Tag Archive: C.D. Singles Club


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I woke up this morning with a salty aura.  I also woke up curious.  While tooling around trying to find out whether or not I like the highly buzzed, Tennis, I stumbled across Tjutjuna, a post-rock pyschedelic monster on the same label.  Fire Talk, a tiny label run Trevor Peterson of Woodsman, has lots of fun things to put your ears to, but this Tjutjuna act has got all the grandiose wickedness I need this morning.  They remind me a little of Thrill Jockey's post rock stalwarts, Pontiak, but with a little more control and divergence.  "Bottle Kids" is a trippy and dark number that spins with ease and entrances listeners with a killer synth drone and simplistic percussion.  Drugs are bad, but this makes me want to take some.  Heavily.  The crescendo at the track's close is where everything falls apart, and I do too. "Mosquito Hawk," is all about the slow build, with a lighthearted keys intro that bleeds into a furious barrage of echoing guitar crunch.  I need this self-titled 12 inch on vinyl.  I think you do, as well.  Click HERE to order this at Fire Talk's website.

Tjutjuna – Mosquito Hawk

Tjutjuna – Bottle Kids

 

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Folks, if you weren't living underneath a big mossy rock last year, then you know how gorgeous Bonfires on the Heath was, right?  It doesn't get more pristine and well-produced than that.  Not only was it one of our Best Albums of 2009, but it was one of those albums that manages to fill the belly regardless of mood or location.  The heavily orchestrated album weaved through a myriad of styles and instrumentation, never once abandoning the jazzy and psychedelic ethos that they've always maintained.  In a surprising move, the band is quickly turning around and following their creative muses up the flagpole.  Minotaur, a quick hitting thirty minute, 8-new track album is hitting shelves on August 31st through Merge.  However, don't bank on this thing being available physically by that point, because it's being limited to 1000 copies.  Enjoy the first taste of the albu, "Jerry," below.  You can preorder Minotaur right now by clicking HERE.

The Clientele – Jerry

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Nearly one year ago today, James and I snuck up to the front of the side stage at The Pitchfork Music Festival to catch Jagjaguwar's newest flagship band, Women, for their stripped down and fairly mellow set.  Their self-titled 2008 release received quite a bit of critical acclaim, and I'm a fan of the eclectic arrangment with solid-body rock core of most of their tracks.  The band is releasing their sophomore effort, Public Strain (produced by Chad VanGaalen), the last week of September.  The initial taste, "Eyesore" has me completely in a conundrum.  Women always manages to foster the brooding sense of darkness in me, while keeping me completely addicted for more.  "Eyesore" is the closing track of the record and has me fairly excited to see if the first part of the album toes the line in this direction.  If so, this is going to be an excellent follow up.

Women – Eyesore

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It is hot in Ohio.  93 yesterday.  Low 90s today.  Hot.  Too hot to write sentences even.  The "h" key on my keyboard just melted to my finger.  Hot.  What do you want in your earholes when it's hot?  Rock and roll, baby.  Straight ahead, kick you in the teeth, rock music.  No cellos.  No lyrics derived from a deep understanding of Wittgenstein.  No synthesizers.  Just guitars, sweaty dudes shouting choruses and hooks.  When the sun is beating down, it's too hot to move, you want three chords and a punch in the mouth.  You want The Sacred Broncos.  Dudes listened to a bunch of rock music.  Then they made some.  "Runnin' Shoes" is a pitcher of lemonade for these climatically challenging times.  Conveniently, The Sacred Broncos are bringing the noise to points east this summer.  They'll hit both of the principal Dick constituencies (July 19 in Brooklyn at Don Pedros, July 22 at Happy Dog in Cleveland).  More dates are available at their website.  (In related news, I'm psyched to make my first visit to Happy Dog, a recently opened hot dog joint/music venue.  Word on the street is that they have killer veggie wieners, so I'm way down.)  Grab a deck chair and hit play on The Sacred Broncos.

