Portastatic

I've already written about how Mac has been my personal shrink. Portastatic's got a double disc of demos, singles, B-sides and covers — Ryan Adams, Galaxie 500, etc. — coming out in a week. Some Small History: sign me up!

Some Small History [MP3, 6MB, 192kbps]

Original post: 01/17/06
Mac McCaughan — either with Superchunk or solo as Portastatic — pretty much got me through the 1990s, much to the annoyance of my friends and girlfriends. Yes, every song does sound the same, and no, I don't care. "I Wanna Know Girls" is like unconditional love for me, a song that I've been waiting for, maybe without knowing it, for five years or more. " I wanna know girls but only love one," "and yeah my love weighs a ton." (So do I, with the sympathy pounds I've added during my wife's pregnancy, but that's another story.) It's nice to see Mac's songwriting mature from last decade's boozy lovesickness, and it's also nice, for me at least, to hear that the songs do still sound the same.

I Wanna Know Girls [MP3, 4.5MB, 128kbps]

www.mergerecords.com
www.portastatic.com

Marching Band

I dig the quick and dirty track Clay posted yesterday from The Real Losers. Good and raw. It reminds me of a knockout Kafka saying (for the original quotation replace "listen to" with "read" and "records" for "books"), "I think we ought to listen to only the kind of records that wound and stab us. If the record we are listening to doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we listening to it for?"

Marching Band is a soothing antidote to those records that leave you bleeding. This Swedish duo is making quite a name for themselves on L.A. radio, which in turn has plenty of music supervisors geeked on Marching Band's carefree indie pop. Obvious comparisons can be drawn to The Shins, but I immediately thought of Field Music when I heard "For Your Love." "Make Up Artist" has a similar disco pop groove to the underrated Phoenix. The band generously shares tracks from the three EPs before their debut album, which is available now. I'll quit yapping so you can make your own connections to your favorite artist, because there's really something here for any purveyor of the popular side of rock 'n' roll.

From Spark Large (2008):
For Your Love [MP3, 5.8MB, 215kbps]
Make No Plans [MP3, 6.7MB, 224kbps]
Make Up Artist [MP3, 6.6MB, 208kbps]

From EP3 (2006):
Home Alone VI [MP3, 5.0MB, 192kbps]
Letters [MP3, 4.3MB, 192kbps]
Feel Good About It [MP3, 3.5MB, 192kbps]

From EP2 (2005):
Travel in Time [MP3, 6.6MB, 192kbps]
Now More, Now Less [MP3, 6.2MB, 192kbps]

From EP1 (2004):
In a Little While [MP3, 5.7MB, 192kbps]
Marching Band [MP3, 7.2MB, 192kbps]

Buy from iTunes
www.urbandlazar.com
marchingband.se

The Real Losers

Sometimes while researching for 3hive, I start with an old post and start clicking links. I did that tonight, and after seemingly dozens of links, I ended up on a Leeds garage punk-rock band, the Real Losers. I couldn't get back to their site even if I tried again. This song is so lo-fi, and such a crappy recording, it actually can't get any better. Don't you just love the internet?

Treat Me Bad [MP3, 2.9MB, 160kbps]

www.btinternet.com/~drchapman/losers
smashintransistors.homestead.com/BancroftRecords.html

Plastilina Mosh

No matter if you speak español or inglés, you're gonna get a kick out of the new Plastilina Mosh tracks. That is unless, you're completely lacking any sense of fun. For those of you unfamiliar with P. Mosh, the duo out of Monterrey, Mexico first imported their bombastic, south-of-the-border-B-52s-meet-Beck party tunes just about a decade ago. They worked with the Dust Brothers and Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf (all of whom worked with Beck early in his career). They enjoyed a healthy amount of commercial success with the track "Mr. P Mosh." Staying true to their divergent sound, Plastilina Mosh once again mix it up on their new album, All U Need is Mosh. The band can cross styles and tempos just as easy as they cross cultures and languages. One fantastic groove to get on.

Pervert Pop Song (feat. Ximena Sariñana and Patricia Lynn) [MP3, 6.2MB, 208kbps]
Toll Free [MP3, 4.6MB, 187kbps]

Buy from iTunes
www.nacionalrecords.com
www.myspace.com/plastilinamosh

Frontier Ruckus

The scrawled and scratched-out lyrics on the band's website, the quavering vocals, the images of dust and absence and longing — Frontier Ruckus is tapping into all the elements of that particular folk style wherein the songs (and singers) appear much older than their actual age. In the demos for their album The Orion Songbook — that's not Orion like the constellation, but Orion (oree-un) like the suburban Detroit city & lake — this Michigan outfit seems to be dreaming back to the time when it took two weeks to travel from Detroit to Saginaw. Appropriately, tracks like "Orion Town 2" and "Mohawk, New York" are filled with an old-time, bare-bones aesthetic. Dig through the band's website to find more downloadable demos.

