPAGNE DOWNTOWN” sees Halloween, Alaska crafting its most distinctive and disarming set to date. Songs such as “In Order” and “Gone With The Wind” are complex and thoughtful, rich with simmering textures and literate lyricism. Melding an expansive range of inventive sounds with anthemic indie-rock hooks, “CHAMPAGNE DOWNTOWN” straddles the boundary between the electronic and the organic to create a novel rethink of what pop music can mean in a new millennium.
GOOD!!Other Girls - Perfect Cities (2009)
It was time to grow up, or so Jonah Oryszak thought. At the age of 20, Oryszak, a college drop out from Canton, Ohio, had found himself couch surfing from crusty musician house to crusty musician house for the greater part of his early adulthood, working two days a week and partying seven. “It got old fast,” he says. In 1998, Oryszak had decided to move out of his parents’ house in Canton, where he’d learned to love everything from Nick Drake to Roxy Music to old soul 45s, and move to Cleveland to pursue his own sounds. Still, he always looks back on his parents being his true rock and roll masters. “My mom would always make mix tapes for my dad,” he says. “So, when I was like five, I would try to do it myself. I had this little tape recorder and I’d put it up to a speaker and make comps like that.” Once in Cleveland, Oryszak soaked himself in the local underground scene, filling his time with house shows and record collecting. He also met Jay Tousley, a kid from West Park whose attention was too short to listen to albums, but just right to create the perfect pop hooks on guitar a la Johnny Marr. It was a perfect fit – Oryszak, a well-versed songsmith, who’d lay down the structure upon which Tousley could, simply, get weird. “Jay is strange because he doesn’t listen to music at all,” Oryszak says. “It’s something that everyone makes fun of him for…but that’s it. That’s why Jay and I played so well together – I always liked pop, strong hooks, and that’s what Jay just writes these off the wall quirky pop parts. He plays guitar like someone who has never played before.”
HHmm!!Too Soft - Breakfast Songs (2009)
Tracklist
01. Sexy plastic girl
02. Eskimo
03. Playmobil
04. Bubble gum
05. Welcome
06. Caribou
07. Morning sun
GOOD!!Kelli Ali - Butterfly (2009)
Butterfly is a Limited Edition acoustic album containing 10 songs Including the brand new ‘Butterfly’, ‘Throw it to The Dogs’, an acoustic versions of ‘Wings in Motion’ from Tigermouth and a cover of ‘Willow’s Song’ from ‘The Wicker Man’ soundtrack as well as reworked songs from the Rocking Horse album.
Butterfly Album Official Release (Pre Order)
In November 2008, Kelli Ali brought us her beautiful third solo album, Rocking Horse which was produced by composer Max Richter.
Kelli’s companion piece, acoustic album ‘Butterfly’ is a charming collection of delicate renditions of her songs old and new.
Acoustic guitar and flutes flutter daintily between cello and violin and Kelli’s unique, pure voice to interpret songs from her Rocking Horse album as well as new songs such as title track ‘Butterfly’ and a haunting original cover version of ‘Willow’s Song’ from the cult classic film soundtrack ‘The Wicker Man’.
Butterfly Album Official Release (Pre Order)
In November 2008, Kelli Ali brought us her beautiful third solo album, Rocking Horse which was produced by composer Max Richter.
Kelli’s companion piece, acoustic album ‘Butterfly’ is a charming collection of delicate renditions of her songs old and new.
Acoustic guitar and flutes flutter daintily between cello and violin and Kelli’s unique, pure voice to interpret songs from her Rocking Horse album as well as new songs such as title track ‘Butterfly’ and a haunting original cover version of ‘Willow’s Song’ from the cult classic film soundtrack ‘The Wicker Man’.
ACOUSTIC VERSION!!Asobi Seksu - Acoustic at Olympic Studios (2009)
The acoustic album they’re selling on their current tour is absolutely lovely. It’s nice to hear this other side to them. If you aren’t lucky enough to get to see them on tour, I recommend you sniff it out online at One Little Indian’s shop. It’s well worth an investing.
GOOD!!Montt Mardie - Skaizerkite (2009)
Way back in my first post of the year, I gushed a bit about Sweden’s Montt Mardie and his first UK release, the Introducing ….. The Best Of compilation of his first two Swedish albums Drama and Pretender/Clocks. It was - and still is - a wonderful collection of lush and giddy throwback pop to any and every era of pop you can imagine. I wasn’t sure at the time if the album was actually out, and as it turned out it wasn’t - and still isn’t. It’s now set for a May 4 release in the UK but in the interim, Mardie hasn’t been idle.
He released his third proper studio album, entitled Skaizerkite, this week in Sweden. There’s both an MP3 and video for the first single but beyond that, being somewhat less than fluent in Swedish, information on this release is a bit hard to come by. I did manage to discern, however, that it’d cost me around $28 on import to get a copy of the album sent to me. Um, ouch. I’d forgotten the joys of buying imports. I think I will hold off just a bit on that one and hope that a less expensive option arises - after all, I’m still getting lots of mileage out of Introducing, even after so many months.
He released his third proper studio album, entitled Skaizerkite, this week in Sweden. There’s both an MP3 and video for the first single but beyond that, being somewhat less than fluent in Swedish, information on this release is a bit hard to come by. I did manage to discern, however, that it’d cost me around $28 on import to get a copy of the album sent to me. Um, ouch. I’d forgotten the joys of buying imports. I think I will hold off just a bit on that one and hope that a less expensive option arises - after all, I’m still getting lots of mileage out of Introducing, even after so many months.
FINALLY!!Jokers Daughter - The Last Laugh (2009)
By the time London-based Helena Costas coos, "The voice of Merlin echoes through the moors," the fairy dust on her psych-folk debut is pretty thick. While she riffs on redwoods and rainbows over delicate acoustic guitar, collaborator Danger Mouse adds whimsical synth whirs, lava-lamp rhythmic burbles and even actual grooves. Like Alice's Wonderland, the world of Joker's Daughter is freakish and marvelous by turns, a perfect soundtrack for your next mushroom tea party
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