It Evolves!

What I've been up to now that school is over...

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Quick, quick, quick...

Child Bite - Wild Feast
Spazzy (post)post-punk with analog synths, random breakdowns, and even a banjo. More accessible than Ex-models, XBXRX, etc, but still good
-yea

Pelle Carlberg - Everything. Now!
A Swedish Belle & Sebastian that tries a bit too hard to be clever. Not bad, but not really worth it either.
-meh

Mmm...chemicals

Of Montreal go all new-wavy...I can't quite decide what i think.

Of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse

New album "Hissing Fauna, You Are The Destroyer?" comes out...umm...eventually on Polyvinyl.

The Fucking Ocean - Le Main Rouge

They're a trio that sounds like a quartet, because they were a quartet, but are now just a trio that sometimes pretends they aren't. I think Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds might have been in the band at some point. They made an album with a French title that actually has a few French lyrics. I don't know if their conjugations are correct. I don't even think they're French. I don't know why they didn't take the easy way out and take Spanish in high school like the rest of us. Yes, they are called The Fucking Ocean. Yes, they sound like the fucking ocean. No, I'm not going to get into a metaphor about the rhythmic tides and powerful waves.

So yes, The Fucking Ocean. Angular post-punk that will give your ass some inertia and put a stutter in your step. The drums and bass will make even the most tight panted and perfect haired of us shake it, while the guitars come in with just enough spazzyness to make it a bit uncomfortable. And if that wasn't enough, there are two of those guitars, and while they try to get along, they can't always be friends. They weave in an out as they go from complimenting lines, to pushing each other down, to exchanging words in a screeching argument. That right there is enough to soften the ol' brain a bit, but then there are three people that all have something to say. At least they tend to take turns. Try not to fall down.

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Quickly...

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - The Swell Season
Glen is better known for being in The Frames and Marketa is a Czech vocalist and pianist. They got together and made an album of Lambchop-esque songs with a bit of Leonard Cohen influence. The strings can bring it right to the brink of melodrama, but it's still a solid album.
-yea

Barzin - My Life in Rooms
Slowcore (although i hate to use the term) in the same vein as pre-Destroyer Low, but with a touch of Grandaddy style warm, reverby vocals. A bit monotonous in large doses, but there are definitely some good tracks.
-yea

The Handsome Family - Last Days of Wonder

When an album is about bowling alley bars, being attacked by wild boars, and Tesla's death ray, it's hard to not like it. When that album is by The Handsome Family, it's nearly impossible.

"Last Days of Wonder" is the newest of numerous solid albums by the family that actually is a family. Wife Rennie Sparks writes the words and plays a few instruments while husband Brett Sparks sings the words and plays the rest. The line up is rounded out by a decent amount of guest musicians playing everything from trombone to saw. The result is The Handsome Family's old country sound with storytelling lyrics and plenty of dark humor, death, and dementia. Brett's voice ranges from a rumble to a warbling wail as threats turn to love songs and hope ends in suicide. The album never quite lets you know whether it is all a deadpan joke or honest desperation, but for those of us that wonder the same thing about our lives, "Last Days of Wonder" is the perfect soundtrack.

Listen to "Tesla's Hotel Room"
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Norfolk & Western - The Unsung Colony

Norfolk & Western are often reffered to as "the band with the girl from The Decemberists" (Rachel Blumberg is their former drummer) or "the guy that owns Typefoundry Studios" (Adam Selzer being that guy) or simply M. Wards back up band (as both of them often are). This is unfortunate because over the years a band that started as two people, a cast of revolving musicians, and a Victrola Grammaphone has evolved into their own unique entity. They have gone from being in the shadow of their other bands to being their contemporaries, and with this release, their competition.

In the past Norfolk & Western have gotten lumped under the "folk" heading, but with each release they become harder and harder to pin down. They can seamlessly flow between Iron and Wine balladry and epic orchestration. Dreary folk slips into M. Ward style nostalgia, with a story that would be at home in an outlaw country song. And that's just the begining of an album full of subtle sounds and numerous influences. These influences have come together to form their most diverse and engaging album to date. Their quiet introspection has turned outward with the politics of "From the Interests of Few" and "The New Rise of Labor," but they still retain their subtlety, which draws the listener in rather than polarizing them. These political tracks manage to coexist with their most well known talent of telling detailed, yet universal stories, and introspective reflection. Couple all of that with a bit of marimba and a lonesome accordian and it's hard to turn it off.

More info
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The ol' Quick Reviews...

