I hate to say it, but we have a case of the Mondays today here at Citizen Dick HQ. It’s been a rough weekend on all fronts for us Dicks and as a result we don’t have a full-on album review for you to enjoy this morning. But fear not dear reader, we do have you covered in the music department with a couple of great tracks from a pair of upcoming releases that we have been listening to over the last week or so. We are sure that these tunes will tide you over until tomorrow, when we will be back in full swing with the kind of reviews that you have become accustomed to from us. In the mean time, the three of us will be out getting our swine flu vaccinations just in case. We recommend you do the same.
First up is the lead single from ILAD’s upcoming album, Here/There, due out July 28th on the band’s own label, SYJIP Records. ILAD is a Richmond, VA quartet specializing in their own unique brand of jazz-infused noise punk. If you think that sounds unique, you would be correct. Armed with an arsenal of instruments including guitars, a Hammond organ, a Wurlitzer, Casio keyboards, an accordion, a clarinet, wood flutes, didgeridoo, banjos, throat-singing, a glockenspiel, various shakers, chimes, small wooden and metal percussion devices, and vibraphone, the band is able to cram an incredible range of sound into 3-minutes of madness. While they obviously don’t incorporate the use of ALL of these instruments on any one track, it doesn’t take a musical genius to pick up on the fact that there is an awful lot going on in any given song. If I had to compare ILAD to another band that we have covered recently, I would say that they most closely resemble a mellowed out, downtempo version of Crystal Antlers. “Magazine” is the first track from the upcoming album that we have had the pleasure of listening to, and it absolutely delivers with a trippy, chaotic vibe that warms the soul. We are looking forward to getting our ears on the rest of the album sometime soon, so expect to see a full review of Here/There later this summer as the release date nears.
It’s no secret that I like a little bit of twang in my music, so knowing that it should not be a surprise to hear that I am a huge fan of Trainwreck Riders. The San Francisco alt-country rockers, who list influences as diverse as Meat Puppets and Creedence Clearwater Revival, are all set to release their third record, The Perch, on may 12th on Alive Records. In anticipation of that release, they recently leaked the second track from the album, “Chug Along,” just last week. The song is pretty much what you have come to expect from Trainwreck Riders, offering up a heavy dose of traditional country songwriting and musicianship backed by a classic punk beat. Overall the band is probably more country that alt-country, but given the predominance of the punk influence they become a difficult act to categorize, though it is easy to pick out the elements that are present which include country, folk, punk, blues and rockabilly. Regardless of what you want to call them though, the important thing to know is that they are making some great music that you should probably be listening to.
