Falalalalalalalala - The Christmas roundup!

So last week’s impromptu review of the mediocre-but-free iTunes Christmas sampler got me to thinking.  This project is all about finding new favourite bands and new favourite songs.  Surely Christmas which is arguably my longest running musical rut should be no exception.  In fact, one of the best presents I was given over the past few years (through a very violent Yankee Swap – see here for rules: http://www.yankee-swap.net) was the Sufjan Stevens five-album Christmas box-set, which has become a new tradition in our household over the past few years, something my hubby and I can enjoy together as we build new Christmas traditions around our existing ones.  As a result this week I’ve gone off-piste a bit and have reviewed a few new Christmas albums and ignored the usual format, devil be damned.  Hope it inspires you to try out a few newbies yourself:

Christmas, Thanks for Nothing - Slow Club 

First up is Slow Club, a band I’ve never even heard of before but if their fan pages and press are anything to go by, these guys are making waves.  Formed from the ashes of Sheffield band The Lonely Hearts back in 2006, they’ve put out a couple of albums Yeah So (2009) and the EP Let’s Fall Back in Love (2008) both of which I’m suddenly very interested in.  If I said I was very up on the Sheffield music scene, I’d be lying.  This 6-song goodie is wonderful in the best of Christmas album ways.  A few credible reinventions of modern classics (notably notably “It’s Christmas, Baby Please Come Home”) but where they really shine are their originals, “Christmas, Thanks for Nothing” and “Christmas TV.” Although as grouchy and underwhelmed as you’d expect an indie Christmas album to be, they really do it with gusto and lovely musicality.  This is going in the Sufjan camp of albums we’ll be listening to from now on.  Also, as I said I’ll now be investigating their back catalogue.  ****1/2

A Damaged Christmas Gift to You – Various Artists

I’ll just start this off by saying that this is not an album for the traditionalist and my resistance to it was very very high as a result.  However, for pure entertainment value, it’s excellent; I defy anyone to hear Helen Love’s “Merry Christmas, (I Don’t Wanna Fight),” complete with samples from “Super Trooper” and “Teenage Kicks” and not smile.  Ditto for “Silver Bells” by Cuckooland.  “Stop the Calvary” by Severe absolutely rocks.  Songs I could live without?  “Santa Claus” by Thee Headcoatees.  I get that people hate sentimentality, but writing an explicit song about BJs and naming it after Father Christmas is a little tough to swallow.  See what I did there?  So this album is really good for a raucous Christmas dinner with a bunch of middle-aged bourgeois who like feeling that they’re still young and cool (ie me and my friends) and hence I’ll enjoy putting this on in the background on the 23^rd when we host said dinner, but it is unlikely to make the cut for the primetime events on the 24^th and 25^th.  I’m too in love with the White Christmas I grew up on to be ironic on Christmas day.  That’s just exhausting.  ***1/2

Midwinter Graces – Tori Amos

Tori Amos is basically a madrigal singer year-round so I’m truly surprised that it took her this long to record a Christmas album.  But nevertheless, she’s finally done it.  And it would hold its own next to any of Josh Groban’s efforts for the fifty-something set.  At least so says I.  But Tori Amos has been listing that way for a long time.  She’s not far off Cindy Lauper in terms of her proclivity for big-band backup.  But here’s the thing: yes, it’s sappy, but it’s also very pretty and this album is something I would like to have on during the cooking of Christmas dinner.  It’s nowhere near Sufjan, but it’s still credible as a Christmas album.  And if Cindy, er, Tori were still angry and singing about abortion, she couldn’t record a Christmas album like this.  You need to love life to do this.  So while I won’t be rushing to her next gig as I think she’s lost the edge that once made her so great to listen to (as least when I was a teenage girl), I’d say this is one album I will be listening to again next Christmas.  I might even give it to my mom.  ***1/2

Wintermusik – Nils Frahm

This short album is so beautiful I can’t even tell you.  According to his MySpace page, “he was taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski – a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowski.”  Pretty awesome beginnings for a classical musician.  Anyway, I’m no classical buff, but I really love the ethereal quality of this music and find listening to it to be far more like “swimming in a lake at night” than Jesca Hoop could ever hope to be.  There’s a cold quality to this recording; not as in lifeless or harsh, but as in seeing your breath before you, fingers going numb.  Apparently it was originally intended as a Christmas gift for his friends and family and the love in it is obvious.  I’m so pleased he decided to share it. ****1/2

This is it for the next three weeks – even husswives need vacations every now and again.  So off to New York we go to soak up the family and festivities.  But not before I wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday.  See you in the new year!!

LA LA Land - Jesca Hoop; The Heavy; iTunes Christmas Sampler

Apologies for the delay in this week's post - I was a busy bee getting ready for the holidays and playing with friends.  Now I'm off to make Little Dude a penguin for his Christmas pageant.

Hunting my Dress – Jesca Hoop

I was born in New York.  Not the cool part, mind, the uncool suburbs of Long Island.  Sure we had/have a strongish hardcore scene but it was/is hardly cutting edge.  Still as an official New Yorker born and raised, I feel a personal duty to bash LA.  It’s like it’s ingrained in our DNA – east coast=cool; west coast=yoga-swami-airy-fairy-crunchy-granola-shakra-BS.  At least that’s how I’ve always seen it.  My view is not always a popular view, but I would be lying if I pretended that I don’t bring this prejudice to any music from the West Coast.  And the bands I like from out there, say Deathcab for instance, I like because of their take on the airy-fairyness and their willingness to lay all of that side bare. Bands like the Killers, though I love their music, make me laugh.; I just can’t take LA seriously as a rock haven as my view of it is far too softcore.  And before you start ranting about the Doors, don’t even get me started on them.

Enter Jesca Hoop.  First off who spells their name like that?  Who?  And then there’s the backstory.  Mormon girl, leaves her tight-knit community to nanny for… wait for it…  Tom Waitts’ kids (of course) and BOOM.  Superstardom. And immediately I’m like, come on lady.  Who are you kidding?  Then there’s the sound itself – someone listened to a lot of Ani DiFranco and Sarah McLaughlin when she was growing up.  And yes, that someone was Jesca Hoop if her sound is anything to go by.

Tom Waitts says that listening to her music is like swimming in a lake at night (I’m paraphrasing) and I guess that’s sort of evocative.  And if you’re Tom Waitts, that’s an ok thing to say and he might be able to get away with that or maybe Michael Stipe, but otherwise, it’s just silly.  Playing to type?  Methinks so.

