There’s an aspect to The Sweet Hurt’s bio that’s, well, sweetly endearing. After going through the ususal personnel problems that bands have, there emerged an opportunity to play a show that pushed Sweet Hurt founder Wendy Wang “to get the band back together.” So, when I was a kid, I loved The Blues Brothers, especially the car chase scenes, and while The Sweet Hurt sound nothing like Jake and Elwood, I appreciate Wendy’s effort.
zooey
It’s funny how everything comes together around the holidays. I was assembling my Christmas-cast last night and wanted something…wasn’t sure what. Then, I check my email to find that Zooey (one Matthieu Beck from Bordeaux, France) has just wrapped up his melancholy Grey Christmas single and, like everything Matthieu creates, is giving it away for free. It fit nicely into the mix, a delicate, flickering little Christmas miracle. That track and his latest full-length, Pique-Nique et Jeux Dans L’eau, are .zip files. So you’ll have to go to Zooey’s downloads page to get your hands on those. However, if you’re looking to escape the weather of the season, we’ve got “Endless Summer on the Beaver Island” with it’s lazy, hazy ode to warmer days.
The Special Guests
I found an old tape in my parents’ garage that I’d made for my brother years ago. While it had Wire and Yello on it, it led me down a train of thought that eventually inspired me to dig out Desmond Dekker’s song “Reggae Recipe,” which naturally led to more ska listening. Yes, it’s been a while since 3hive’s last ska post, so something special was needed. Something authentic, something true to roots of ska, something with a rocksteady soul, and Germany’s The Special Guests are the perfect fit. Plus, they’re the only thing keeping me going after 15 hours at work!
Nick Robin
I recently bought this and this from Insound. The package they arrived in included the usual 2:1 ratio of collateral marketing material to music product. Among the collateral was a small, square glossy catalog/zine. The theme of the issue was “indie rock road trip” and it was actually a pretty good read. However, nowhere did it mention perhaps the best driving-themed song I’ve heard all year: Nick Robin’s “Drive-On”. Nick’s slow, careful folk glows with yearning. And it’s got vibes, which earns automatic bonus points in my book. Go buy the album here. (Many thanks to Lise for the suggestion.)
Letting Up Despite Great Faults
Electronic, acoustic, classical, it all goes together to create beautiful music. Letting Up Despite Great Faults create music from the heart, ignoring formulas and expectations, letting their freedom and creativity flow. There are no great faults, and hopefully no letting up.
Walter Meego
No one in Walter Meego is named Walter. Ironically, the 3hive reader who tipped us off to Walter Meego is named Walter. But, lest you think he’s just one of these vain guys who’ll go see any band named after him, he actually went to see Caribou — who was known as Manitoba up until about a year ago — and Walter Meego was the opening act. Confused? Good. Now you’re ready for Walter Meego (the band, remember, not the reader) and their wry, funky, glitchy brand of “mutant dance” music.
The Warmth
Let’s all take a moment to thank the guy who invented the Internet. And we should probably thank the billionaires over at Google, too, for if it weren’t for these individuals, we wouldn’t have the machinery by which we can stumble upon new music purely by accident. Not only was I looking for another band when The Warmth came up, but I had misspelled that original band’s name — badly. Yet, there was The Warmth, offering up an electro-acoustic vibe not unlike Travis and David Gray — something vaguely familiar and comforting but hardly stuck in Dullsville. There’s precious little information available about the band’s latest album, Fox & Weathervane, on their website or, irony of ironies, through Google searches. But they do have some music to share, so take a listen while you try to figure out this mystery wrapped in a riddle wrapped in…a website.
Faux Pas
A week ago I posted Gotye. If I hadn’t been in such a serious carb coma on the heels of Thanksgiving I probably would have posted an Australian two-fer including Gotye’s friend and countryman, Faux Pas (aka Tim Shiel). These two take great care to make their quirky, sampleriffic musical explorations feel warm, organic, and spontaneous. Faux Pas even goes as far as to eliminate vocal samples lest we get lured into the obsessive spotting exercise that Gotye’s tracks inspired. The frenzied big beat sound of “Cup of Wonder” provides instant gratification but “White Light” definitely steals the show. I am now convinced that spacey theramin, Asian dulcimer, and R&B horn riffs were always meant for each other; all they needed was a tumbling drumbeat to rally around… As a bonus, it turns out Tim’s also a bit of an MP3 blogger himself. Check out the Blog section of his site to get a good sense of his musical reference points.
Ehroehed
Ehroehed is Lonny Potter, who records music in British Columbia, apparently to give away to his friends. Erik Ratcliffe is a nice person from somewhere, wherever, who dropped Ehroehed in our Suggestion Box. If I knew Lonny Potter personally, I’d tell him to burn a disc of his music to give to Erik Ratcliffe because, you know, that whole sharing the sharing thing. Plus, it’s gonna be the holidays, so let’s all be Lonny’s friends, yeah? Like Will Oldham in the Palace days, Ehroehed reminds me that there are plenty of weirdos out there making beautifully strange songs just for the hell of it (and for that I’ll count my blessings).
Blue Bone Express
I often wonder what kind of music my children will end up listening to. When I was their age I was fed a steady diet of The Beach Boys, The Carpenters, Bee Gees and Roger Miller, so my parents were understandably distraught when the sounds of Dead Kennedys’ Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables blasted out of my room. I had a peek into my future when I mentioned to my son that if he kept practicing the piano and clarinet he’d soon be playing music like the punk rock that was shuffling through the car stereo at the time. “No dad,” he said, “I want to play in the Disneyland band.” Well, thanks to Patti Bao, one of our fine readers, I’ve found possible musical mentors for the kid. Straight outta Oakland, Blue Bone Express — nothing but lively traditional Dixieland jazz here. Look, I’m always worrying that he’ll end up bringing home a pan flute, or let his appearance deteriorate like this, so I am extremely relieved at his choice of aspirations.