The Sacred Broncos – Runnin' Shoes

I had a re-mix riff all prepped for Independence Day, but I went into a food coma and missed the window.  The thrust was that America is founded on a re-mix, in that we took England, which was down-tempo chamber folk (monarchy!) and made it more awesome by turning it into high energy dance (democracy!).  Meh.  Lame.  This Teen Daze track, on the other hand, is sweet.

Local Natives – Wide Eyes (Teen Daze Remix)

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Quick hitter today everybody.  I just touched a match to a lighter-fluid soaked pyramid of charcoal.  Portabella mushroom and soy-protein wieners are waiting to be seared under the suddenly hot Ohio sun.  Got to run back outside to tend to the vegetarian barbecue post haste. 

This track from Chicago popsters CAW! CAW! appeared in our email today.  (You can guess how I feel about the band's name.  Look past the caps lock, internet.  Covers of books and all that.)  In five minutes, the quartet manages to remind me of Reel Big Fish and Frente! (which is weird, given that CAW! CAW! does not appear to be a ska band and does not include any ladies).  The track sounds super summery (notably the middle two minutes) and, as such, seemed appropriate in the midst of Cleveland's several consecutive days of high-80s temperatures.  Dudes have a handful of shows, an LP, and a really busy myspace page.  Enjoy.

CAW! CAW! – Sons of Sons of Saviors

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Rob has been pushing Brooklyn's Cavalier Rose hard for a couple of weeks.  I listened today because of the obvious connection to my basketball team.  Clevelanders have gone through the ringer over the last 48 hours; we're afraid that our Cavs are going to lose, badly.  (We're more afraid of a certain soon-to-be free agent leaving town, but I'll leave our worst fears unsaid.)  As I write, our fellows are down three after quarter one.  The Clevelander in me is prepared for the worst, but there's a nugget of optimism in my Earnest-Bynered sports fan soul.

Which brings us around to Cavalier Rose.  They share a title with my Cavs, but, more importantly, they have a muscularity that I'd like to see mirrored on the hardwood tonight.  Cavalier Rose aren't afraid to be assertive and bring it strong.  It sucks that they're from Brooklyn (understand this: If a certain free-agent-to-be signs with a team associated with certain Brookylnite rapper, there will be a serious t-shirt and cd bonfire in my driveway), but I'm willing to look past it.  If the Cleveland Cavaliers deliver some kind of performace like Cavalier Rose's "Atom Bomb," I'll be flipping over a police car tonight.

Cavalier Rose – Atom Bomb

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Our man Rob is the master of the internet.  I made a passing comment on one of Kevin's posts, asking the readership to hunt down a cover of Dink's early nineties cover of Neil Young's "Ohio."  Rob had a link in my inbox about thirty seconds later.  Dude is a wizard.  The song is better than I remembered it, if (possibly) a little dated.  The guitar hook at the front end is wicked and the found sound stuff works really well.  The vocals sound like the nineties, but that's almost a good thing, right?

Bigger picture, Dink was a band from Kent.  Kent's own Gerry Casale (you know him from Devo) famously chastised Neil Young and company as carpetbagging hippie posuers, singing about something they didn't understand and cashing in on it.  Dude was probably right.  The Dink cover is palpably angry, maybe because as Kent natives they got the meaning of the event in a way that Neil Young couldn't.  I'm probably not in the best position to pass judgement, but I think the pseudo-industrial grit of Dink strikes a more relevant moral tone than the high-flying harmonies of CSNY.  I mean, "Kick out the Jams" was a better pure song of rage than "Ohio," right?  Maybe more relevantly, who writes these songs today?  May 4th was a legitimate American tragedy, an obvious and groteusque abuse of government power.  We were right to be angry and sad in that event's aftermath.  Art was a logical outlet to explore those feelings and to criticize the government.  Is there nothing that pisses us off anymore?  Shouldn't somebody be writing angry songs?