Are the songs ok?  Annoyingly, yes.  They are pretty and ethereal and there are moments where you think “Ok – I really want to hate this, but it’s kind of good.”  Case in point “My Boo.”  Who calls a song “My Boo” unless they’re Beyonce or Alicia Keys?  Come. On.  But it works.  Curses.  I guess if she swapped places with Regina Spektor and was all New Yorky, it would be easier to accept the music because it would be sort of ironic.

As it stands, it just bothers me.

Objectively, the music is lovely.  If you like Ani DiFranco, Regina Spektor and Sarah McLaughlin, you’ll like this.  And I do sort of like it.  But it annoys me more than anything else so I’ll be loathe to listen to it.  ***

iTunes Free download of the week – “No Time” by the Heavy

With flavours of old school rock and roll circa 1968 with Hendrix style guitars and growly Joe Cocker-ish vocals, it’s worth a listen.  ***

iTunes Holiday Sampler – FREE THIS WEEK!

In my family, Christmas was the absolute best time of year.  My mom made it so special for all of us with greenery everywhere, advent calendars, meeting up with our cousins to shop, going to see Santa at Macy’s.  It all started on Thanksgiving with the Macy’s parade and then dinner with our huge wonderful family followed by our annual viewing of White Christmas.  And then the season had officially begun.

The best bit of Christmas for me has always been the music.  We stick mostly to the 40’s and 50’s hits: Bing, Sinatra, Perry Cuomo, Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney all singing the wartime favourites to newer and newer generations.  As we got older, it was A Very Special Christmas (1&2), BandAid and Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas.” The music was the common link across all my family and friends and you just knew that everyone was listening to the same stuff as they got ready to celebrate.

This week the geniuses at iTunes have been kind enough to provide a full Christmas album for free.  Its success is variable.  I could do without Rascal Flatts and with the Aretha version of “Angels We Have Heard on High” I expected to be inspired, but wasn’t, an unfortunate theme amongst Christmas albums.  However Weezer doing “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” is good fun, especially when they start to sing about figgy pudding and the original song by Glasvegas is really lovely.  And hell, what’s my montre?  It’s free and free stuff is good!  Merry Christmas!  **1/2

The School of Hard Knoxville - Royal Bangs; The Domino State; The Tailors

So last week I had my needed tinfoil epiphany and determined that I had to stop with the comparisons and just get on with the listening.  This week has just about broken me so I’m back to what I do best;  I’m comparing everything in sight.  But don’t judge me too harshly.  Everyone has their weaknesses, you know?

Royal Bangs - Let it Beep

Rockabilly geetars?  Check.  Bumpy tight drumming?  Check.  Good progressive songs with just the right balance of dynamics and pace changes?  Yes indeedy.  Sudden shifts from alt-country into Beck-styley electronica chucka chucka with loads of vavavoom?  What we have here is Royal Bangs’ Let it Beep. 

This band, from Knoxville, has tapped into all the amazing influences flowing around the Mississip.  And it really shows especially in their ability to shift from anthemic bar chords into dancefloor grooves, no mean feat especially when you consider that the current line-up of frontman Ryan Schaefer, drummer Chris Rusk, guitarist Sam Stratton, Henry Gibson and Brandon Biondo have only been together for less than two years though the first three have been together since high school.  Now here’s the cool thing:  when you listen to this album next to their previous We Breed Champions, you’ll notice that it’s a heck of a lot more Euro in its sound.  This is no surprise as Schaefer flounced around France for a year before starting the followup and it really shows.  Some songs border on later Kraftwerk while others are downright Maximo Park. 

Highlights from the album include “My Car is Haunted,” which bears more than a small resemblance to Miike Snow as well as the very amusingly titled “S**t X-mas” which is arguably the poppiest of the album and sounds more like a raw Strokes effort than electronica.  “B&E” harkens back to instrumentals from the soundtrack to Pretty in Pink and “Tiny Prince of Keytar” is more warm and fuzzy core indie.

This album is once more one of those mix-tape type of recordings, every song a little different from the last giving the impression of a compilation rather than a single band.  I pretty much always enjoy these types of albums as I have such a short attention span that often I can’t see a whole album through without boredom or judgement setting in.  This manages to evade both at least for the most part – it’s about two songs too long in my opinion.  But actually other than that, I really enjoyed this one.  kkkk1/2

Recommendation from Matt – The Domino State 

Matt has been trying to get me to listen to Domino State for well over a year now and I can’t for the life of me remember what my freakin’ problem was.  But whatever the excuse (the dog ate my laptop?), I finally got around to it this week after yet another plea.  Their new single “ Firefly” is out now so the timing is good. 

In terms of the sound, the harmonies are very full-figured and warm with lead vocalist Matt Forder adding a nice melancholy to the whole.  Noteworthy too is that guitarist Tim Buckland is the brother of somewhat more famous Jonny Buckland, the lead guitarist from Coldplay.  The sound of The Domino State owes a lot more to My Bloody Valentine than to Chris Martin and his cronies but only if you ignore the obvious comparison to Snowpatrol.  Because the vocals are very, very Snowpatrol.  Ultimately it’s really straight up shoegaze, though done better than most.   kkk1/2

The Tailors - Come Dig Me Up

As I jumped the gun on the iTunes free download last week, a recommendation of my own instead – The Tailors new album, Come Dig Me Up is out now on RoughTrade and it’s a tasty feast of middle-America, Jay Hawky goodness brought to you via the mean streets London.  If you’ve not already done so, check out a few of their tracks onwww.myspace.com/thetailors. 

Bring the noise - Portico Quartet; Joe Goddard; Pornophonique

Isla - Portico Quartet

For weeks now I’ve swum through a sea of musical sameyness and I was starting to think it was me.  Well, in a way, I guess it is, that is, I am the problem.  I go for the same kind of music week in, week out.  And last week at the sort of apex of homogeneity, I really considered giving up on this project because, frankly, I may as well be listening to the same music I’ve listened to for the past 17 years because really it’s all the same stuff anyway and at least I know the words.  Some new music is at least reinvented, sure, possibly with shiny bits added in for effect, but still it’s all really the same.

As I have said before, I want more out of my music.  I want to be transported to a place I never knew existed.  And far too often I am only time-warped back to the late ‘90’s.  But if you’re like me, that just makes you feel a bit older than you thought you were and none the wiser.  And right now I really do need more.