Orion Town 2 [MP3, 4MB, 192kbps]
Mohawk, New York [MP3, 1.1MB, 128kbps]

www.quitescientific.com
www.frontierruckus.com

Inara George

It never hurts to have the right friends in the right places. Inara George takes full advantage of an old family friend on her new album An Invitation, out now on Everloving Records. Lucky for her, and us, the friend she's collaborated with on this album is Van Dyke Parks, the arranger of the last forty years. Haven't heard of him? Certainly you've heard him. Suffice it to say he arranged songs and wrote lyrics with Brian Wilson for the Beach Boys' ever elusive Smile album. His work with Ms. George is quite different however. Parks arranged airy, playful compositions for a large orchestra to accompany George's rich vocal performance. The album is an organic foil to Inara George's work with her electronic work with Greg Kurstin as The Bird and The Bee. I love the loose, improvised feel to these tracks. It's as if I'm watching Inara on stage in a musical, a love story, and I've suspended every shred of disbelief to the point that I'm sure she's in love with me. And it takes days to chase her voice out of my head and shake those floaty feelings the have left me giddy.

Oh My Love [MP3, 3.7MB, 160kbps]
Accidental [MP3, 3.6MB, 160kbps]
Duet [MP3, 3.1MB, 160kbps]

Buy from iTunes
www.everloving.com
www.inarageorge.com

The Laureates

This post marks my return from "The Last Frontier," Alaska. Yes, I've spent the last couple weeks far removed from what I consider civilization, cavorting with cohos, bears, foxes, moose, and mosquitoes. And the hot-fudge milkshake at Lucky Wishbone in Anchorage (oh man, they'd burn the hot-fudge just a bit for a palate pleasing punch. Heaven!). We did spend a few days in the wilderness, about fifteen miles north west of Willow where I mostly hung around the banks of the Deshka River with a fishing pole, coaxing those silver salmon onto my hook. Don't mistake me for an outdoorsman though. My idea of the outdoors is the not-so-desolate stretch of the Pacific Ocean where I'm never too far from the Ahi Steak Sandwich at TK Burger. Once home, I stopped by the over-flowing post office box to begin catching up on music. The Laureates lured me in first with their brightly packaged advance of their debut album There are No More Gentlemen. I was easily hooked by their raw, '60s freakbeat sound and their jerky, syncopated rhythms. A couple early Laureates fans beat me to some apt descriptions like "equal parts paisley and punk" and "Interpol produced by Phil Spector." Absolutely right up my alley. You can also download their first EP off their site.

Your Filthy Eastern Ways [MP3, 5.4MB, 160kbps]
Nothing Is Perfect [MP3, 3.0MB, 160kbps]

www.laureatesmusic.com

Chad VanGaalen

I'm kind of busy right now watching Canada vs. Cuba in Olympic baseball on CBC, but I will say this: Chad VanGaalen's trembly, trippy, falsetto-ed pop makes a lousy soundtrack for watching athletics on television. (For the most part: the rocking "Graveyard," available for free download below, might fit in during the half inning breaks where t-shirts are tossed into the crowd.) VanGaalen, of Calgary, crafts stylish and hip songs with a strong D.I.Y. vibe. With these tracks below, borrowed from VanGaalen's three ablums, all your lo-fi friends will be wanting to know what you're spinning. Tell them you're busy — water polo's on in ten minutes.

From Soft Airplane:
Willow Tree [MP3, 3.1MB, 128kbps]

From Skelliconnection:
Flower Gardens [MP3, 2.9MB, 160kbps]
Graveyard [MP3, 4.5MB, 160kbps]

From Infiniheart:
Clinically Dead [MP3, 3.2MB, 192kbps]
Somewhere, I Know There's Nothing [MP3, 5.9MB, 192kbps]
Traffic [MP3, 3.9MB, 192kbps]

flemisheye.com
www.myspace.com/chadvangaalen

Charles Bradley & The Bullets

Isaac Hayes passed away today (Sunday), in the very same hospital that my children were born in. His strong personality will be missed, but his musical legacy remains. I've been digging the soul/funk/R&B revival going on these days, thanks largely to Daptone Records, so it's appropriate today to share a couple of gems from the Daptone 7 inch Singles Collection Vol. 2 by Charles Bradley & The Bullets.

Now That I'm Gone [MP3, 4.2MB, 160kbps]
This Love Ain't Big Enough For the Two of Us [MP3, 2.8MB, 128kbps]

www.daptonerecords.com

Lewis & Clarke

I know, I know... If you're at all like me, you were probably pretty stoked about a band named after Thomas Jefferson's intrepid explorers of the Louisiana Purchase, until you noticed the "e" up there that's not really on the end of William Clark's name. Then you realized the band's name refers to the correspondence between C.S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke, not the Corps of Discovery. (Ok, the band website helped me out on that last part.) And then you download the ten minutes of "Before It Breaks You" and listen to it, and then it's over before you realize it and the whole time you've been bathed in the musical equivalent of sunlight filtered through a grove of aromatic, soft-needled southern pines, or something similarly tranquil and pleasant. Lewis & Clarke call their sound "avant chamber folk," but don't let that turn you off. Give them more than a few minutes, and see if you like what you get back. I did.

Before It Breaks You [MP3, 11.7MB, 160kbps]

la-soc.com
www.lewisandclarkemusic.com