Dag Nasty

Among my punk friends your credibility diminishes in direct correlation to each subsequent Dag Nasty album you profess to enjoy. Those punk friends then, according to their criteria, are much more punk than I. "Can I Say" (the beginning and end of Dag Nasty for my punk-er friends) and "Wig Out at Denko's" stand out as my favorites by far, but "Field Day" played hand in hand with those first two albums on my desert road trips to and from college over the years (Although to this day, I still haven't ripped it to my computer—that's changing today though. I mean, come on, the opening lines to the title track are, "Here on the beach I've got the sun / I've got the surf, I've got Mexican food. Life don't get better than that!).

The shift in sound between "Can I Say" and "Wig Out at Denko's" occurs mostly in the albums' tempos and vocal styles. On the second record, the band slows things down a notch and singer Peter Cortner sings more often than he yells on "Wig Out at Denko's." The transformation continues on "Field Day." Basically, the band continued to add more melodic elements to its hardcore sound, thus they're often cited as one of the bands that influenced later emo bands (I threw up in my mouth a little bit just using that term. Ugh.).

. . . I just axed most of this review. Rehashing the band's history was boring me, and hell, anyone could find that info online, or listen to the music and make up their own mind on whether or not Dag Nasty is a band they'll enjoy. It's sad because this post doesn't do justice to the band, nor to their influence on my life. It's close to impossible to talk about bands that mean a lot to me in a space so small (see my Lloyd Cole post as another example). I could organize an entire memoir around these Dag Nasty records. Dag Nasty dominated my stereo when I met Alisa. "Four on the Floor" came out the year of my first radio show. The people and bands I worked with during the first half of this decade were likewise influenced by the band, and I expect the connections I made with Dag Nasty as their soundtrack will last a lifetime.

From Can I Say? (1986)
Values Here [MP3, 128MB, 2.2kbps]
What Now? [MP3, 160MB, 2.7kbps]

From Wig Out at Denko's (1987)
The Godfather [MP3, 128MB, 3.1kbps]
Fall [MP3, 160MB, 3.4kbps]

From Field Day (1988)
Trouble Is [MP3, 128MB, 3.3kbps]
Matt [MP3, 160MB, 1.9kbps]
All Ages Show [MP3, 128MB, 2.4kbps]

From Four on the Floor (1992)
Still Waiting [MP3, 160MB, 3.4kbps]
Million Days [MP3, 128MB, 3.4kbps]

From Minority of One (2002)
Ghosts [MP3, 160MB, 3.3kbps]
White Flag [MP3, 128MB, 3.2kbps]

www.dischord.com
www.daghouse.com

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Somewhere in Pennsylvania, some guy makes trippy records with some of his friends. I do have a few more details about this guy. They won't do you much good though. His name is Tobacco and he lives in or around Pittsburgh. Maybe. He sings through a vocoder, a lot. Guys like this would get my vote for American Idol: write sunshiney melodies, set them to gentle grooves, and then perform from a sitting position, practically out of sight, hoodie or knit cap pulled tight, tinkering with their gadgets like some musical alchemist—the music transforming my mood, my state of mind, putting it at ease.

The new album is produced by Dave Fridmann who's worked with The Flaming Lips and Sparklehorse—a couple bands that BMSR would segue beautifully with. If you're a fan of Air, you'll really dig their new single, "Twin of Me." The Go! Team takes the track and runs with it, adding their signature upbeat beat to the otherwise summerly languid song. Speaking of summer, catch the band on the second leg of their summer tour this week on the East Coast.

From Eating Us (2009):
Twin of Myself [MP3, 4.6MB, 192kbps]
Twin of Myself (The Go! Team remix) [MP3, 3.1MB, 160kbps]
Born on a Day the Sun Didn't Rise [MP3, 5.2MB, 192kbps]

From Drippers rarities EP (2008):
Happy Melted City [MP3, 4.9MB, 226kbps]

From Dandelion Gum (2007):
Forever Heavy [MP3, 4.1MB, 128kbps]
Sun Lips [MP3, 4.6MB, 192kbps]

www.graveface.com
www.blackmothsuperrainbow.com

Luke Top

I am having a hard time filling in the genre field on iTunes for this Luke Top guy. In a word—curious. He plays the field a bit with bands, touring and recording with Cass Mccombs, Papercuts, and Foreign Born. I'm not going attempt a review of the Afro-Hebrew dance band Fool's Gold he co-founded. Discover that on your own. The important part of the story? He's quirky good. The cute-and-personable-brainiac-kid-in-math-class quirky good. Clearly being born in Tel Aviv to an Iraqi refugee and a Russian-born aviator transplanted to Southern California is a successful formula to inspire writing a light sigh of music.

by Emily M.