In any event, given our blog's geographic locus, it probably is important to note that May 4th was this week.  Kent State has some amazing audio archived for folks who want to explore the event further.  At the very least, hit play on Dink.

Dink – Ohio

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For today's second post, we'll keep this quick and efficient.  We've got plenty of makeup work to get to this week.  Fortunately, this is the last week I have with my high school seniors (for those unaware, I teach 12th grade British Literature, for better or worse).  Needless to say, I've been a little out of blog-focus for a few days.  I have, however, been enjoying a few newly dropped tracks with albums looming soon.  I suppose a thematic tilt is important.  These three tracks don't necessarily line up well sound-wise, but they do represent the myriad of emotional shifts I've been experiencing this week.  Dealing with "senioritis" in teenagers can be a harrowing experience.  Enjoy the tracks.

Gun Outfit does a lot of things we like over here.  Lay down a sludgy bass groove, implant a little trebly raunch of guitar distortion and let the vocals rip.  Last year's album, Dim Light was a spunky gem about midway through the year, contrasting nicely with a lot of the sprawling indie rock that saturated the market.  There's a sincerity to Gun Outfit, a grit and looseness that tells me this trio has a good record collection; there's enough slimeball to keep this from floating away, and enough latent talent to keep it unique.  The upcoming album, Possesion Sound, will only be released on vinyl and digital formats (Sidebar:  Why the hell aren't more bands doing this?  It has to drive overhead costs way down, and most people will buy the previously mentioned formats, right?  They're onto something).  Get it next week via Post Present Medium.

Gun Outfit – My Whole Life

It took a little while for me to warm up to Phosphorescent's Willie Nelson tribute album last year.  For CD writer, Brian, I'm not sure that there could have been enough time in the calendar year to allow for that.  In a risky plunge in 2009, Matthew Houck took on the covers album idea, and in the opinion of many, did so beautifully.  Dead Oceans is releasing Phosphorescent's follow up next week, and the track "The Mermaid Parade" blossoms into a polished and gorgeous track.  It's been floating around the web for a week or so (like I said, I'm late), but there's introspection, excellent instrumenation, and guitar hooks that rise to the sun.

Phosphorescent – The Mermaid Parade

The opening seconds of The Books' new track, "Beautiful People" sounds like it might roll into "Bohemian Rhapsody" at any moment. Once settled in, the song moves through about six distinct genres before it winds to a close.  A subtle mixture of synths and plucking guitars mingle with vocals pushed and pulled through modulators.  Epic horn sections serenade into the track's close, and, as a listener, I'm a little off-kilter and unsure what I've heard.  Equal parts pop, fusion, and opera, the song is, at the very least, intriguing.  Temporary Residence will release This Way Out sometime in July.  Until then, it's probably time for me to hit the back catalog and get in line.

The Books – Beautiful People

I finally got the upcoming Born Ruffians album in the snail mail yesterday, and it doesn't disappoint.  I realize this is the second time I've posted "Sole Brother" onto the site, but this song is an early frontrunner for favorite tracks of 2010 so far.  I've played it 30 times alone tonight.  The clean guitar effects and jangly mixture of blues and pop is absolute ear candy.  I'll review this album more thoroughly in the upcoming weeks, but there's a minimalist approach that flourishes into grandiosity in each song.  Nearly every track on the album follows this model, and a unique pop-derivative is the result.  Warp Records has this thing primed and set to release in early June, and you have my approval for a pre-order on this one.  Fabulous.

