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