Boyskout - Another Life
Girl group with a synthy post-punk sound. Nothing too new, but still worth a listen.
-yea

barnacle bill - towards the pebbled shore
where are the sea shanties and pirate songs? Instead you get pop rock that belongs on an adult contemporary station in 1993
-nay

Rafter - 10 Songs
Release of an album originally recorded in 1998. Some decent (albiet overhyped) pop songs hidden among a bunch of distorted electronic stuff that didn't hold my interest.
-meh

No Wait Wait - About You
Indie pop released on Secretly Canadian, so I wanted to like it, but then came the trite lyrics.
-nay

William Elliott Whitmore - Song of the Blackbird

On the surface, "Song of the Blackbird" is a chronicle of the seasons interspersed with musings on nature and rural life. It quickly becomes apparent that the changing weather is more than just the clouds rolling in. It's the rain that comes when a life is lost, it's the cold chill of an unrequited love, and those first warm rays when a person moves on. Those rays may be warming Whitmore's face, but his feet are still in the mud.

"Song of the Blackbird" couples William's amazing, gravely voice (which even after seeing him live I still can't believe comes out of a man in his late 20s) with his banjo plucking and occasionally a full band. He sings songs reminiscent of a past era, but with themes and emotions that are universal. The sound of "The Chariot" would be right at home on the porch of R.L. Burnside, but the loss it expresses still retains a timeless quality, while "Lee County Flood" shows a rare glimpse of optimism with the realization that after the rain comes re-growth. The album embodies a merging of classic folk tradition with modern influences and universal plight. If Tom Waits was thrown into a Steinbeck story about the dust bowl, this is the album that would result.


Tour Dates
MP3 of "The Chariot" from Southern Records

Quick Reviews...

Xiu Xiu - The Air Force
Bleeping, buzzing, videogame symphonies. Lyrics that make you want to cry, laugh, and cringe all at the same time. Some of the best stuff they've put out so far. I'm going to go listen to it about 12 more times.
-yea

Dead Moon - Echoes of the Past
Compilation of 49 Dead Moon tracks put together by Fred Cole (Dead Moon's singer, songwriter, and guitarist). Dark, foreboding punk from the sweaty bastards you hopefully know and love.
-yea

Instrumental Quarter - Traffic Jam
Atmospheric, minimal instrumental music. The standard rock setup plus strings and Rhodes. The first half of the album is fairly steady with few dynamic changes, but the second half moves into more experimental territory with dynamic changes, tempo shifts, dissonance, and more open song structures.
-yea

Jen Elliott & Bluestruck - This Damn Song
Like a female fronted Blues Hammer attempting to be dentist-office-radio friendly.
-nay

Death Vessel

So in the past 12 hours or so I've heard several people mention Death Vessel, which consists of Joel Thibodeau, a New Englander with a not-so-false falsetto and a layered folk sound. He was signed to Sub Pop just a couple weeks ago, so expect to hear his name around quite a bit in the coming months.


Death Vessel - Mandan Dink
Death Vessel - Deep in the Horchata (my favorite song title of the day)

Official Website
Myspace

Califone - Roots and Crowns

Heron King Blues was the scariest album of 2004. Not in the black metal and corpse paint kind of way, not in the William Shatner duet with Henry Rollins "is this actually real?" sort of way, and not in the Fergie solo album "what the hell happened to pop music?" sort of way. It was an album about a half-man half-bird creature that haunted the dreams of Califone's primary singer and songwriter, Tim Rutili, while he slept. It was simply a creepy album - so much so that I fell asleep with it on and when I woke up in the middle of the noisy, drone of the title track, I promised myself I would never listen to the album while tired again.

If Heron King Blues was the bad dream, then Roots and Crowns is the morning after. It might not be a sunny morning with birds chirping and waffles waiting, but at least the dream is over and the sun is up. The line that best sums up the album actually appears in the only cover on the album ("The Orchids" by Psychic TV) when Rutili sings, with a relieved tone, "and in the morning after the night I fall in love with the light." This theme of renewal is found throughout the album in Rutili's unique style of lyrics which seem to stagger the line between stream of consciousness and intimate description. This is all backed up by an almost ridiculous number of instruments (over 30, not including multiple band members playing the same instrument) that come together to form Califone's unique, droning symphony of Americana. The album ends on a melancholy note as Rutili returns to the theme of sleep. He seems weary of another night and trails off mid-sentence. "This winter bed lives and breathes, winter bed - could do so much if you would..."

I could never recommend this album enough.

Click for more info and the chance to order the limited edition, hand silk-screened vinyl version (which I just did)