Born Ruffians – Sole Brother

On Record Store Day, I was lucky enough to be one of the few Clevelanders that even knew what the Roky Erickson/Okkervil River collab was.  I was able to duck and weave and make my way out with this gem.  I've worn the grooves clean off the alb

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Thanks to the folks at I Guess I'm Floating, we've been keeping a close eye on DIY'er, Dustin Payseur's Beach Fossils for nearly a year.  IGIF introduced us to the band, what seems like ages ago, and we've been helping lob the tracks out there as they've been dropped.  As our rolling theme of getting back on track this week continues, the highly anticipated (at least for us) album details and a fresh new track have been released, as of the latter part of last week.  The self-titled debut is all set to hit the store shelves on May 25th via Captured Tracks.  I posted earlier this week about Cleveland's own Cloud Nothings, and there's a lot in common here.  Beach Fossils wanders into more varietal modes, however, and manages to do quite a few things consistently.  Everything they've released thus far has repeat playback value.   Probably of more importance is the unique spin on garage-centered solo creative philosophy.  Tracks are fuzzed out, but never totter too far into the same monotone drivel we get from band after band lately. There's a raw edge, but a super calming gleam to the sound.  Payseur's the real deal, and "Youth," the first track offered off the new release, is a bit more polished, but follows in the same mode as the sporadically released songs we've been enjoying for the better part of a year.  Echoed vocals and chilled reverb on the surf-inspired guitar wrap this track tightly into a gorgeously understated quick hitter.  I'm eager to get my hands on this in May. 

Beach Fossils – Youth

Pre-Order Beach Fossils HERE

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There’s something like three inches of ice coating my driveway this morning, a thick, angry rime of winter caking the windshield of my car.  As I listen to the drone of a thousand ice scrapers (shck, shck, shck), clearing the way for the morning commute, I find my mind wandering to thoughts of warmer locales.  There are places (I understand intellectually) where the sun shines more often than it doesn’t, where “snowstorms” and “freezing rain” are merely ideas from children’s books, where duck boots aren’t required attire for five months of the year.  Staring at the heavily drooping tree branches, long since rid of their verdant foliage, now caked with damnable ice, I ask that age old rhetorical: “Why the hell do I live someplace where the weather is this shitty so frequently?”  Then I remember: Cleveland (Ohio, really, but whatever) is the heart of it all, maybe never more so than in winter.  The intrepid spirits of my friends and neighbors are steeled by our cold winters.  Our museums and restaurants and dive bars and bookshops and parks are all more inviting when winter lets loose his icy blast.  You can’t really relish a steaming cup of coffee at Presti’s, shared with your oldest friend, in Florida, right?  You can’t appreciate the warm glow of summer when it is yearlong, can you?  Californians don’t get that surge of adrenaline and joy on the first warm day of spring, because that day happens everyday.  I’ll keep Cleveland, with its constant reminders that time passes, seasons change, the sun returns.

And.  Inhabitants of colder climes can always cover themselves in sun-drenched records.  On days like these, when it is easy to forget that June is around the corner, there are few things as soothing as a band like The Pharmacy.  We have two tracks from their most recent effort, Weekend (out March 9 on Park the Van) this morning, both of which are packed with a fuzzed out, garage swagger that reeks of warm weather.  The jangly, mildly distorted vocals (vaguely reminiscent of something like The Shondells), the guitar riff on “WAYDWYL,” and the hazy keyboard line on “Colest Morning Light” are all redolent of beaches and scantily clad fillies.  Dig a little deeper and there’s a refreshing layer of self-analysis and ennui that I can definitely get down with as well.  The rest of the record is packed with tracks of similar quality and tone; Weekend gets our full endorsement.  There are some tracks that work in a softer vein (the delightful and delicate “Stoner Girl” springs to mind), some that really push the garage rock influence button (the drum line in “My Business” is straight off a Zombies record), some that damn near sound like early The Who (“Wait in Vayne” would work as  a b-side for “A Legal Matter.”)  All told, you should be in line at your record shop on March 9 for this one.

If you’re someplace cold, wrap these two songs around you like an electric blanket.  If you’re someplace warm, kiss my rosy ass.