On Friday, one of my oldest friends (that is the friend I’ve known the longest though he looks the youngest) came into town to see Muse at the O2.  He was travelling in Eastern Europe which is one of those things I never really got around to.  Sure I’ve been to Prague, a long and generally uninteresting story which pretty much only entertains me and may possibly interest my friend Ian who I recently connected with again after a 12 year hiatus (facebook of course) but would likely bore any other person to tears.  I also once had a booty-call in Berlin and spent literally 14 hours in the city wishing I were there for longer but possibly in different company.  I’ve never really seen anywhere else.  So in walks great friend, we’ll call him DM, en route from Berlin to Tallinn or somewhere and he, as he so often does, reminds me of years spent and of younger, chubbier-but-line-and-care-free me.  This time, of course, I’m living in my own house which I share with my husband and baby, so I guess things have moved on apace.  Anyway, usually when DM leaves, I am slightly bereft, not because he’s gone and I’ll miss him, though I invariably do.  Rather because I see that there are things that I can’t do anymore.  And worse, there are things I always thought I would do that are now no longer of interest and it shames me to admit that in mixed company.  Like admitting I don’t like Arcade Fire but a hundred times worse.

So this week, I have decided to change things up a little and go for music so far beyond my usual comfort zone that I have no bands with which I can compare the sounds or nuances.  And in doing this, I hope to shake myself out of my musical coma.

Imagine a world without whiney indie vocals; an animated film full of snowstorms and flying men, twinkly sounds that don’t irritate.  Ear-honey if such a thing exists.  Portico Quartet is this brand of musicmaker.  According to the interweb, they were nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2007 and though I paid loads of attention that year, they didn’t register. But this is not at all surprising because, if you hadn’t noticed already, my music-listening always has an agenda.  Either I’m proving how current I am or I’m proving how far my knowledge goes back.  Both of which are weird as I couldn’t tell you the last time I really put any of this knowledge to use.  Definitely not since I moved to England.  And I don’t think I’d done so for years before that even.  At any rate these guys obviously didn’t fulfil any kind of coolness criteria so I missed them altogether that year.

Portico Quartet’s second album, Isla, is just heaven to listen to.  And that’s what I’ve been doing, I’ve been listening to it.  I haven’t been comparing it.  I haven’t been trying to dissect it to understand what it means.  It’s just beautiful music that I have been absorbing and appreciating for its own sake.  The genre is jazz I guess but without the usual syncopated proof punctuating each phrase.  There’s really no need for this music to prove itself.  There are foreign noises that break in without warning, but they never jar or scrape in the process.  Each note seems to grow organically out of the one before and the result is just a soft self-losing sea. 

It’s musical sorbet, cleansing the palette for the next exciting thing.  And I mean that in the most complimentary way. The result of this foray allowed me to allow myself to have a truly enjoyable time at the Decemberists last Wednesday despite a foul mood and a lack of seating.  And I attribute that to Portico Quartet’s cool smoothness and the fact that they’ve taught me to listen.  That and the Decemberists really rocked.  But as a result of this week’s music, I didn’t feel the need to pick apart the gig as it happened.  It was incredibly liberating.

When you read through the reviews of PQ’s albums, one word recurs over and over again – “shimmer.”  It’s a perfect description.  The Guardian also pointed out that their music is incredibly hooky hence its likeability.  All in all Isla is just fantastically listenable, even danceable at points and is worthy of five stars.  kkkkk

ITunes free download – “Apple Bobbing” by Joe Goddard

Well, this is that guy from Hot Chip and you know I’m not super keen on Hot Chip.  But this, on the other hand, I am interested in.  This is the one element that I have no control over each week but miraculously, this week it slid beautifully into theme with a sonorous, reverberating house single.   My only criticism is that rather than developing the track into a grander more anthemic sound, Goddard switches tact altogether causing some confusion for the listener as to what he was trying to achieve.  Despite this I like the beginning and would be interested in hearing more of his solo stuff.  kkk1/2

Recommendation from Paul – 8-bit lagerfeuer by Pornophonique

I have to say, this band takes German electronic music to a whole other level.  The opening “Sad Robot” could have come out of Super Mario 3 or Zelda but, like the rest of 8-bit lagerfeuer is oddly compelling and very fun to listen to.  The biggest surprise and possibly simultaneously the biggest letdown is the overproduced “Lemmings in Love.”  The highlight is, for me, “I want to be a machine” which I am pretty sure actually uses the rocket noise from Super Mario Brothers.  I also love that they have a song called, “Take me to the bonus level  because I need an extra life.”  And any band that puts all their music online as free downloads deserves world domination. http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/7505 kkkk

Fakey Fakerson - Local Native; Alice Russell; Fuckbuttons

Ok so new rules - In the event that any of the following occur: repeated vomiting from self or child, anniversaries, major birthdays or national holidays within a calendar week, I will use my discretion to decide whether or not to write.  As it stood this week, two of the above – the vomiting and Little Dude’s first birthday – occurred, hence the lack of writing.  But we’re back on form and away we go. 

Gorilla Manor – Local Natives

The new album from Local Natives is good.  They were the media darlings of this year’s SouthBySouthWest and with good reason.  They have smooth harmonies and, as the Guardian put it, sound a lot like Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes and Arcade Fire all rolled into one.  I think this sells the band a bit short simply because they have a nice cruisyness that is absent from the aforementioned list.  It’s no surprise that Rough Trade picked them up as they are, well, good. Things I could do without though?  The bonus DVD of drowning mannequins and moustachioed bandies doing a stripped back guitarfest. 

Here’s the thing that jars for me – this is yet another album without a single.  And I like my singles.  I’m a pop princess at heart and I just don’t feel like they’ve got anything exciting on this album.  “Camer Talk” is as close as it gets (which I will admit is a very good track).  And I guess that is why the Guardian and others have basically given them a mention but haven’t heralded them as the second coming.  Sure they’re good and worth some discussion, but they just fail to excite.  This is the kind of band that I always feel I have to go along to see live and then when I get there I’m so bored out of my skull I can’t wait to leave. 

