Here’s a little something to keep an eye on, Montreal duo Bikini. Alisa mentioned their Feist cover sounds like a sleepy Daft Punk (“hey honey, you never read 3hive, but why don’t start writing for us??” It won’t happen. She’s blog-phobic. Says they make her feel like a voyeur. Yeah, what’s wrong with that?). The one original they’ve posted for the world to hear, “I Remember Being Young,” quickly stuttered and warbled its way into my head and had me grooving out with some impressive air knob twiddling. The song seems to be an homage to childhood, something like “hole in your shoe, everyone can study, everyone can sing…sunrise is meant to get up, sunset’s meant to fall asleep…” Really hooky, but way too short. Keep that thing going! Spin it around the block one more time! Bikini will reveal more when they release their EP next month.
Electric President
My promo copy of Electric President’s new album Sleep Well is practically worn out already, but luckily, the release date for the new disc is just a few days away. Dreamy like the last one, but dark and brooding too, Ben Cooper and Alex Kane are still rocking the electrorganic (it does work, Sam) in the available-for-free-download, opening track “Monster,” as well as a bunch of other great spins on the disc. Check out the tinkly little piano in this song, the falsetto vocals in “We will Walk through Walls,” and the oh-so-true chorus of “It’s an Ugly Life,” all of these backed by occasional boops and bips and computer scratches.
Monsters [MP3, 7.8MB, 128kbps]
Sam’s original post: 01/21/06
Jacksonville, Florida’s Ben Cooper and Alex Kane had been collaborating as Radical Face Versus Phalex Sledgehammer for a couple years, when they mercifully decided to change their name to Electric President. They put together a five-song EP called You Have the Right to Remain Awesome which found its way to the Morr Music offices in Berlin. Morr now brings us their debut long-player which is nothing short of dreamy. Electric President’s electrorganic (just made that term up) pop fits right alongside labelmates Lali Puna, Styrofoam, b.fleischmann, and Mum. Ben also records solo as Radical Face (hence the duo’s original moniker) and should have an album out (also on Morr) later this year. He also makes really nice paintings. And he’s only 23. Yeah, I know…showoff.
Insomnia [MP3, 9.9MB, 320kbps]
Good Morning, Hypocrite [MP3, 7.4MB, 192kbps]
Label My Mind: Blown [MP3, 5.6MB, 192kbps]
Daniel Ahearn
While Daniel Ahearn’s group project, Ill Lit, was one of our earliest posts, they never really enjoyed proper coverage on this site. Now’s the time to make up for such an oversight. Ahearn emerges with a solo EP almost two years after Ill Lit’s self-released album, Tom Cruise. To be honest, it’s not much different from Ill Lit’s electro-tinged americana sound. That’s a good thing. The difference is Ahearn wrote the songs on Pray for Me By Name so that he felt comfortable playing them alone with an acoustic guitar. Rather than painting himself into a corner, this restraint, this simplification allows Ahearn to create a small masterpiece in “Down for the Count.” A gritty keyboard groove opens the song with a bounce, then smoothes out giving way to a soft, sweet, soaring chorus. Don’t let the gentle tone fool you. Ahearn couches both the ups and downs, the sunshine and the Santa Anas, of West Coast living in one friendly tune.
Mass Solo Revolt
Time to hit Athens again with the indie rock of Mass Solo Revolt. Other reviewers, publicists, and music sources bring up the apparent 90’s indie rock influences of MSR, listing off the obvious suspects, but what else would one expect of a band that grew up on said influences? MSR, though, aren’t content with just mimicing; they have an earnestness that shows they’re doing what they want to do. The Flaming Lips, Dinosaur, Jr., Superchunk, The Wedding Present, and (personal fave) the Grifters have been known to have that effect on impressionable young ears.
Twin Tiger
I recently caught the last hour or so of the classic documentary Athens, Georgia Inside/Out. That LP was probably the most used vinyl of the summer between high school graduation and my freshman year of college, Love Tractor and Pylon being two of my faves at the time.
Athens has continued to be an almost non-stop source of bands over the years, of all types and sounds, so it’s natural that the pysch-tinged, shoegaze-influenced rock of Twin Tigers would hail from the capital of alterna-rock, forming, playing, putting out an EP and touring from Georgia to Texas to Michigan, all in about 6 months. Ah, the innocence of youth, making music the way they want to, and seeing what happens. That’s Athens for you.