The Pharmacy – WAYDWYL

The Pharmacy – Coldest Morning Light

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I don’t have to say much about our deep institutional love for Dr. Dog at this point.  I’m about as excited for their soon to be released ANTI debut, Shame, Shame as I am for any other record this year.  The first taste of the record bodes well.  “Shadow People” is a little less ornate than much of the material on Fate, but it maintains the vibe that we’ve come to expect (up to and including the multiple part harmonies that make the whole thing tick).  I don’t think I’m totally off base to note that the track owes something to “A Walk on the Wild Side.” which is obviously also appealing.  If possible, I’m now more stoked to hear the rest of the album.  We’ll have a critical statement on Shame, Shame as soon as we get our ears on the rest of it.  (While we’re here, and since it seems to be a recurring theme today, the erstwhile Jim James sings on the record.  Dude’s been busy.)  For the meantime, put this thing on loud, hit play and repeat.  Good times.  (More details, some tour dates and a nice photograph are available from our friends at Stereogum.)

Dr. Dog – Shadow People

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(Editor’s note:  That’s not my living room up there.  It’s a photo of The Who on a huge TV in an immaculate entertainment room that I found on Flickr.  Pretty good visual metaphor for the current state of the band that recorded The Who Sell Out, no?

Three quick things on the Super Bowl before we dive into this most recent edition of the singles club.

1. The Who – Let me preface this by saying that I love The Who as much as any other band on the planet.  A cassette copy of Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy was the first “record” that I really owned.  I listen to Who’s Next as much as any other album in the ipod.  That said, I have to be mean for a minute:

They stopped being The Who in 1978 when Keith Moon died.  At least they had a quorum until John Entwistle passed away.  Now they’re just two dudes who used to be in a band called The Who.  Worse, they’re two dudes who are (at best) pseudo-tragic shadows of themselves: Daltrey trying to maintain his impish flair despite the fact that he looks (and sounds) like Jack Lemmon, Townshend flailing through the windmill cause it’s all he has left. If they would have played “My Generation” it would have broken irony for the rest of us.  The whole thing just made me sad.

2. Grizzly Bear – Really?  Volkswagen?  Now when I hear one of the five best songs ever recorded, I immediately think of Stevie Wonder punching Tracy Morgan.  Bastards.  I’m pretty excited to see “While You Wait for Others” in an ad for hemorrhoids cream or some shit.  I get it, Droste et al. will say yes to any offer to liscense their music for anything.  Ugh.

3. Arcade Fire – Good on those guys for a whole bunch of reasons.  They gave the money the NFL spent on “Wake Up” to Haiti and the track is currently #98 on the itunes singles list.  So everybody wins.  The band throws Haiti some love, tons of folks get exposed to an amazing band and (I’d wager) the residuals they’re going to get from increased sales on a six year old song will probably be a pretty penny.  That’s the kind of “selling out” that’s easy to get behind.

The final tally for the Super Bowl musically:  one legendary act continues to shit on our memories of their glory days, one uber-genius indie act continues to shit on our ability to take their art seriously and another uber-genius indie act does the right thing for people in need and themselves.  Hmm.  Not such a bad Sunday, I guess.

On to the Singles Club.  Blimp, the nom de rock of Dave Girtsman, popped into our inbox unexpectedly this week.  The track starts with a mellow acoustic and Girtsman’s oddly captivating vocals luling the listener into a bit of a trance.  Things get really intersting at the two minute mark, when a spaced out slide comes in and the song drops into a slightly higher gear.  Throughout, the song maintains a certain level of cool detachment, kind of dancing three feet away from you, teasing you in, then spinning away.  The hook is the thing that gets me, but the hushed tone keeps me coming back.  You can hear more Blimp here.