The odd thing is that when I sat down to write this, I thought I was going to say, this is so great – go Fleet Foxes, I mean, Local Natives.  But what I’m realising is that this album’s lack of identity annoys me.  And if I’m being honest, so does Arcade Fire.  There, I said it.  kkk 1/2

ITunes free download – “Living the Life of a Dreamer (Mr Scruff remix)” by Alice Russell

This is very different from my usual free download fodder – hip-hoppy and r&b flavoured with a jazzy world music feel. Alice Russell is probably seriously liked in certain circles.  She’s got pipes to be sure but I suspect that if she was playing a club where you were trying to have a cocktail with a friend, she would sound very shouty and you would leave out of frustration.  On the other hand, if the 80’s movie formula of musical montages comes back around, this one would be good for the background of someone learning to race cars.  kk 1/2

 

Recommendation from Bob – Tarot Sport by Fuck Buttons 

I’m pretty sure that the only reason Bob started listening to this band was because of their name.   For the which I cannot fault him as I fell prey to the same impulse.  This album is not at all, however, what I had expected based on the band’s name.  I thought it would be louty metalcore with angry lyrics and good use of the word putrid.  But, as it turns out, it’s mainly edgy electronica, and actually, it is very well done.  And though there are two songs on the album which top out at over 10 minutes, I don’t find it to be too self-indulgent.  It has a clean feel and it’s nice music for the background.  Saying that, I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to it either.  kkk 

Slicing up eyeballs, uh huh huh ho... Atlas Sound; the Hot Melts; Bronze Radio Return

Atlas Sound - The Rough Trade EP and Logos

To kick things off this week, I have stolen a quote (unashamedly) from the Atlas Sound Wiki page: "People look at what’s successful, and what’s successful is what’s easy on the ears, things that aren’t challenging… Nobody wants to listen to something that sounds awkward and makes you cringe because it’s real personal or idiosyncratic. People just want to hear things that sound familiar already to them. I make really accessible pop stuff, but at the same time I have no problem making something creepy or just odd.” Bradford Cox, Atlas Sound.

Throughout my life, my musical taste has been shaped massively by the people around me, mainly men but everyone really.  As a young child it was my parents’ collection of Beatles, Beach Boys, the Rascals, Bing Crosby and soundtracks.  In grammar school it meant first Def Leppard’s Hysteria then Flood by They Might Be Giants within the same case of chickenpox.  In high school it explained massive pendulum swings: the Cure and Depeche Mode, Ministry to EMF, Weezer, the Dave Matthews Band (a dark and misguided hour which I denied then and will laugh at now) Billy Bragg and even Public Enemy.  In college: Yola Tengo, Blur, the Jaws (box and breaker), Jeff Buckley, Belle & Sebastian, the Beastie Boys, Astrid Gilberto. Early 20’s: Deathcab, the Shins, Ryan Adams.  The result is a rather eclectic musical collection which I often think it is the best residue from an otherwise ill-spent singledom.

For so long, I listened to the things I thought I was supposed to know all along.  My logic was that until I knew everything and could cite names, location of recordings, sing along to every lyric, had gone to multiple gigs etc, I would be branded the dreaded poser.  It never occurred to me that in obsessing over knowing things, I might be missing out on liking or loving things.  As a result, over the years I’ve learned to strike a balance between what I like and what others encourage me to try.  Throughout the last ten years, I’ve gone more and more to the pop end of the spectrum because, yes, it’s easier, but it’s also the equivalent of musical sorbet; it has cleansed my pallet while I begin to determine what my taste really is.

If I’m being honest, it’s for this reason that I’ve really struggled with Atlas Sound this week.  I generally find this particular brand of plinky-plonk a bit too plinky for my plonk and if I uncovered this album on my own, I might not have given it a real shot.  It’s not that I don’t like this album, it’s that I tend not to have patience for the genre.  Anything that is more experimental or even cacophonous is by its own definition less accessible and therefore a bit of a hard slog.  Therefore, the moments when I find this album to be the most successful is when the weird is abandoned and it goes for the stripped back acoustic sound instead.  On both the Rough Trade EP and the LP, Logos, I veer in and out of love and loathing.  I really like the quality of Cox’ vocals and can easily see this album becoming something I explore more frequently, but then there are moments which are to me like nails on a chalkboard.  The opening track on the Rough Trade EP is one of those.  But then I remember that that is exactly how I felt the first time I heard “Debaser.” And this project I’ve embarked on is all about stretching oneself.

So most accessible?  “I Know I Will Escape,” “Kid Klimax (acoustic)”, “Criminals (electronic)” from the Rough Trade EP; “My Halo,” “Quick Canal” (w/Laetitia Sadlier of Stereolab), and “Walkabout” (w/ Noah Lennox of Panda Bear) from the full-length.  But most rewarding?  Maybe “Washington School” or “Reminder.” To better understand how this current sound evolved, I went back in time to take on Deerhunter, Cox’ notorious Atlanta mainline. Until I did I knew I would have no idea what Logos was reacting to.  The answer is that Deerhunter is infinitely more poppy in the mid-noughties vein of Bright Eyes and the like.  And actually, I prefer it in a superficial sort of walk in and walk out sort of way.  But Atlas Sound has a lot more depth and movement.  It sounds at points like Sufjan Stevens then moves swiftly into Pet Sounds or even Radiohead.  The music affects you before you can access the lyrics.  There are many layers in this music and it means the listener is constantly running to keep up.  This entropitous sound appeals to my scattergun taste in music and brings us closer together.

I guess in the end, it’s not my favourite album and I don’t think it will ever be.  But I am still glad that I own it and not just because it means I have something random I can wax cool about.  It’s a bit of a departure from the rest of my collection and is the kind of kick in the pants I sorely needed.  Bring it on, I say. kkk1/2

ITunes free download of the week – “Edith” by the Hot Melts

It’s noisy, so noisy! I can barely think!  Let’s break it down.  First of all and to say it again, it’s very noisy and this masks whatever else is going on in terms of competency. It’s apparently about chicken.  And there are choruses of “Ohs.” The song was over before I had enough time to digest what was happening and in stark contrast to Atlas Sound, it’s so so simplistic that it almost numbs you.  The vocals sound a cross between 80’s hair band croon/screaming and Hootie and the Blowfish.  I guess, in short, where Japandroids were loud and interesting, this song is just noisy and I think that’s the only reason why I didn’t hate it more.  But no mistake, I did hate it.  It gives free stuff a bad name.  k

Recommendation from Paul and Steph: Bronze Radio Return

Bronze Radio Return had to be reviewed this week because wholly unconnected friends, one on the east coast of the US and one in London recommended them and I loved that a Hartford, CT band was also being recommended thousands of miles away.  Bronze Radio Return has grown out of the Jason Mraz John Mayer school with a real country/blue grass kind of twang to them.  And though my music has evolved further away from that realm, I would imagine that listening to them live with beers and a bunch of friends on the beach would be fantastic.  Listening to these guys was like being back at college bringing to mind Clam Jam 1997.  And if you like real American college music, Bronze Radio Return will rock your world (www.myspace.com/bronzeradioreturn) kkk

Parliament's in session - APTBS; Kill It Kid; William Grant Conspiracy; We Were Promised Jetpacks

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head - kkkk

For Long Island teenagers in 1994 there were few stories more oft repeated, at least in the circle in which I ran, than the tale of the demise of My Bloody Valentine. And when I say “circle in which I ran” I actually mean the circle in which I walked very slowly, smoking Parliaments on my way to some sort of diner. In between talking about what Ira and Georgia, the married and infinitely cool pair of Yo La Tengo might be doing at any moment and speculating how cool we would have to become to match them, we told and retold the story of My Bloody Valentine.