Joe Pug
There’s been a fair amount of turmoil in my life of late: relocation from The Big Northeastern City to The Little Southern City, new job, first house, first child—basically we’ve inadvertently fit all of the major milestones of adulthood into about a 12-month span. It’s got me a little out of sorts, which may explain why I’ve gravitated more than normal toward singer-songwriters. Surely I’m softening in my mid-30s, but there’s just something about an acoustic guitar and a single voice that brings focus to my overactive mind. Joe Pug’s voice and guitar have a particular resonance in this regard. Pug is a Chicago carpenter by day and a troubadour by night. He possesses the eyes, mop, and even a hint of the vocal cords of a young Bob Dylan. More importantly, he possesses the strumming fingers and lush songbook of an all-American folk singer. In Pug’s hard plucking, exaggerated choruses, and lyrical vignettes you can draw a pretty straight line from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan to Johnny Cash to Bruce Springsteen to Steve Earle to Josh Ritter. Like all of them, Pug is a populist at heart, a singer who can’t help but talk about all of us when he sings about himself and can’t help but sing about himself when he’s talking about all of us. I’m a sucker for a good line and this one from “Hymn #101” is one of my favorites right now: “I’ve come to meet the sheriff and his posse/ to offer him the broad side of my jaw/ I’ve come here to get broke/ and maybe bum a smoke/ we’ll go drinkin’ two towns over after all.” It could just be a comic-tragic put-on and you probably have to feel some turmoil yourself to truly appreciate it, but “Hymn #101” is full of lines that will fill you with both heartbreak and euphoria. It’s good to be reminded that that’s why we listen to music in the first place.
Reeve Oliver
Did you notice? Reeve Oliver’s initials are R.O., the first two letters in the word “rock.” You know where I’m going with this don’t you? Well, they do! They rock like alternative radio circa the late ’90s when bands like Foo Fighters were ruling the airwaves and alternative radio wasn’t all that alternative any more. Reeve Oliver is one of those no-it’s-not-a-dude-but-the-name-of-their-band bands from San Diego who recently recorded their second album courtesy of a major label only to have the major label back out of the deal. Luckily, the band was able to get control of the record so it didn’t end up getting shelved, out of sight, out of mind for years. A few songs on this new album are re-recordings of previous releases, the band wisely choosing to spend big money production on their strongest songs, e.g. “Yer Motion.” I dig the band’s oh, so tasty melodies, melodies you wouldn’t usually hear on a rock record. They remind me a lot of Erik Voek’s lithe vocal melodies, a genius, under-the-radar pop recluse that I can never get enough of. And really, when you’ve got a secret weapon like O. (Olivelawn, Fluf) up your sleeve it’s pwnage time. Play often, play loud, play now.
Man Plus
Seattle’s Man Plus is kind of like 3hive–a bunch of dudes, one girl and all about the music. When I run low on musical suggestions, I tend to stream KEXP radio when I wake up in the morning and when I did just that recently, I came across this. I was very happy about this find. I have to give much love to the good people at KEXP for always throwing up something new, something smart and being profound musical locavores. To my ear, Man Plus is definitely music from the Pacific Northwest. I have no idea how one really defines “music from the Pacific Northwest” in 2008–but I’m feeling like it has to be part rock out music, part semi-impenetrable lyric (see: “I want to be the number 12”) and, of course, part unrestrained angst (see: all those gloomy pretty guitars attended to by the tendency to move from pretty singing to expressive yell-singing). It has been the soundtrack to this gloomy but sweet morning, and to many others.
Pretty Good Dance Moves
P.G.D.M. will, as the title implies, keep the dance floor packed at the silent disco. It’s fitting because the electronic instrumentation approximates The Postal Service while the lovely female vocals will be a warm wooby for fans of Cat Power and Bat for Lashes – in other words, it’s great music for dancing with yourself, even when you’re dancing with the masses. I’m giving the band short shrift with such simple comparisons because I’m in a hurry today, but I ask—nay, admonish—you to not give them short shrift yourself, because beats like these don’t often come with such pretty and smart heartstrings attached.
Honey Claws
As most of the music world heads to Austin, Texas this week for the annual South By South West music festival I’m stuck here in my front bedroom doing the virtual bar crawl hunting for something new to listen to and re-living past SXSWs. Honey Claws is just the sort of thing I’d hope to run into at 1 A.M. my feet weary from the walking, my head hurting from all the rocking, but these grooves would buoy me up for another couple hours. These two tracks sound a bit like Nine Inch Nails tempered and mellowed through Beck’s beatbox and microphone. The rest of the album will take you on a wild bounce deep into the heart of Austin’s freak-hop-tronic scene. Sure, that may just be the Honey Claws’ garage but bigger things have blossomed from humbler origins.
SXSW showcase: Wednesday night @ 115 Club.