Blimp – You Can’t Tell Me

I’m late to warm to the glo-fi thing.  (If, like me, you’re late to the party, read this post from IGIF for the best exploration of the terminology and, to a degree, the genre itself.)  Essentially all I’ve been listening to for the last week is Washed Out and Small Black.  (Quick aside:  Is Small Black a play on Big Black?  If so, it’s one of the best ever names for a band.  If the Small Black dudes are unaware of Big Black, I’ll just be pissed off.)  My new fascination with bedroom psych might be due to my recent foray into fatherhood.  This stuff is the best music possible for babies; mine loves the fuzzed down vocals and mellowed out keys; I’m pretty sure that it sounds like the inside of the womb.  Washed Out’s “New Theory” might be the best lullabye ever written.  True story.  Put that thing on and my little fellow is out like a light.  The track below isn’t far behind.

Small Black – Despicable Dogs

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Recently, French Kissing sent us an mp3 of their new single “Oh Suzanne”. At first, French Kissing seemed like a provocative name for a grade-school band. A few moments later, I came across the above photo being used as their avatar on Myspace.  Since I’m part of a generation jaded by internet porn (where do you think I’ve been the last month?), I found enjoyment in this unexpected interpretation. It’s the little things that keep me happy.  I may be alone on that one, which I can fully understand. I hadn’t heard of French Kissing before, but when I caught the garage/surf in their description, they had my full attention. “Oh Suzanne” did not disappoint. It’s got that 60′s vibe and the heart-pumping drum beat that pulled me in from the jump off. Those aspects are complimented by catchy lyrics musing on the complexities of ill-fated romance and a guitar jam that could split the icy surface of the lake I plan to fish this weekend. The band declares this song is “Summer vibes for winter chills,” and I wholeheartedly agree. You can get your hands on the London based band’s very limited 7″ release here.

French Kissing – Oh Suzanne

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The fellas in Man/Miracle, especially frontman Dylan Travis, have one of those near-tragic backstories of suffering yielding great art that any other band would love to fill their press releases with. My hunch, however, is that Travis et al. could have done without the broken bones, insect infestations, and all the other indignities suffered between formation and release of their new album, The Shape of Things. For the full story, check out Boston Pheonix writer David Thorpe’s short essay here.

To prime the pump for the release of The Shape of Things next month, the band has released a first single, “Hot Sprawl.” An initial listen reveals just how poignant the song’s title is. Warm with percussion and guitar, “Hot Sprawl” engages in some deconstructed noodling in a way that isn’t alienating or pompous, but rather interacts nicely with the rest of the band’s efforts on the track. The intro sounds a little like what Vampire Weekend might do if Akron/Family ambushed them in the alley and beat both restraint and humility into the Columbia preps. As the track evolves, it gets more gypsy jam than Caribbean funk, but maintains its west coast pacing throughout.

Man/Miracle’s first full-length album, The Shape of Things, drops February 23rd via Third Culture Records. You can order it here.

Man/Miracle – Hot Sprawl

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If there is a record I feel most sheepish about not covering on these pages in 2009, it is The Rural Alberta Advantage’s brilliantly pastoral Hometowns.  OK, I’ll throw Merriweather Post Pavilion on there, too, but I feel way worse about Hometowns because I liked it way more.

As good as it is, and it is so good the word should have two syllables, it is a difficult album to describe. You can say it sounds Canadian, which it does even if that isn’t a terribly profound or illuminating description. You can say it is about sense memory and place, both broadly construed and with respect to Alberta, the province from which the band gets not only its name but also its frontman, Nils Edenloff. But when you try to describe its sound, you eventually get bogged down between saying it is kinda dance-oriented, only it isn’t.

I brought this up to Edenloff in an interview I did with him last week (check it out if you like here), mentioning I could burn a few songs for a friend and have them swear The Rural Alberta Advantage was a dance-pop band, and then turn around and burn a few more for a different person and have them swear they were a straight-up rock band. From his response, it seems clear that this sonic diversity isn’t accidental and has a lot to do with the different musical interests and perspectives of the band’s three members.