In terms of urban legend, we felt this one had it all; spectacular Kevin Shields, enigmatic (to us) and somewhat reclusive, making one hot and heavy album and destroying himself physically and financially in the process. At least, that’s the way we told it and whether or not that is actually what happened is something that never mattered to us. And the moral of the story was the album itself, broody and poignant with tons of feedback and unintelligible vocals – perfect adolescent fodder.

It all came flooding back this week as I listened to the first instalment of my Rough Trade album club which finally arrived despite the postal strike. A Place to Bury Strangers’ (APTBS) Exploding Head could have come out in 1994 and could have been produced by Kevin Shields and could have fit in nicely with our inane natter of that time. Things that I love about this band: frontman Oliver Ackermann also founded Death by Audio, the special effects pedal company that supplies, well yes actually, My Bloody Valentine among others, a Brooklyn based company whose space also functions as a venue for the likes of Thurston Moore. Unsurprisingly then, the band hails from that same neck of Brooklyn. They’ve supported NIN, the Jesus and Mary Chain and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club all of whom seem to have rubbed off on them. And they’ve been making waves since 2006 but I’ll forgive myself for not knowing them sooner as they didn’t really splash out in the UK until they supported MGMT on tour last year. Exploding Head is their second studio effort and hey now most importantly, it’s super.

This is relentless wall of sound at its best, exploding (yes it’s true) from the second dot through to completion.If I have any criticism of this album, it’s merely that the songs don’t tend to stand out as individuals. Rather they form a sort of impression of a Williamsburg loft party (deeply bourgeois and unfashionable that statement may be, but it’s still very true), all noise and crunchiness, guitars and drums and droney vocals. But that is the very reason I like this album. It’s complete and listen-straight-through. As a result, I recognise that it will likely slot into the same space that MBV fits into in my music head – that is, I will listen to this album for years, discussing how much I like it and about the band that made it without ever really being aware of it. It will soundtrack my parties, my breakfasts, my workouts, my rare nights out and yet it will never make a firm impression on me beyond the fact that I like it.

I will say that the title track has such 1980’s Cure guitar (think “Killing and Arab”) that I did stop momentarily to take notice. And though the rest of the songs are really cut from the same 1990’s black hoodie, that works for this kind of music. The album is well-produced and a pleasure to listen to. And I don’t think it broke Oliver Ackermann in the process. He seems to be doing very well actually and making pedals for U2 apparently. kkkk

ITunes free download of the week – “Burst its Banks” by Kill It Kid

Can you say John Spencer Blues Explosion? I sure can and apparently, so can Kill It Kid. I say this without apology for making yet another 1990s reference to better understand the music of 2009 because the influence is really obvious. There are also tones of the Mid-West and Patrick Wolf as well as a taste of Antony and the Johnsons. The result is what would happen if John Spencer had actually understood the art of dynamics – loud and soft, darling. As the song actually says, “High, low. Fast, slow.” kkkk

Recommendations from Greg and John – William Grant Conspriacy and We Were Promised Jetpacks

One of my hubby’s partners suggested I go back to my roots as I had somehow missed out on William Grant Conspiracy back in the day. Now having gone back to listen, I know why; I basically ignored the Tom Waitts, Leonard Cohen, Tindersticks genre until boyfriends various and sundry made me listen to them in college.Though I hear some songs from these bands and have real fondness for them (Tindersticks “Travelling Light” springs to mind), I would be unlikely to go to their gigs, save Cohen as I have come to really love him over the years. I think William Grant Conspiracy is likely to be something I will trot out at a dinner party as it sounds nice. But I don’t think I’ll ever put it on while I’m having a quiet bath with a glass of wine. It’s too morose and it didn’t grab me at the time in my life when that was the only emotion I could tap into. I now prefer more joyful distractions. kkk

We Were Promised Jetpacks are, in my opinion, a more joyful distraction. Soulful shouting passes for vocals (even shouted harmonies!) and the frenetic guitars even do the Jawbreaker thing of going all chukka chukka at prime moments (they do this in “Quiet Little Voices”). I like these guys very much and need to listen more before I can pass judgement but once again I think I’m going to try to get to them live as they seem great. The best bit is that they sound all SoCal until you get to the pared back vocals without much accompaniment (like in “Ships With Holes Will Sink”) when their broad Glaswegian accents burst through the drum beats. And, free stuff alert: you can stream their music for free on their myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/wewerepromisedjetpacks). I’m doing so right now. kkkk

Pooplosions and other tales... Echo and the Bunnymen; The Drums

If anyone reads these posts, apologies for the delay in today’s post.  I was sidetracked by poop and screaming, a recurring theme in my days of late. 

The Fountain – Echo and the Bunnymen - 

I know, I know.  I said no more old bands making new records.  But it was a piecrust promise, made to be broken. And who can blame me when Echo and the Bunnymen, according to Ian McCulloch, have just released “the best [album they’ve] made, apart from Ocean Rain."

After a tragic autumn which saw keyboardist Jake Brockman killed in a motorcycle collision, Echo’s 11^th studio effort has been released to sweet whoops and self-indulgent wallows from their many fans.  I’ll tell you right now, I’m leading the charge on the former.

The album hooks immediately with the first track “Think I Need it Too.”  It has all the loveliness of original Echo and has the power to transport the listener to the age of John Hughes within the first few bars.  The pace is matched with “Forgotten Fields” and then the Bunnies up their game with “Do you Know Who I Am?” a track that well and truly rockets the band into the 21^st century with power chords and driven vocals worthy of the Killers thanks to guitarist Will Sergeant.  “Shroud of Turn” isn’t going to win any prizes in terms of depth, but it doesn’t need to as it’s driving music, pure and simple, the kind of music you want to listen to with the windows down. On the other hand, Chris Martin’s help on the title track lends more than name-power; it’s well-written and well-produced though by no means the highpoint of a well-rounded, primetime effort. 