Friends [MP3, 4.3MB, 192kbps]

www.slowdeathrecords.com
www.myspace.com/luketop

The Raveonettes

I don't think I've been this excited about demos before. The Raveonettes last album Lust Lust Lust engendered exactly that in my aural cavity. Their fuzzy washes of surf guitars and garage rock immediately balmed the ever-present ringing in my ears and Sharin and Sune still lull me to sleep at night with their addictively sweet melodies. They're so good that I don't mind when I awake in the morning wrapped in headphone chord. Dangerous? Yep. Worth it? You bet. The tentatively titled "Last Dance" perfectly captures my fascination with these Danes: from the opening line (which I wish I'd written), "Your lipstick smeared sad," to the Beach Boys-ish woo-woos in the background, to the theme of the song itself (Sune succinctly explains it: "how drug addiction interferes with love"). My addiction to The Raveonettes hasn't interfered with my love life, rather with Alisa's sleep patterns, specifically when the wall of guitars rush in between verses of their track "Hallucinations" and bleed from my ears. It hurts oh so good.

Tune in to this site to access more demos and to take part in the band's live chat today and Thursday at 3 p.m. EST.

Last Dance (demo) [MP3, 4.8MB, 192kbps]

www.viceland.com
www.myspace.com/theraveonettes

Brian Olive

Since I missed the '70s and blindly followed the "Proud to be Drug Free" crowd in the '80s, Brian Olive is filling in the blanks for me. If I fell asleep to this record I'm sure I'd dream myself into New Orleans sometime in the '70s, chemical high and all. The music is as colorful as the album cover, and sounds like a stack of beatnik, jazz, and psychedelic records melted into one soundtrack to a '70s brown-hued television show. I think I'm gonna need a brownie.

(by our friend Emily M.)

There is Love [MP3, 5.3MB, 192kbps]

www.alive-totalenergy.com
www.myspace.com/brianolivemusic

Son Volt

Oops. Looks like I missed posting anything in the month of May. Ah, how one gets lost. Which I guess is an apt comparison to my relationship with Son Volt. For an album or two in a previous century, Jay Farrar had what I was looking for. Grit, wistfulness, steel guitar. And then there was Wide Swing Tremolo, and I don't know. When I saw that Son Volt had a new album out an a free and legal MP3 to post, my first though was something along the lines of hoping this track, "Down to the Wire," was a Neil Young cover. It's not, but after listening to it a few times, that's o.k. Maybe American Central Dust, out in about a month, will offer a way back to Son Volt.

Down to the Wire [MP3, 5MB, 160kbps]

www.rounder.com
www.sonvolt.net

Osborne

Todd Osborn reflects all that is great about Detroit to me. Like many of his local influences (including legendary radio DJs The Electrifying Mojo and The Wizard), he's a jack of all genres - producing techno, house, jungle, hip-hop, and dubstep records with equal aplomb. He's also a restless tinkerer with many side interests including, as his latest EP on Ghostly indicates, hovercrafting. "Fire" - from that EP - is a silky smooth disco track, a synthetic blend of strings, stings, guitar, and vibraphone over a buoyant 4/4 beat. On the other hand, "The Count," also on the EP, can only be shared in the context of its video, which lets his worldwide fans in on one of Detroit's treasured secrets: "The New Dance Show," a local late-night TV show that I, along with many other suburban Detroit kids, watched with great awe back in the late '80s. Twenty years later, those moves sync up nice and tight to this exquisite slice of minimalist techno without any need for special effects magic...

from Hovercrafting EP [2009]:
Fire [MP3, 8.8MB, 192kbps]

www.ghostly.com

Lymbyc Systym

We last left this dynamic duo after releasing their debut album on Mush Records. Since then, the Bell brothers, Jared and Michael, from Tempe, Arizona, have put out a remix album (featuring remixes by The Album Leaf, Daedelus, The One AM Radio and Bibio) and recently re-issued their first EP on their new label, Magic Bullet out of Virginia. The new tracks the band has added for the sharing encompass the wide range of instrumental rock you can expect from these fellows. "Narita" from their new split EP with This Will Destroy You starts out small and subtle with a three-key riff and then gradually grows into a sweeping epic as layers pile onto layers. "Fall Bicycle" from their first album exemplifies the duo's playful personality and showcases well Jared's keyboard playing and Michael's drumming. This summer you can enjoy the sites and sounds of this family roadtrip when they come strolling through your town.