In light of that, I decided to bring you the two tracks that would anchor those respective hypothetical burned CDs mentioned in the paragraph above. For those that like to dance, you’ll likely dig on “Don’t Haunt This Place,” arguably the band’s biggest hit since making their huge splash at SXSW last spring. The rest of you who are a little more like me will fall in love with “Frank, AB” – the second single from Hometowns. And, finally, those of you who listen to both tracks will quickly realize I’ve set up a bit of a false dichotomy. In reality, the band’s sound exists on a contiuum; these two tracks just reside at different ends. You can dance to “Frank, AB” and rock out to “Don’t Haunt This Place.”

In fact, those of you residing in Citizen Dick Country will be pleased to note that the band’s ongoing tour itinerary brings them through Cleveland this Sunday, January 17th, for a show at the incomparable Beachland Tavern with New York City’s The Octagon. See the John G designed gig poster below for more information.

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Don’t Haunt This Place

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Frank, AB

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I gotta be honest, folks. I know it is still way early in the year, but I’m a bit more excited about Canadian indie rock than our own domestic output. Between the new Besnard Lakes track and an upcoming weekend visit from The Rural Alberta Advantage, I’ve found myself watching a lot more hockey (did you know there are only 6 Canadian franchises in the NHL and that only one is currently in the league’s top ten?) and putting maple syrup on everything. And now, thanks to this early track from Montreal-based Plants and Animals’ forthcoming LP, I’m about to go straight canuck, you bunch of hosers.

The track, delightfully named “Tom Cruz,” finds the band a little edgier than fans of 2008′s Parc Avenue might expect. The newfound affection for volume and heat, however, is a good thing, as “Tom Cruz” shows. With a taut bass line intro and a little more frustrated drumming, instrumentalists Nicolas Basque and Matthew Woodley set a perfect stage for frontman Warren Spicer’s appropriately pinched pitch to come in over. Eventually, it all comes together, with some added keyboards and guitars, to sound like an Arcade Fire jam mid-way through the track before backing off and simmering down through the outro.

La La Land, the sophomore release from Plants and Animals, drops via Secret City Records on April 20th. If the past is any guide, they’ll be all over the road between now and then.

Plants and Animals – Tom Cruz

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Sometimes you never really know what is gonna get you to listen to a song. A catchy title? A smart commercial? A publicist’s email? A random mention by a hipster you are crushing on? I think we all probably want to have great and, let’s be honest, self-righteous explanations for where we find our music. I mean, I buy into that trip as much or more than the next guy. But sometimes, when I’m sitting quietly and all alone in my apartment, a little part of me speaks out and says “Fuck it man, as long as the song is good, who cares.”

Sometimes I pack that little part of me back away, sometimes I let it fly free like a metaphysical freak flag. Right now, though, it’s a quarter to one in the morning, and while I can’t sleep, that don’t mean I’m not tired. So I’ll just be straight with you – the thing that turned me on to “Austere,” one of the tracks off Welsh trio The Joy Formidable’s A Balloon Called Moaning, was the fact that youtube banned the song’s video.

Naturally, being the staunch civil liberties advocate (aka self-loathing pervert) that I am, I knew I had to watch it. And so I did. And I guess I get why youtube banned it, though it doesn’t strike me as any worse than any other Top 40 video these days, just with a little less gamesmanship. But whatever. That’s not my fight. The video is neat and all, and for you fellow civil liberties advocates (wink wink), I’ve posted it below. But what I really want to talk about is the song.

There are several layers of goodness in this song, from a frantic soprano up top to a rockin’ bass on bottom, with the kind of guitar work and lead vocals in the middle that only really come from nationalities that continue to provide the crux of the British Empire. I wouldn’t call this song austere, but I would call it good. More importantly, 6 months from now, it is the tune I’ll remember, not the video that made me find it, and that’s an accomplishment in and of itself.