Really I just think this is an excellent, listen-all-the-way-through album.  In terms of the critics, from what I’ve read, it’s been a mixed bag though I can’t see why.  The most sensible I’ve heard is that Fountain sounds like a debut album and I can really see why.  It has all the vibrancy of a new outfit but is further enhanced by a band that knows what it’s about and isn’t afraid to flaunt it.  Namely, McCulloch is back on fine vocal form, broody and full-bodied. One reviewer’s comparison of him to Richard Hawley is right on the money.  The keyboards, which one feels compelled to really pay attention to given the untimely death of Brockman, are bigger and more obviously featured on tracks “Proxy” and “The Idolness of Gods” and lend a rich, grownup feel to the proceedings.

So yes, it’s an album by a band that’s been around as long as I’ve been on the planet but this is new music at its finest.  Run to buy this album.  kkkkk

I got sidetracked this week by vintage Deathcab for Cutie and have been listening to Transatlanticism all week.  Look for a bumper reader rec next week.

ITunes free download of the week – “Let’s Go Surfing,” The Drums – 

Why isn’t there more whistling in pop music?  I mean really.  As a person who struggles to whistle in tune, I am eternally impressed by people who can not only whistle but make it a nice experience for the listener.  The Drums have heard my cry and have provided a simple little ditty with not only whistling but also a fab nod to a childhood handgame, “Down down baby, down by the rollercoaster.”  I defy anyone to listen to this song and remain grumpy. Though saying that, there’s not a lot to it and I had to repeatedly go back to the song title as I kept forgetting it as soon as I heard it.  To this I apply the dreaded phrase – it’s nice. kkk 

Windsock it to me... Euros Childs; Lou Barlow; Japandroids; Mumford & Sons

Son of Euro Child – Euros Childs - kkkk 1/2

In 1998, a friend of a friend made me a mix tape.  He declared himself to be a concrete poet (that’s the kind where they write things in shapes – like a poem about frogs written to look like a frog) and he always wore a silk cravat with blue jeans (not in an ironic way, mind, but just because he did).  When he walked, I remember him flouncing and I’m pretty sure he was responsible for the night we went to the party with the windsock installation. He slept with Buddhist monks and television personalities.  He spoke in verse.  He looked a bit like Oscar Wilde meets Hollywood from Mannequin.  Hopefully that has painted a basic picture.

Anyway, this guy, let’s call him Francis, Francis decided at some point to make me a mix tape.  The cover had a picture of people dancing at a Bar Mitzvah.  And most of the music on the tape was so esoteric that it was almost unlistenable save a Glen Campbell song, one by Leonard Cohen and this rare Echo and the Bunnymen.  I remember how upset he was when I mentioned I had previously heard and liked the Echo song as apparently the whole point of the tape was to be completely esoteric, unknown and unlistenable.

Anyway listening to the new Euros Childs (yes that is really his name – take that Francis – and if you can pronounce it correctly, you get double points) album reminded me of the first time I listened to that mix tape.  At first, you’re greeted with HAL generated bee-da-ba-boo noises which somehow become what can only be described as circus music.  The tracks are incredibly varied and in places, so downright opposed to one another that it’s sometimes difficult to see how the album could have been made by the same artist. “gently all around” sounds like Hefner; “how do you do” is George Harrison meets the Cars; “look at my boots” is strangely like the Who.  But though the Beatley vocals create the only discernable through-line, it all seems to hold together quite nicely.  My only real criticism is that there are definite moments where Childs sounds like Phish.

Most people know Childs as the frontman of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci though I confess that other than that, I pretty much knew nothing of him at all until I listened to this album.  Now here’s the thing.  I will be completely honest and say that there is no way I would have bought this album because not only did I know nothing about Childs but more importantly, the initial listen would have put me off.  But as luck would have it, I didn’t have to buy it as Childs made it available to all his fans for free.  It’s an interesting juxtaposition as without signing on to his webpage to become a fan, you can’t have the album for free so I was officially a fan before having ever heard a note.  But though I was perfectly prepared to write it off once I heard the circus music, it is surprisingly listenable.  In terms of the comparisons, I feel about it the same way I felt about Hefner’s We Love the City.  It seems like something critics will like without appealing to listeners, except that upon closer inspection and given a bit of time, it is surprisingly listenable.  So much so that I have found myself listening to it on a loop this week.  Highlights include the very funny “look at my boots” seemingly about people from Hoxton (my interpretation, not his) and “carrboro.”  Anyway I highly recommend that you become a fan and give it a listen as in places, it smarts of understated excellence, something Francis could never hope to achieve.  ****1/2

Goodnight Unknown – Lou Barlow - kkkk

And though I hadn’t planned on reviewing it, I can’t help but note: who would have thunk it?  My hero, Mr. Lou Barlow of the wonderful Sebadoh and the beloved if not lovely Dinosaur Jr has released a new album.  Ah so sweet.  This is much more the former than the latter; it is like finding a timecapsule sealed in Sebadoh’s heyday. 

The songs on Goodnight Unknown are more mature, certainly, but don’t come across as bitter or disappointed nor do they cross into the I’m-a-parent-so-I-understand-the-world realm (erhem Liz Phair).  They find their centre in the bittersweet with such roses as “The One I Call” (my favourite) and “I’m Thinking.” Strangely Barlow sounds very much like Bob Mould circa Sugar on the track “The Right” but the title track and “One Machine, One Long Fight” are back to the basic Sebadoh sound of fuzzy guitars and grouchy toned lyrics.

Though essentially a non-singer in terms of vocal training, few vocalists have the depth and soul Barlow can convey in a few sweet notes.  Worth every penny and moment spent.  Four stars.

Recommendation from Ron – Japandroids - kkk 1/2

If anyone remembers the energy of the earlier Jawbox stuff, Japandroids has captured it.  From the first few riffs of “The Boys are Leaving Town,” to the height of fuzz-box and hot drums on the intro to “Sovereignty,” they basically had me at hello.   Though the vocals are kind of basic neo-punkrock boy, the music itself elevates the whole to higher ground.  I’d be interested to learn more about these guys as their drums are mixed at a particularly high volume compared to the rest of the music.  I wonder if that was intentional.  But whether it was or not, it works.  The music is loud but not unpleasantly so and very few recent punky bands have good enough drums to merit a showcase.

