Infinite Shuffle

August 15, 2010

38 – Let's Wrestle

Filed under: England, L — assman41 @ 12:01 am

On the spectrum of kinda annoying British indie bands, Let’s Wrestle falls somewhere in between Art Brut and Los Campesinos! — they’re not as grating as the former, but not quite as accessible as the latter.

According to the bio on their record label’s website, Let’s Wrestle are “trying to be as raw as possible, and they try to write songs that make your soul crumble as well as making you smile, sing along and clap your hands.”

That’s a pretty apt description.

Their most clap-worthy song is the tongue-in-cheekily titled “We Are the Men You’ll Grow To Love Soon”, the first single off their debut album, In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s.

It’s also the track that helped me discover the London trio in the first place — with a little help from NPR’s Song of the Day.

The first time I listened to the entire album, I was a little turned off and figured I’d only retain the aforementioned single. But upon the second listen, several more tracks started growing on me. And by the third go-round, I was sold.

Other songs that stood out include “My Arms Don’t Bend That Way, Damn It!”, “It’s Not Going To Happen”, “I’m In Fighting Mode” and the title track.

P.S. … Going off on a tangent, the lead singer, Wesley Patrick Gonzalez, looks like a cross between actor Clark Duke and indie god Ben Gibbard.

August 8, 2010

37 – The Kissaway Trail

Filed under: Denmark, K — assman41 @ 11:59 pm

This five-piece band from Denmark lists a lot of different influences on its MySpace page, including Daniel Johnston, the Pixies, Grandaddy and the Beach Boys, but none of them pop out when you hear its music. The one band that these guys most sound like is probably Arcade Fire — but with fewer instruments.

You can hear it on a lot of their tracks, including “SDP”, the first single off their sophomore album, Sleep Mountain, which came out in March.

Although, on some songs, such as “Eloquence and Elixir” — from their self-titled debut album — I was reminded of their fellow countrymen, Mew, to a certain degree.

The Kissaway Trail – Eloquence and Elixir

With two lead singers, the band’s sound never grows stale, as every track seems a little different from the last.

The group apparently plays a mean live set and is blowing up in its homeland. It has provided live support for the likes of Editors, Ra Ra Riot, The Boxer Rebellion and The Temper Trap.

They’ll be in New York on Wednesday then head back to Europe for a while. Hopefully, they’ll return to the States next year so I can check them out for myself.

August 2, 2010

Dispatches from Niger

Filed under: Sean — assman41 @ 4:01 am

With tickets to a Wilco concert this past Friday and a pervading lack of knowledge regarding the band, I ended up spending the past couple weeks listening to pretty much nothing but Wilco’s entire catalogue.

Because of that, I don’t have a new review this week. But, as luck would have it, something even better was waiting for me in my e-mail inbox when I awoke this morning.

My friend, Sean, has been in Niger for the past 13 months as a Peace Corps volunteer, and I’ve made it my mission to keep him abreast of all the important pop culture news that may not make its way to Africa. Also, I recently sent him a care package that included a 16GB flash drive loaded with all the music that he’s been missing out on during his absence.

He just sent me a rather lengthy e-mail chronicling his thoughts and opinions regarding many of the bands and albums that he’s finally been able to listen to. And I thought it would be cool to post them here.

So, without further ado …

Coheed & Cambria

This is obviously the first one I listened to. It was about as good as I expected it would be, but my expectations are pretty low. As a whole, it’s a solid enough album, but I’d probably rank it fourth or fifth of the five they have put out. Still, some fantastic songs. “Here We Are Juggernaut” is phenomenal. I really like “Far” as well, and the album ends strong with the title track. The biggest appeal of Coheed, as far as I’m concerned, is their amazing live shows, and I can only guess they are still tremendous in concert.

Abe Vigoda

I really wanted to like these guys because of the awesome name, but I wasn’t really feeling the music. There’s nothing really new here, it’s like their trying to sound like some sort of Vampire Weekend/Arctic Monkeys hybrid, and getting it terribly wrong. I definitely recognize some potential though. Maybe they’re just too raw at this point and need to mature a little bit.

Band of Horses

OK, so like you, I really got into “Funeral” when it came out in 2006 and WNRN played it all the time, but I didn’t really think much of the album and sort of stopped paying much attention. But the song they have on the soundtrack for “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” (“Our Swords”) is really good, and I never realized how much critical acclaim Cease To Begin received. You only gave me seven of the tracks from the album, but all of them are solid. “Is There A Ghost”, “Ode To LRC” and “Islands on the Coast” are all top-notch songs. I’m not nearly as impressed with Infinite Arms.