Narita [MP3, 4.3MB, 128kbps]
Fall Bicycle [MP3, 8.0MB, 128kbps]
Truth Skull (Bibio Remix) [MP3, 12.4MB, 128kbps]

Original post: 04/18/2007:
If you'll notice our masthead we list the names of the cities in which each of our writers reside. Well, close enough. I don't actually live in Huntington Beach. I live in the small city that rests in the geographic elbow of Huntington Beach: Fountain Valley. There are no physical features distinguishing the city from Huntington Beach, with the exception of the mile square park smack in the middle of the city, and the great Vietnamese restaurants on the north end of town. How, you ask, does this have anything to do with Lymbyc Systym's instrumental, post-rock, debut album on Mush Records? When I first heard Lymbyc Systym it immediately brought to mind Fountain Valley's bland, generic motto: "A nice place to live." Simply put, Lymbyc Systym is nice music to listen to. Yet it's neither bland, nor generic. And unlike FV's relationship to the L.A. metropolis, Lymbyc Systym is anything but an insignificant blip on Mush Records' sprawling, musical landscape.

Truth Skull [MP3, 3.9MB, 128kbps]
Carved By Glaciers [MP3, 7.0MB, 128kbps]
Birds [live] [MP3, 8.8MB, 224kbps]

www.magicbulletrecords.com
www.mushrecords.com
www.lymbycsystym.com

The Boy Koan

Sonically, my Memorial Day weekend has been marked by the sizzle of meat, screams and splashes from kids in the pool, and the hearty blaring of these two tracks from the nearest sound system and my own vocal chords. New York's The Boy Koan has me geeked to start summer, or maybe I'm just geeked for summer to start. One thing's for sure, I'm geeked on The Boy Koan—they're the first band that I've ever asked to send me their lyrics. On second thought, that may simply say more about my thorough lack of thoroughness. I get the same tingly sensations from "Beasts from More Rustic Days" as I did when I first heard Grandaddy's Under The Western Freeway. And "My Russian Doll" fires up pogo reflexes with its '90s new wave gang vocals giving way to Mark E. Smith-like lackadaisical lilting on the bridge. It's hard to believe this is the band's first recorded efforts and that the usual purveyors of all things indie between here and there haven't been giving this sleeper of a debut more blog space. I'd be surprised if the lack of coverage lasted long.

Beasts From More Rustic Days [MP3, 7.9MB, 256kbps]
My Russian Doll [MP3, 6.6MB, 256kbps]

www.myspace.com/theboykoan

The Layaways

My last few posts have featured up-jump-and-boogie tracks and it's high time I settle down a bit before I hurt myself. The Chicago trio, The Layaways, a perennial favorite 'round these parts, return after dropping their festive Christmas EP more than two years ago. Their laid-back, '60s era sounds are absolutely delightening. Yes, they're so good that they induce spontaneous neology. On "Keep it to Yourself" they flavor their guitars with just a pinch of fuzz, a dash of reverb, and a sprinkle of backwardness. They turn up the jangle on "All Around the World" and their tag-team vocalists provide a subtle depth to this new full-length, available, by the way, in its entirety on their site in full share mode. Good peeps them Layaways boys. I hope they don't mind me adding my favorite track, "Come Back Home." It evokes a hot, languid California Summer circa 1967. Dig it.

One last note, The Layaways' guitarist, David Harnell, writes the blog Digital Audio Insider, a must read for any DIY band navigating their way through the digital music world.

Keep it to Yourself [MP3, 4.5MB, 192kbps]
All Around the World [MP3, 4.7MB, 192kbps]
Come Back Home [MP3, 6.3MB, 192kbps]

Previous post, 12/24/2006:

Any holiday worth its salt supports the spirit of sharing. So here's sharing songs about sharing from the ever generous band The Layaways. All their previous links still work as well, so if you haven't dug these out of the archive yet consider your stockings stuffed. From our families to yours we hope your holidays (be it Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Festivus) are safe and warm and filled with delicious treats.

O Christmas Tree [MP3, 4.7MB, 192kbps]
Joy to the World [MP3, 1.4MB, 192kbps]
Silent Night [MP3, 6.1MB, 192kbps]

Original post, 05/15/2005:

Apologies to Jennifer Z. (no relation) for procrastinating her suggestion until now. Why do today what can wait until tomorrow is the motto I too often live by. Better late than never. Jennifer notes, "They kind of have a Jesus and Mary Chain meets Guided By Voices thing going. Very catchy stuff!" I'll date myself and add to that that it reminds me of Rain Parade — a band I distinctly remember jamming out to while doing inventory all night at Music Plus. I got pulled over on the way home, and upon seeing my bloodshot eyes, the police officer asked me to step out of the car and asked me what I had been smoking. I finally convinced him that I was sober, and any high that I might have experienced that night was due to a lack of sleep and the chilled, psychedelic rock of Rain Parade. The Layaways sound as if they've been taking hits off the same pipe.
Silence [MP3, 4.1MB, 192kbps]
The Long Night [MP3, 6.9MB, 192kbps]
Ocean Blue [MP3, 3.5MB, 192kbps]
Let Me In [MP3, 2.7MB, 192kbps]
Is This All [MP3, 4.2MB, 192kbps]

www.mysteryfarm.com
www.thelayaways.com