A Hundred Things Keep Me Going Back to Love Is All (in no particular order):
1. Their pep.
2. Their perk.
3. Their punk.
4. They tour the U.S.
5. Their gravity.
6. Their levity.
7. The way they blend the two.
8. The way they leave the holes out of the O’s, A’s, and R’s in their artwork.
9. “Last Choice.”
10. “Spinning and Scratching.”
11. The ’70s look of their artwork.
12. “Movie Romance.”
13. Josephine.
14. Josephine’s artistic sensibilities.
15. They’ve covered Prince (though he made them leave it off their EP. Boo! Hiss!)
16. They’ve covered A Flock of Seagulls
17. They’ve covered Dire Straits
18. Nicholaus.
19. “19 Floors.”
20. When Josephine and Nicholaus sing at each other.
21. “It might seem strange, I don’t want to change, I don’t want to interact.”
22. “Last Choice.”
23. The guitars.
24. Their artwork leaves me wanting more.
25. They’re not afraid of repetition.
26. “Turn the TV off.”
27. Their label is called What’s Your Rupture?
28. James.
29. James’ last name.
30. Several of them used to be Girlfrendo.
31. The “found” feeling of the photographs in their artwork.
32. “Turn the Radio Off.”
33. Josephine’s wearing a band-aid on her nose in the “Wishing Well” video.
34. They like to share.
35. Their ’80s sound.
36. It’s the saxophone that really nails it.
37. Their pop.
38. “I’m not your kind and you’re not mine, but for tonight you’ll have to do just fine.”
39. They’re from Sweden.
40. Clay likes ’em.
41. Clay will like me more for sharing more Love Is All .
42. “Make Out Fall Out Make Up.”
43. Their cut and pastey logo.
44. Markus.
45. They rock their pogo pop sound like their lives depend on it.
46. “Give It Back.
47. The cowbell on “Give it Back.”
48. When Josephine and Nicholaus sing together.
49. Hot Chip remixed them.
50 “Talk Talk Talk Talk.”
51. They’ve covered The Pastels.
52. “Wishing Well.”
53. “Wishing Well’s” keyboard riff.
54. They gave Spin an MP3 of “Wishing Well.”
55. Johan.
56. “Big Bangs, Black Holes, Meteorites.”
57. They gave Pitchfork an MP3 of “Big Bangs, Black Holes, Meteorites.”
58. “Sea Sick.”
59. Josephine singing all whispery on “A More Uncertain Future.”
60. Adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline.
61. “I keep the one I love in the freezer.”
62. Not only do they make music together, some of them make kids together.
63. “Felt Tip.”
64. The explosive opening to “Give it Back.”
65. They’ve covered Faith No More.
66. They like polka dots.
67. They sound like Siouxsie & The Banshees sped up to Altered Images’ pace.
68. Red, white, black, and blue.
69. Their primary colored seagull t-shirt.
70. Seven seven inch singles.
71. “When Giants Fall.”
72. Their similar saxophone swagger of Romeo Void.
73. “Ageing Had Never Been His Friend.”
74. Sometimes they sound like they’re going to fall apart.
75. They never fall apart.
76. “A More Uncertain Future.”
77. Josephine and Markus didn’t laugh when an interviewer asked them what “indie” means to them.
78. When Josephine wears b/w stripped shirts that match her keyboard.
79. I like this second album more than their first.
80. I can’t wait to hear their next album.
81. “New Beginnings.”
82. They’re not too distracted to ponder infinity.
83. They hand printed their own re-usable grocery tote bags.
84. “Rumors.”
85. They’re not too jaded to throw money into wishing wells.
86. Black, white, and pink.
87. “Used Goods.”
88. Woodie.
89. Wyatt.
90. The technicolor video for “Ageing Had Never Been His Friend.”
91. They’re just plain fun dammit!
92. Love is All can cleanse your soul of Leo Buscaglia.
93. Their MP3s we linked to two years ago still work.
94. “Trying too Hard.”
95. “Busy Doing Nothing.”
96. l.i.a.
97. Fredrik.
98. The Bees remixed ’em.
99. They’re the perfect soundtrack to a bounce-house party.
100. Coming up with this list.
Boy Eats Drum Machine
It’s the day after Thanksgiving and I’m still thinking about eating. Even the music I’m listening to reminds me of eating. Enter Boy Eats Drum Machine. It’s somewhat of a misnomer because Jon Ragel the multi-instrumentalist behind the moniker is all grown up and no, he didn’t eat a drum machine. Instead, he joined forces with a who’s who line-up of Portland indie rock drummers via a local drum break series called Bridgetown Breaks. Drum credits go to the drummers of Viva Voce, Talkdemonic, and Menomena among others. Ragel adds everything else and it’s a plateful: turntables, synths, tenor sax, guitar, organ, and yes, bravely, vocals. RJd2 didn’t even step behind the mic until his second album. From record one (Booomboxxx is his third) Ragel’s armed with one turntable, one microphone and all the goodies mentioned above. The result is a scratchy, earnest pastiche of jazz, breaks, spaghetti western soundtracks, and soulful crooning. A delicious mix of sounds for the whole family to feast on this holiday season!
Leila
On her myspace page Leila lists her influences as “life…noise…stuff.” I’d just add “beats” to that list for a quick summation of her sound. These tracks her label has generously offered for your downloading pleasure demonstrate Leila’s controlled cacophony as she gathers audio odds and ends, samples of this horn and that vocal clip, and masterfully stitches the sounds together into something you can dance to and something you can chill to, respectively. It’s pastiche-core in the vein of Solex. Leila brings in a hodge-podge of guest musicians to add their own noises and stuff like Martina Topley Bird, Terry Hall, Andy Cox (The English Beat/Fine Young Cannibals), and her own sister Roya Arab. Blood, Looms, and Blooms is just the latest in her decade long recording career. Leila has worked with Björk and Aphex Twin and recorded as Grammatix and Little Miss Specta. Admittedly, I’ve got some homework to do as I’ve missed out thus far on her earlier efforts. Shame on me.