Beach House

These guys are like critical darlings, right? I can’t really get into it that much. I know you wrote that Teen Dream is the most accessible of their records, but even then it didn’t do it for me. Maybe I just need to give it a second, third, fourth listen. That’s how it was for me with Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion, and I think that’s a solid album now. Not as amazing as so many critics think it is, but solid nonetheless.

Bombay Bicycle Club

Good, but not great. Again, I am less inclined to really get into a band if they sound like imitators, and these guys seem to be channeling Interpol and The National. I can appreciate the quality of the music, but I’m not that excited about listening to them.

Bound Stems

Liked it the first listen, liked it even more the second listen. There’s something about these guys. Very talented. I’d love to see them live.

Company of Thieves

“Oscar Wilde” is a good song, but the rest of the album is pretty crappy. Pass.

Dirty Projectors

So good. They seem so versatile, both instrumentally and vocally. The music is so interesting, but more than that, it’s actually catchy and fun to listen to. I want more.

Editors

OK, so here’s the thing about Editors. I really like “Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors”, but can’t really get into much else. It’s sort of how I feel about The National too. “Fake Empire” is an amazing song. Probably top 20 of the Oughts. But both of these bands seem to have too much of that early-’80s, New Wave-sound thing going on. Not that they are ripping any of those bands off or even trying to sound like them, I think it’s a legitimate influence thing, but those groups are just not as much my style as they are your style. I think that’s where our music tastes diverge the most. You got into music earlier and am older than me and have your brother who sort of opened that door to you to a lot of those ’80s groups early on and came to indie rock through that path. For me, I came to indie rock through the punk/emo path. I’ll always have a soft spots for bands that lean in that direction because of it, and be less inclined to like ones clearly influenced by an ’80s sound. So respect to Editors, but I pass.

Forward Russia

These guys are a little too out there for me. The thing I loved most about their first album was the title: Give Me A Wall! It made me just want to scream out that phrase in public. But the music was too weird for me to get into. The new stuff you sent is a little more accessible, but it doesn’t really pass the test to me. They are a bunch of weirdos and they can go back to where they came from.

Frightened Rabbit

These guys, as far as I’m concerned, are head and shoulders ahead of the rest of these Scottish bands. What’s with all these Scottish indie groups coming out, anyway? And it’s not just that they’re Scottish, it’s that they try to sound like they’re super-Scottish. As you know, I’m not really feeling Glasvegas. And as much as I wanted to love them because of the name, We Were Promised Jetpacks just seemed like a lesser version of Frightened. Not bad, but nothing new, nothing different, nothing remarkable. That said, this new Frightened album is still not as good as Midnight Organ Fight. Granted, it would be tough for them to come out with an album that good, but still, they missed the mark. “Swim Until You Can’t See Land” is a really great song. Really great. But there are no other really great songs on the album. But there are plenty of good songs, so it’s good enough.

fun.

Tremendous. Standing ovation. I am in love. I want to play “Benson Hedges” over and over again. And the other songs too. I guess it makes sense, since I like The Format, Anathallo and Steel Train, where all of these guys come from. But this is a great example of channeling an influence, like Queen, while still maintaining one’s own sound. The only negative is you only put five of the songs from Aim and Ignite on the flash drive. I want more of this. Have you seen these guys live? It sounds like they would be a lot of fun. Ha! I didn’t even do that on purpose.

Grand Archives

Nice music to chill out to, fall asleep to or just zone out to. It doesn’t really strike me as remarkable in any way. Just something that would be nice to listen to. Maybe I’m underestimating these guys, and that’s something else that might come from multiple listens, but their stuff doesn’t really stand out.

Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard

Not as good as I was hoping for, but maybe I was just hoping for too much. I think part of the problem here is they’re limited because it’s a soundtrack. They are specifically writing about the movie, which just boxes them in too much. Plus, it seems like somebody was trying to recreate the “Into The Wild” soundtrack, with which Eddie Vedder did such a good a job. It’s just too bad Benny G wasn’t spending this time working on another Death Cab record. Speaking of which, aren’t they due for a new one?

Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s

Spectacular. I really liked Animal/Not Animal, and they definitely did even better with this one. You can tell they are maturing musically. There is less of the rawness that I loved in a track like “A Children’s Crusade On Acid”, but better song structures and more catchy hooks and melodies while still retaining that sort of unique quirkiness of theirs (like in “Paper Kitten Nightmare”). My favorite song is definitely “Quiet A Mouse”, and I love the fact that I can’t get it out of my head. This was obviously one of the albums I was looking most forward to, as a follow-up to something I really liked from 2008 or 2009 and the only one that bested the album that originally captured my interest in the band. … The Dodos come close, but they failed to make an album as good as Visiter. There are still some real promising elements of the new record, which is still great. They are clearly trying to increase the versatility of their sound without completely reinventing themselves, and I like the idea. Maybe they’ll perfect it on their next record. … It’s less of a positive development with The Gaslight Anthem, which seemed to try to make their sound too accessible, and seem to have lost something important in their sound. The ’59 Sound was an album that had so much sincerity, character and intensity to it, and all three weren’t as prevalent in this new one, but, like The Dodos’ new album, I still think it’s a good record. … I can’t say the same about the new Los Campesinos! effort. Serious let down. … And Matisyahu? It’s like he stopped trying after making the first three radio-friendly (albeit really good) tracks to start the record. And where is the spirituality? If he cares so much about his religion, why aren’t I seeing more of it in his music like the other record?

Mute Math

I’m very intrigued. Very intrigued. Really digging this. Definitely need to give it more listens to really take it all in and get my head around it a little better, because it’s definitely a unique sound — a real fusion of so many styles and even eras.

My Morning Jacket

Shame on me for not giving them more of a chance earlier on. Same goes for The New Pornographers. Both really solid acts with really solid tracks. Represent.

Owl City

I really like this album, but I think maybe I’m missing something. I mean, between the lyrics and the vocal style, it really sounds like something that would be geared toward children. Sort of like Architecture in Helsinki I guess, except much better. So it’s really good, but kind of weird. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing.

Two Door Cinema Club

Awesome. Another gem that I may have never discovered if not for Todd Merchant. This is a great album start to finish, and I love their sound, even if it clearly is ’80s influenced. They somehow pull it off much better, as far as I’m concerned. Maybe we’ve got to the point where it’s once removed. Like, these guys are more influenced by The National instead of The Cure. Whatever it is, it’s working.

OK, that’s it for now. I obviously have a lot more I need to listen to, but so far so good as far as I’m concerned. Thanks again…

July 26, 2010

KEXP discoveries

Filed under: KEXP — assman41 @ 3:16 am

In addition to NPR’s All Songs Considered, my other favorite podcast is KEXP’s Song of the Day. Whenever I go on long trips, there’s nothing better than tearing into a ton of new songs and discovering some gems.

Here are three acts that I never would’ve heard of had it not been for the KEXP podcast:

Title Tracks

Title Tracks is the latest project from John Davis, who before this was one half of Georgie James — and before that the drummer in trio Q And Not U.

In his latest endeavor, Davis, who is based in Washington D.C., writes and records all the songs and is joined by several musicians on tour.

Musically, Davis channels a whole timeline of pop genres, including the ’60s British Invasion, ’70s disco scene, ’80s underground and ’90s twee pop.

At the same time, Title Tracks’ music sounds both refreshingly new and incredibly familiar.

Davis released his debut album, It Was Easy, in February of this year.

Here’s the standout single from said album.

Title Tracks – Every Little Bit Hurts

Romance

While listening to the KEXP podcast, Romance definitely jumped out at me as a band I thought I’d like. And after listening to their album, The Divide, I don’t dislike them.

The problem is, the Seattle quartet sounds too much like every other Joy Division wannabe that has flooded the scene the past few years. And they don’t really have anything else to set them apart.

I doubt I’ll delete them from my iTunes, since their sound would be a welcome one during a shuffle session, but I can’t imagine ever feeling the urge to play their music exclusively again.

Here’s the song that first piqued my interest.

Romance – Face on the Sun

North Twin

North Twin was a Southern rock band from Seattle that was reminiscent of The Hold Steady — with less distinctive vocals — and a little bit of The Band.

I say “was” because they recently disbanded, playing their final show on March 6 in their hometown. They were together for four years and put out two quality albums — Falling Apart (2007) and Stronger At the Broken Places (2009).

Here’s the song I heard on the podcast.

North Twin – Clear As Day

July 18, 2010

36 – House of Heroes

Filed under: Columbus, H — assman41 @ 12:01 am

I first heard House of Heroes a couple of years ago when I still had my little, portable XM player and would constantly record hours of programming from the XMU/SiriusXMU station.

I eventually downloaded The End Is Not the End, their third full-length album, at some point in early 2009. But I never gave it a proper listen until now.

I immediately remembered which song first stirred my interest in the quartet from Columbus, Ohio.

House of Heroes – If

When I started doing research on the band, I was disappointed to see that they’re often considered a Christian alt-rock band. While there’s nothing wrong with that, as an atheist, I’m usually immediately turned off anytime I hear a band described as “Christian.”