I’d like to see these guys live because I’m guessing it would be pretty volatile.  They sound like a live band trapped within the confines of an album.  I’d like to set them free and see what they can do.  They have conveniently set up a whole slew of London shows  - 27.10.09, 21:00 at Madame JoJos; 28.10.09, 19:00 at Rough Trade East; 29.10.09, 21:00 Hoxton Square; 30.10.09, 21:00 Barfly – anyone want to go?  Probably Barfly for me. Three stars

The iTunes free download of the week – “Sigh No More” by Mumford & Sons – kkk 1/2

With songs in the vein of Sufjan Stevens, Mumford & Sons is a good outfit and “Sigh No More” has lovely smooth harmonies coupled with a super build and good use of banjo.  I read one review that got huffy at their God-speak and preachy tone, but I’ve always been of the opinion that music should be about that which you are passionate.  While I am not religious, if Mumford & Sons want to praise God with their banjos, I say more power to them.  Four stars.

The season of the old me… Maps; Kim Divine; Hockey

Maps – Maps - kkk1/2

The first few bars are Grandaddy’s “Now It’s On” all over again.  Which would have been great as far as I’m concerned.  Because let’s face it, it’s been a while since something made me really excited.  No that doesn’t mean I take back what I wrote about the Delphic stuff; I’m just looking for a feeling like the first time I heard “Photobooth” by Deathcab for Cutie or the first time I heard New Order or Fugazi or the Cure or Brendan Benson (yes I put him in there if only for “Tiny Spark”).  I’m looking for the moment where you suddenly get caught in a wave and little hairs stand up on your neck and you think, “I didn’t know music could be like this.”  And as I get older, that feeling is more and more infrequent and I’m never more alive than on the odd occasion when it occurs.

It didn’t happen with Maps self-titled new album.  And I really thought it might.  During the intro to “Turning of the Mind,” I really thought it was happening.  And then, like so many things in life, it just fell short.  Not that it isn’t good.  It is actually quite good.  In the British sense of ‘quite’ meaning just sort of instead of the American very.  There are flavours of Grandaddy and the Postal Service and Pet Shop Boys.  But it doesn’t grow.  It doesn’t develop except in a few places where it grows from slightly twee to cheesy.  Love Will Come is a good example; a promising first few bars develop into something from the chaviest club in Ibiza.  I really tried to see how anyone other than someone off their face on class As would get off on this album and I’m sorry to say I didn’t get there.  What I think is missing is the darkness that rides undercurrent on good electronic albums – think Peter Murphy and early New Order.  It’s that grime that weighs it down enough to avoid you wanting to kill yourself with their Casio keyboards. 

James Chapman’s efforts as Maps to this point have been a critical success and listening to his first proper album We Can Create shows you why – lovely fuzzy stuff that is closer to Stone Roses and My Bloody Valentine than the current album.  I had been hoping for something more along those lines but this is much clubbier.  In addition to Turning, Everything is Shattering and Nothing are probably the closest they come to the darker sounds if only thematically but again I really think these fall short.  In fact, Turning is probably the height of the album for me and you never want an album to end with the first song. 

To be fair to Chapman, I recognise that I may be a little more than slightly musically jaded, but I don’t think I would have liked this album any more at 17 than I do now.  It’s unsubtle and at the same time a bit boring.  Saying that, it’s good background music and I don’t dislike it.  I’m just sort of ambivalent and I had had such high hopes. 

Recommendations from ME – Kim Divine

This week, instead of a recommendation from you lovely people, I have one of my own.  Kim Divine’s new album, Square One.  Kim and I went to college together though I believe she was a couple of years behind me.  In fact I knew her mainly as the girlfriend of a friend of mine.  I only recently found out through her facebook page that she’s been making music.  I’m embarrassed to say that I hadn’t listened to her music before now because, if I’m being honest, I work under a premise of reverse nepotism and often discount music created by people I know.  I can’t explain the logic of this – there is none.  I have known many talented people throughout the years and have often liked what they produce, but always feel a little funny about promoting them as if my knowing them somehow negates my opinion of their work.  Well this week I say, respectfully, bugger that.  Kim Divine’s voice is delightful and her songs are considered and well-crafted.  And whether or not I had ever met her, I would say the same.  She’s got a very American mainstream sound (think Michelle Branch) and is showcased especially well by her acoustic stuff.  And right now you can listen to a few tracks for free at http://www.kimdivine.com/store.html.  Anyway, I like it.  Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

The iTunes free download of the week – “Too Fake” by Hockey – kkk

Sounds a bit like Paolo Nutini covering La Roux songs.  As I believe John Holmes or John Richardson said of the latter, it sounds like she’s being chased.  This is like that.  Still I love the free stuff and again I didn’t hate it.  It’s got energy and is fun so it has probably accomplished exactly what the band wanted it to. 

I’m actually wondering if the onset of British autumn, complete with rain, wind and early nightfall has had an impact on my reviews this week.  I’m just a bit grouchy.  The only way of being objective is to acknowledge how subjective one is.

Parentheses run amok... MOF; Miike Snow; Delphic; Alberta Cross

Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk kkkk

Back in the day when country was still a dirty word on the American indie-rock scene (at least at the teenage level) these guys were raging away under the thin guise of grungy guitars and amp’d feedback.  They’ve always had that sound though – that achey-breaky (I won’t say the rest) vibe that should be bad but feels so good.   We’re talking the masters of late 90’s emo-core (as I always understood it to be – what the heck is that crap they call emo these days?) – Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, Jim James (or Yim Yames depending upon your orientation) of My Morning Jacket and M. Ward of himself, now known collectively as Monsters of Folk.

They’ve been playing as a unit since 2004 but until now were pretty much singly a gigging outfit.  This oft-proclaimed supergroup has finally punted their first official indoor outing.  The self-titled album is a goodie but in a grower-not-a-shower sort of way.  By their own admission or at least according to their publicist, this album could have easily ended up sounding like three mini-EPs as these boys all sound so distinct.  But on most of the tracks, they really used their differences to come up with the goods, a series of smooth, blending harmonies with all the twangy guitars you’d expect. 

I’ve heard some reviewers say that it’s Jim James who steals the show or at least is scoopier (http://drownedinsound.com/releases/14665/reviews/4137925) but I have to disagree, though this may simply be a matter of vocal preference.  I confess that I’ve never totally jived with My Morning Jacket which is arguably James run riot.  For me the standouts come from M. Ward; he’s just too damned throaty to blend easily, though I think his husky sound is a sweet relief from some of the higher James-led vocals – Baby Boomer makes the most of him without a doubt.  Other highlights include Lotta Losin’ (Ward again), and Map of the World (great ache from Oberst).