The Joy Formidable – Austere

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Occupying the nice piece of virtual property between El Guincho’s Alegranza! and El Perro del Mar’s Love Is Not Pop in my iTunes folder is a solitary track from Lara Meyerratken. The first single off the forthcoming self-titled debut, released under her nomme de artiste, El May, “Don’t You” is a tasty amuse-bouche destined to enhance the listener’s eager anticipation for the full album, which is set to drop on Tuesday, January 19th. A Los Angeleno by way of Australia, Meyerratken has been around the scene for quite some time,  lending a graceful hand both in the studio and on the road to artists like Ben Lee, Dar Williams, Luna, and Nada Surf, among a host of others, including the recent supergroup reincarnation of Ben Lee’s high-school band, Noise Addict, along with Dinosaur Jr./Sebadoh/Folk Implosion hero Lou Barlow. After spending the better part of the last two decades helping her friends and colleagues out, she has finally culled away some time to do her own thing, and from every second of what I’ve heard so far, it is about darn time she did.

On “Don’t You,” Meyerratken covers nearly all the bases herself (with the exception of backing vocal assistance from Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws and The Blow’s Khaela Maricich), and the outcome is sheer delight. Initially simple, nearly all guitar and sweetly lilting vocals, additional instruments are gradually layered on throughout the 3 1/2 minute track, though never to the extent that the simple bliss of the song’s early moments are ever damaged. Intrigued readers can download “Don’t You” below, and can also access a second track (“Hold Yourself”) for free via El May’s website here, where you can also pre-order one of only 500 hand-crafted and screen-printed copies.

El May – Don’t You

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With an instrumental sound that is something akin to Deep Purple meets Motorhead meets Black Mountain meets Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, with a huskier Jim Morrison on vocals, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor rocks hard and deep. The Detroit band possesses a heavy glam tread that only barely makes it to this century, much less the incipient teens decade we find ourselves now in, and it is this retro tug that makes it awesome. One does not go lightly into a Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor listening session. Nay, one boldly ruminates their way into those headphones, after putting on a black t-shirt and a scowl like molasses. And assuming one goes in like such, one will emerge 36.2 minutes later, the length of their recent self-titled album, soul-cleansed from a dip in the spiritual firewater of rock.

Sound like your sort of thing? Got a case of the winter grime that needs blasting away? Well, for our hometown readers, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor is temporarily abandoning Detroit to grace our presence with a show at Now That’s Class on Thursday night, followed by a weekend jaunt through New York, D.C., and, uh, Delaware. That’s cool. The Blue Hen knows how to rock.

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor – Lord Is My Gun

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor – Spaceman Blues

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In 2009, The Dirty Projectors not only put out an album (Bitte Orca) that hovered near the top of many of the more influential end-of-year rankings (e.g., Pitchfork, Pop Matters, Rolling Stone, etc.),  they did something much more difficult. That is, they put out a record that – like, love, or loathe – a writer had to acknowledge. If it wasn’t on your list, you had to say why. If it was on it, but in the basement, you had to justify it. There weren’t many other records like that in 2009, arguably just Veckatimest and Merriweather Post Pavilion, so even a writer like me, who didn’t really care for Bitte Orca, has to acknowledge that the album was “important” (even though I hate that word so).

Now, Dave Longstreth and co. are back with a new 7″ release to tide their hungry fan base over until another full length drops. The single du jour is “Ascending Melody,” a survivor from the Bitte Orca sessions that didn’t make the album cut, as is the case with the B-side track, “Emblem of the World.” Considering this, it isn’t surprising that the only thing that has changed from the full-length’s original release to this new single is the dropped definite article in the band’s name. The same kind of minimalistic yet chaotic cacophonic pop persists, with all three vocalists taking their pipes out for a trot. If you loved Bitte Orca, you are gonna devour these two new tracks with glee. And if you didn’t, your mind likely won’t be changed.

Ascending Melody, the new Dirty Projectors single, was released on January 11th by Domino. You can purchase the vinyl version here.

Dirty Projectors – Ascending Melody

Dirty Projectors – Emblem of the World