As far as their actual sound, you wouldn’t necessarily know they have any particular religious leanings. While listening to them, I just kept imagining them up on a stage at the Warped Tour — since they sound like any number of the modern emo-punk bands that are out and about these days.

Of the “related artists” listed by Amazon.com, I’ve only heard of a few of them, and I don’t really know much about them other than that they would fall into the aforementioned Warped Tour genre.

According to drummer Colin Rigsby, some of House of Heroes’ influences are The Beatles, Queen, Muse, Bruce Springsteen and The Clash. Personally, the only band I could detect in their music was the occasional grandiosity of Muse.

If my less-than-objective review hasn’t turned you off of the band, go check out their MySpace page.

They’ll be releasing their fourth album, Suburba, on Aug. 3 of this year.

I may or may not check it out.

July 11, 2010

35 – Paper Route

Filed under: Nashville, P — assman41 @ 3:01 am

On their 2008 EP, Are We All Forgotten, the band Paper Route exudes a mixture of Coldplay and Band of Horses, with a little Shiny Toy Guns and VHS or Beta thrown in for good measure.

Since forming in 2004, the quartet from Nashville, Tenn., has churned out five EPs — starting with a self-titled one in 2006 — and last year released its first full-length album, Absence.

I first heard about them last year in an issue of Alternative Press. I can’t remember what the blurb in the magazine said about the band, but it intrigued me enough to check out its MySpace page. And I instantly liked what I was hearing.

While several contemporaries stood out in their earlier work, on Absence, Paper Route’s sound had evolved enough to where it became difficult to pick out any certain influences. Instead, they had began to develop their own sound.

Paper Route – Carousel

Some of the bands that Amazon.com links to Paper Route include Mutemath, Phoenix, Keane, Owl City and The Temper Trap. That’s not too surprising, considering how important the electro aspect is to Paper Route’s music.

Here is my favorite song off of Absence:

Paper Route – Last Time

July 7, 2010

PROJECT WILCO: The Uncle Tupelo years

Filed under: U, Wilco — assman41 @ 12:01 am

EDITOR’S NOTE: While putting together my best-of-the-decade lists, I noticed there was nary a Wilco song or album in sight. I realized that’s because I’d never really given them much attention and probably had only listened to one album in its entirety. I decided to rectify that by listening to their entire catalog, so I could finally have an informed opinion on what many consider to be the greatest band of my generation. This is the first entry in the series.

Before you can start to delve into what makes Wilco tick, you have to go back to the band’s roots. And they’re planted firmly in Belleville, Ill., where, after a few early incarnations, Jeff Tweedy, Jay Farrar and Mike Heidorn formed Uncle Tupelo in 1987.

From the release of their first album in 1990 to their breakup in 1994, Uncle Tupelo were one of the most influential acts during the infancy of the alt-country movement. Playing country music with a punk ethos, Uncle Tupelo helped usher in the “No Depression” era — a term taken from the title of their debut album and used as a byword for the new genre.

When Farrar left the band — after his relationship with Tweedy had become too tumultuous — he would go on to form Son Volt, while the rest of the band would stay together and become Wilco.

I didn’t discover any of these bands until a co-worker included some of their songs on a mix CD that he gave me in 2005 or ’06. I was immediately taken with both the Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo sounds. It was clear that Farrar’s vocals were the focal point in the earlier project, despite his sharing singing and writing duties with Tweedy.

But after listening to the group’s Anthology, I realized how important Tweedy’s contributions were and could detect some of the style that would come out in the eventual Wilco recordings.

Here’s Uncle Tupelo’s biggest hit, which showcases Farrar’s vocals …

Uncle Tupelo – No Depression

… and here’s one that has Tweedy in the lead spot …

Uncle Tupelo – Screen Door

July 4, 2010

34 – Wild Nothing

Filed under: Blacksburg Va., W — assman41 @ 7:04 pm

So far, during the few months that I’ve been maintaining this blog, I’ve recounted several different ways that I’ve discovered a new band. Yesterday, I encountered a new one — sitting in the backseat of a poorly ventilated car while driving to the suburbs of Chicago for a holiday weekend get-together.

About halfway into the jaunt, after listening to the new Wolf Parade album, my friend threw in a disc of a band I didn’t recognize. After the first couple dream-pop songs absolutely blew me away, I finally asked who we were listening to — Wild Nothing.

The entire ride home we listened to the disc on repeat while using smart phones to search the web for anything more we could find about the group. It turns out it’s just one guy — Jack Tatum — and he comes out of Blacksburg, Va., of all places.