I agree with others who have said that Mogis has done one hell of a job gluing the whole show together and I like the fact that while Oberst is omnipresent on this album, it’s in a highly effective and un-showy sort of way; he hits the high harmonies that simultaneously lessen the saccharine quality of his own and James’ vocals while enhancing the overall feel of the melodies.   Basically I think it’s one hell of an album and the more I listen to it, the more I like it.  And as a result, the Times and the Guardian agreed on something.  I conclude the same – four stars.

Recommendations from Lindsay and Gills – Miike Snow and Delphic

The thing I’ve decided about recommendations is that there’s not as much of an expiry date on reviewing them.  Admittedly these will be things I’ve missed that you lovely people have been kind enough to help me rectify so while I’ll endeavour to review albums in the week they were released, the recommendations section can be anything from 2009 and beyond.  So says I.  And thank you for all the recommendations last week; I had a ball getting down to some of the suggestions and intend to make this a weekly feature.  Can I ask that you pass this link/group around so that I can get more and more feed?

Ok so this week I checked out Miike Snow at Lindsay’s suggestion.  The single “Animal” has gotten quite a lot of play on BBC 6Music and for this reason, I recognise that I came to the album with a bit of a preconceived notion of what it would/should be.  I found it only slightly disappointing.  By all rights, I should love it – it’s like Prince meets Gnarls Barkley and as I love both of those, what’s the problem?  I couldn’t put my finger on it until I heard the mashup featuring him and Vampire Weekend’s “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance.”  I felt that on his own he didn’t deliver that extra oomph but with the power of VW, unstoppable.  His remix of Passion Pit’s “The Reeling” was wicked as well.  And both are free as downloads http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Miike_Snow/track/Passion_Pit_-_The_Reeling_Miike_Snow_Remixor via Miike Snow’s MySpace page.

As for Delphic’s most recent EP, This Momentary (mainly remixes of their recent single), this also has had a lot of 6Music play but had a more positive effect on me both when I heard it there and the album in its entirety.  The last time I went to the Limelight in NYC it wasn’t the Limelight anymore.  It was called something lame like Industry or ComeGiveUsMoney or something and it was lousy with scantily clad models and overweight 50-something men in pinstripe suits.  The funny thing was that I went to see Longwave play that night (this was like six years ago) and once they started playing, it was such a fantastic surprise, such a wonderful throwback to Limelight’s musical heyday, that I immediately felt transported.  Listening to Delphic is like that.  You see the album cover and you think, this looks like a Beloved album cover and if you’re me, you think, “promising.” Then you step inside and doubt creeps in.  But as soon as you get involved in the music, it’s awesome.  I mean this is music to get ready to on that rare Friday night when you’re actually released from your cage for a few hours. This Momentary was released on August 31^st 2009 and is a thing to behold.  I’ll finish by saying this: Seriously.  Fun.  Good.  Stuff. 

The iTunes free download of the week:  “Old Man Chicago” by Alberta Cross

Who doesn’t like free stuff?  Well I certainly do and this was a lovely discovery for me.  I think the thing about music is that you need to have at least an hour in your day to do some exploring – read some reviews, listen to some MySpace pages etc and if you’re working constantly or cleaning noses/dishes/clothes/raking leaves or whatever, you can lose not only the will to live but also the desire to explore.  So given this superb opportunity (thank you my lovely husband), I have uncovered a few things, one being the weekly free single from iTunes.  Last week was Dominos by Big Pink which I was less enthralled with.  It’s definitely one of those songs I’d leave the room to avoid.  But this week’s Alberta Cross single is great and not a band I’d listened to before.  “Old Man Chicago” is lovely stompy music.  Think Ryan Adams and Jayhawks.  Give it a download and listen.  What have you got to lose?

Monsters of Folk

Hey guys - new album by the Oberst-flavoured supergroup, Monsters of Folk - out September 21 UK/Yoyo, September 22 US and elsewhere. Very likey if you likey folky. More to follow next week...

Enough about us, let's talk about me - Varshons, The Lemonheads

On Saturday night, my husband, our friend and I went to the Lemonheads gig at the Forum in Kentish Town.  It was my first gig since Little Dude was born and it seemed that, on the dawn of a musical new day, it was a fitting end to the previous phase.  

The show was all it promised to be; Evan Dando, stringy-limbed and stringy-haired as ever, full of the old chestnuts that one expects to hear from a band who has now been around for nigh on two decades, banging away on his guitar with effortless (if slightly apathetic) abandon.  There were moments bordering on pure beauty (Big Gay Heart and The Outdoor Type spring to mind) but mainly pure fun.  Imagine a sea of middle-aged mostly ex-boy-geeks-cum-man-geeks, wearing the same T-shirts they were wearing in 1992 but looking as if someone had just squashed them down a bit making them shorter and rounder (and balder), bopping violently to Bit Part and Great Big No.  And though we're pretty sure that save maybe three songs, the playlist was exactly the same as it was when we saw them two years ago (I say them but I mean Dando as the lineup is always changing), it was exactly what we paid for.

I confess that my favourite Lemonheads tracks have often been their covers (Frank Mills, Different Drum, yes, also the one that they don't talk about anymore) and therefore their June '09 release, Varshons, a mainly alt-country covers album produced by Gibby Haynes (of the Butthole Surfers) is the right recipe in my book.  I read somewhere that the track picks were based largely on the mix tapes Haynes used to make for Dando which totally makes sense given the higgledy-piggledy nature of the track list. Ranging from an iffy Liv Tyler-assisted cover of Leonard Cohen's Hey, There's No Way to Say Goodbye to a thoroughly excellent Laying with Linda (a take on G.G. Allin which rocked live), it offers up a good mix overall.  Though I have to say I don't really get the pairing with Tyler and even less the one with Mossy on Dirty Robot, I can't blame the boys for wanting to hang out with two of the hottest women north of 30.  

On the whole Varshons is just okay, but in terms of seeing what Dando and Haynes do with such a diverse pool, it's worth it just to experience their double act which I think is ultimately pretty successful.  I certainly hope Haynes is in on the promised next album.  I will also say that this album seems to convey more fun than their last self-titled effort, fun sorely needed based on the soul-destroying ennui Dando sometimes/often displayed live this past Saturday.  And although I still derive real joy from hearing Rudderless, I really can't say I blame him.  As my husband pointed out, imagine writing a riff one afternoon when you're 18 and it's still the main thing anyone wants to hear you play when you're 42?

As for me and my first official foray into modern music, I think this was less than successful - an aging band playing even older songs.  Next week I promise to find something a little more this century.