TGIF Hodge Podge – Substitute Teacher Edition

James is good at this post.  I’m just losing my Hodge Podge virginity, so bear with me.  I know that you wish Diamond Jim was easing sounds into your ear right now, but he’s got critical business in the Antilles to attend to, so I’m filling in.  With any luck, this won’t be a total trainwreck and we’ll be back to normal in seven days.  On with the Hodge Podge!

First up in the Hodge Podge this week is an insanely catchy tune from Los Angeles based explorers of all sounds African, Fool’s Gold.  Including members of Foreign Born, We are Scientists and The Fall, Fool’s Gold will have an album on shelves sometime in September.  This snippet of appealingly foreign syncopated rhythms, sneaky guitar lines, indecipherable lyrics and out-of-nowhere horns has us a tingle with anticipation.  Paul Simon’s Graceland is one of the first records that I remember interacting with on a legitimate level and I’m one of the last people on the internet who’ll admit to loving Vampire Weekend, so this kind of thing is right up my street.

“Surprise Hotel” – Fool’s Gold

You’re, no doubt, aware of our propensity to love noisy art rock (DD/MM/YYYY, Gay Beast, Chrystal Antlers…).  Occasionally, I feel like we really only review three or four records here at Citizen Dick:  the aforementioned noisy art rock record, the sensitive singer songwriter record (Alela Diane), the classic rock revivalist record (Pontiak) and the semi-twee folk record (The Peekers).  Then I remember that within those broad categories, there’s a lovely amount of diversity and intrigue.  And.  We probably hit records outside of those broadly brushed groups, right?  If not, I’m going to blame it on the marketplace and shirk all responsibility.  Anyway.  We somehow missed the April release of Pterodactyl’s Worldwild, which would have fit nicely into the noisy art rock record category.  To ameliorate that mistake, we’ve got a track for you today.

“First Daze” – Pterodactyl

Last up today is a track from an EP that I never got around to reviewing.  It was on my list of things to write, but kept shifting to the bottom.  No fault of the band in question certainly, but more a function of the fact that my assistant took a week of vacation at the worst possible time.  (That’s a joke.  I don’t give my assistant vacation.  Hah!  No, seriously.  I don’t have an assistant.  If you are looking for an “internship” in the blogosphere and would be interested in reading my e-mail, drop us a line in the comments.)  Dark Knights of Camelot fit nicely into the classic rock revivalist category with big crunchy power chords and thunder god style percussion.  If you’ve got a Trans Am with t-tops, you’re going to love it.  (That is intended as a complement, obviously.  Who among us that grew up in the 80s doesn’t wish they rolled into the office in the car from Smokey and the Bandit?)  We’re going to ride into the sunset with “Purple Undertones” cranking; the rest of the EP, Hurrication, is of similar quality and well worth checking out.  Dudes are from Mississippi and recorded three quarters of the thing live to preserve their raucous energy.  Good times.

“Purple Undertones” – Dark Knights of Camelot

No vault track this week because that’s how I roll.  I am a substitute teacher.  Yeah.