Seriously, I can’t believe anything besides country or bluegrass would come out of that podunk city. But I digress.

According to a Pitchfork review, before Wild Nothing, Tatum started a couple other projects, including Facepaint, a tropical punk act, and Jack & the Whale, which was your basic, introspective singer-songwriter affair.

But with Wild Nothing, Tatum channels such acts as The Cure, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and, more modernly, The Radio Dept.

As my brother described the music when I told him to look into it, “it’s got that airy fairy sound you love.”

It was “airy fairy” enough for me to fall asleep to it multiple times in the past day. I don’t necessarily have any favorites off the album, but I really loved every song on there.

Here are a couple for your listening pleasure.

Wild Nothing – Gemini

Wild Nothing – Bored Games

That second song is actually the title track of Wild Nothing’s debut full-length album. He’s also released a couple EPs with some solid B-sides. If you go to Wild Nothing’s MySpace page, you can hear a few tracks, as well as a cover of Kate Bush’s “Cloudbusting”, and you can also check out some homemade videos on YouTube.

June 27, 2010

33 – The Gaslight Anthem

Filed under: G, New Jersey — assman41 @ 12:01 am

When talking about The Gaslight Anthem, I suppose the first thing I should do is address the obvious comparison to Bruce Springsteen. Fans of The Boss would just disregard Gaslight lead singer Brian Fallon as a Bruce wannabe.

There’s certainly some validity to that argument. A native of New Jersey, Fallon grew up idolizing Springsteen and has said often that he is a huge influence on his music. The Gaslight Anthem have even toured with Bruce and his band and played some songs together on stage.

Now, that all being said, The GA is more than just a copycat. Really, the best way to describe them is to call them “a punk version of Springsteen.” The vocals and lyrics are pure Bruce, but the rest of what comes through the speakers is faster and more rockin’ than anything the E Street Band has put out in decades.

The Gaslight Anthem formed in 2005 and released their debut album, Sink or Swim, two years later. It received some solid reviews, but the band didn’t hit the mainstream until 2008 when, after putting out a four-track EP, it dropped its second full-length, The ’59 Sound.

This is the point that I discovered them. A friend burned me a copy of the album and it sounded pretty good. Then, after realizing that they would be one of the opening acts for the Rise Against show I was to attend in November 2008, I started listening to the album more frequently.

By the time that show rolled around, I was looking forward to seeing The Gaslight Anthem as much as the headliner. In addition to the title track, the album is loaded with great songs, such as “Great Expectations” and “Old White Lincoln”.

I’ve been listening to that album off and on for the past two years, but was finally rewarded with a new disc, American Slang, which came out June 15.

I’ve listened to it twice so far, and I haven’t really heard any standout tracks. Musically, the band hasn’t changed much over the course of their three releases — each album has pretty much been a continuation of the one before it.

But when you sound as good as The Gaslight Anthem, I guess there’s no need to change anything.

Here’s the first single off the latest album. It’s the title track.

The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang

June 20, 2010

32 – Niall Connolly

Filed under: C, Ireland — assman41 @ 12:01 am

This is my first — and last, I would assume — shameless plug for a musician friend of mine. Actually, he’s a friend of a friend, but considering he’s Irish and we’ve been drinking together in Chicago once before, we’re practically friends.

Connolly is a singer/songwriter from Brooklyn, by way of Cork, Ireland. I first came to hear of him when my friend, Scott, met him during one of his trips to Ireland a couple of years ago.

He burned me a copy of his 2007 album, Future Tense, and I gave it a whirl. I had to admit, it was pretty solid.

I’m usually not one who goes for the singer/songwriters. While many of them are quite talented, I generally require more instrumentation and complexity to my music than just a dude and his guitar.

That being said, I could definitely tell that Connolly had some chops. While his Irish lilt is ever-present, his sound can’t really be pigeonholed into the Damien Rice/Glen Hansard ilk. His vocals and song-crafting styles could easily be mistaken for somebody born in the States.

A couple of my favorites from the aforementioned album are “70,000 Words” and “If You Find Me In Morocco”. I can still remember singing along to the former when I saw Connolly live at Atlantic Bar in Chicago during Scott’s ill-fated debut as a concert promoter.

Future Tense was Connolly’s third full-length release, and he has since added two more, including a live album in 2008 and Brother, the Fight is Fixed, which comes out July 1.

Scott flew out to NYC to help Connolly shoot the video for the first single, “Jesus Is Coming (And I Can’t Pay the Rent)”. The song is catchy as hell, and the video isn’t bad either. I particularly liked the two lip-synching women.

For more on Connolly, check out his official website or his MySpace page.

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