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.
Zoos of Berlin
I’m at least six months late in writing about this Detroit-based quintet, which gives me the luxury (or burden) of reacting not only to their music, but to others’ reactions to their music. One rarely hears Zoos of Berlin mentioned without a reference to Brian Eno and David Bowie collabos. And while there are certainly similarities, especially in Trevor Naud’s cool, spacey vocals, to focus on that is to miss the range that Zoos demonstrate live, or even in the three songs on their debut EP. “Below the Old House” serves up ebullient psychedelia then resolves in a trance-inducing ending. “Speak Well of Manderlay” romps and stomps about with an amped-up Baroque air. Then there’s “On Large Amusements,” my personal favorite, which fits a sprawling shoegazerly jam into an efficient two-and-a-half minutes—leaving you hungry for more. They’ve kindly permitted us to make all three tracks available for download so you can decide for yourself which Zoos of Berlin you like the most. Have fun.
GROK
I hope you don’t like this song very much. Or, better put: I’d advise you not to get too attached to this song, show up at a GROK show, and expect them to recreate this recording live. See, GROK’s got a thing or two to prove, and that thing or two has plenty to do with improvisation. They have no songs (at least not in that written, structured, rehearsed, performed sense of “song”), the songs they do have are performed only once so that every GROK show is a one-of-a-kind, highly unique experience, and audience members act as collaborators by suggesting a theme for a song, playing an instrument, or spinning the Wheel of Chordal Destiny. Their music sounds just as fun and whimsical, as is the case in “Pink Shirt.” Don’t worry if you find yourself listening to “Pink Shirt” more than once. To disagree with GROK is ultimately GROK. Don’t think about it, just listen…
Molly Shannon, Molly Shannon
These guys dig women…or their names, at least. Not just the “Saturday Night Live” star after which they’re named (twice, for good measure), but every track on their debut album is named after famous-to-obscure female celebrities (if you can identify all of them without the help of Google, my hat’s off to you). What connection they all have with each other is a mystery to me (“Batgirl, Miss America 1954, and a French physicist walk into a bar…”). And that mystery is only furthered by their nearly unintelligible lyrics and eclectic compositions (ranging from Eno-esque to bluegrass to indie spunk). What I do know is some strangely compelling songs emerge from the artsy din, “Bianca Montale” probably being the most conventional of the lot.
Stars Like Fleas
Stars Like Fleas is a Brooklyn-based collective of musicians you probably haven’t heard of from bands you probably have heard of (especially if you’re a regular to 3hive). At the nucleus are Montgomery Knott (vocals) and Shannon Fields (everything else). It was Shannon who emailed us to say that Stars Like Fleas will be releasing their third album after “a fair bit of wandering-in-the-desert time.” That’s gotta be some kind of crazy metaphor ’cause they recorded the album in Iceland—with Bjork’s producer, Valgeir Sigurðsson—and I don’t think there are any deserts there. Wherever it was that they wandered, they appear to have lost their penchant for unstructured, free jazz compositions and replaced it with a knack for lushly-orchestrated pop epics. The single, “I Was Only Dancing,” is a precise audio replication of a cloudburst falling on parched earth, sandwiched between slices of warm sunlight. Bathe/bask in it and you’ll see why it’s already one of my favorites of the year.
Meho Plaza
Each dose of Meho Plaza’s quirky, hooky electro-punk takes care of business, then bolts—leaving you craving more. I’d hardly call it minimalist, only that each musical element is used cunningly and sparingly. If there is an imbalance worth noting, it’s that Mike Thrasher’s lyrics take a back seat while the Moog gets its own dressing room—but it’s all for the good. From what I’ve read, their live show’s even better than the recorded version, and quite different. Alas, I’ll never know firsthand until they get enough funding to tour beyond of their SoCal homebase…so buy this record (available on iTunes), if only for me and everyone else east of the Pacific Time Zone.
P.S. Whew, I made it to the end of the post without referencing Wire… Oops!
Hanne Hukkelberg
I’ve been a patient boy. And today all my quiet suffering and yearning pays off. Hanne Hukkelberg’s new album comes out today and she begins touring the states this week. What Hukkelberg offers this time around on Rykestrasse 68 is fortunately more of the same: beautifully textured percussion, swaying rhythms and her exquisitely delicate voice. Her bicycle returns on this recording along with 29 other different instruments. The best way to listen to Hanne Hukkelberg is to simply shut up. Shut up your preconceived ideas of what a pop song should sound like. Shut up the glut of voices and sounds you’ve been listening to all day today and let her swab your skull clean, like a slice of aural ginger clearing your head of everything before it, and hear the world for the first time again.
A Cheater’s Armoury [MP3, 5.3MB, 128kbps]
(Original Post 10/25/05):
My eight year old started up on the clarinet this year in school. Never having played a reed instrument, I took a stab at it. Wow. Blowing into that little hole to produce any sound besides that of cats mating was impossible. Lucky for us and our neighbors, it clicked with my son much quicker. Segue to a recent CD shopping spree and I bought this Hanne Hukkelberg album based on the cover art alone. Several tracks feature a gorgeous clarinet and I was anxious to play it at home. The rest of the album was simply a wonderful surprise. Ms Hukkelberg’s calm, gentle vocals evoke a female David Sylvian, and her minimal, jazz-like compositions played on, among other things, pots, pans, wineglasses, and bicycle spokes, make for an organic version of Björk.