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Soft Science

I’ve been trying since June to find time to post this. Meanwhile, if MP3s were tapes, I’d have already worn out my copy of Soft Science’s debut Highs and Lows. Their sound is a checklist of my vulnerabilities: melancholy lyrics, soaring harmonies, confident percussion, fuzzy guitars. Plus, singer Katie Haley’s delivery evokes at moments St. Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell or The Raveonettes’s Sune Rose Wagner. So I was smitten from the start. Love is the recurring theme, in all its many flavors. There are healthy doses of power pop and dream pop treatments here, but the most memorable songs are the nuanced and restrained ones. “Better Be Good” draws its strength from the smoldering embers of a broken relationship with an startling honesty that recalls “Voices Carry” (before you heard it a million times on ’80s rewind radio). “Put Your Arms Around Me” holds back in all the right ways – all that is left is Ms. Haley whispering sweet somethings in your ears, leaving you wanting more. Speaking of wanting more, this is only the second LP from Sacramento’s Test Pattern Records. Here’s to more where that came from…

Better Be Good from Highs and Lows (2011)

Put Your Arms Around Me from Highs and Lows (2011)

testpatternrecords.com

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Cuckoo Chaos

There isn’t much out there about Cuckoo Chaos other than they’re a five piece band from San Diego. They have posted a list of all the things they are, too many to name here, on their band page on Lefse Records’ site. What I can tell you from listening to the song “Just Ride It”, from their just released debut album Woman, they play super-tight pop/rock music. The song, and album as a whole, reminds me of Vampire Weekend, minus the Paul Simon influences. I hope I don’t get killed for that comparison. The song is full of muted and jangly guitars, combined with a nice bass groove and just enough keys, the song really takes you for a ride, and when it ends your ready to get back on and ride it again. Give this track a go, you will like it I promise.

Cuckoo Chaos – Just Ride It from Woman (2011)

Lefse Records

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Ganglians

Ganglians are a band that I stumbled upon tonight while searching the www’s for new music. They are a four member band out of Sacramento,CA. They take their name from a mixture of the words “gang” and “aliens”. I am brand new to these guys and I don’t know anything more about them.

I was pleasantly surprised by the track “Jungle” that is being shared below. It’s equal parts psychedelic and noise pop, with all the fuzz you can handle, all things that get this listener’s ears to perk up, and when this song came on for the first time, they perked. Their new album Still Living comes out on August 23. You should buy it.

Ganglians – Jungle from Still Living (2011)

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Floating Action

I love having people in my life who are just as obsessed with finding new music as I am. This find comes from my cousin Ben, and It’s a pretty darn good find.

Floating Action is from North Carolina, the band consists mostly of one person, Seth Kauffman, who sings and plays everything except the pedal steel on this, his third release Desert Etiquette. The album was written and recorded in a matter of about 4 days, and it shows, but not in a bad way. The songs are loose, but not sloppy, as a whole the album have a very casual feel to it. Both songs included below, “Eye of A Needle” and “Well Hidden” are both chilled out, and laid-back. So get out your chaise lounge, and put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage, and relax to some smooth indie rock.

Floating Action – Eye of A Needle from Desert Etiquette (2011)

Floating Action – Well Hidden from Desert Etiquette (2011)

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Tomorrows Tulips

When I was young and didn’t know better, I thought I could do anything I wanted to do. I wanted to be a cartoonist. Draw funny pictures for a living. All my favorite comic strips were created by accidental artists: “I didn’t set out to draw a comic strip, but now I’m in thousands of newspapers. Go figure.” I hated reading stories like that.

If I were a musician, I’d hate Tomorrows Tulips’ story. It goes something like this…Alex Knost started this band called The Japanese Motors with some friends when he was 17. They didn’t know how to play instruments, but they practiced a lot, then got signed to Vice Records and toured the world with bands like Modest Mouse. Then he thought it’d be better to play and tour with his girlfriend (wise choice) and so he wrote some songs, she played the drums, and now they have a record out on this cool boutique label.

Tomorrows Tulips are all reverby and lo-fi. The guitars give off a hazy shimmer, the sunset’s rose reflection off the rippling sea. Simple melodies and hooky bits that get stuck in your head like the ocean does in your sinuses after you’ve been out surfing all morning.

Oh yeah, and Knost rips at surfing and skateboarding.

Some guys have all the luck. And skill.

The rest of us blog.

Eternally Teenage

Casual Hopelessness

Tomorrows Tulips – “Casual Hopelessness” from jack Coleman on Vimeo.

Tomorrows Tulips – “Eternally Teenage” from jack Coleman on Vimeo.

www.galaxiarecords.com
www.tomorrowstulipstoday.com

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Miracle Fortress

The sophomore record by Montreal-based Graham Van Pelt (dba Miracle Fortress) is single-handedly satisfying my seasonal synth-pop jones. The single, “Miscalculations”, is an achingly perfect jam that sounds as right today as it would have 25 years ago. It will ease its way into even the hardest of hearts, mark my words. Miracle Fortress is currently touring with Junior Boys, which should make for a double scoop of synth-pop goodness.

Miscalculations from Was I The Wave? (2011)

www.secretcityrecords.com
www.miraclefortress.com

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Computer Magic

Computer Magic and 3hive are kindred souls. First off, they love to share. And that’s what we’re all about here at the ‘hive. Sharing the sharing. Computer Magic has three EPs for your downloading pleasure. No strings attached. And here’s the best part: it’s as good as anything you’ll hear on the radio right now. But it’s not on the radio. Yet.

Kinship part two: the sound is right up our alley: the bass has a slowed-down New Order bounce to it which works so well with CM’s spacey synths and sweet, sultry vocals. Their compositions are playful like Land of the Loops, or more recently Michna, but without their glitchiness.

The brains, voice, and vision behind Computer Magic is Danielle Johnson aka Danz a New York native, an up-stater, who made her way to Brooklyn after high school and went from spinner of records to writer and recorder of records. With a little help of some friends Danz translates her bedroom bliss pop to the stage and according to NME her cuteness belies a “monstrous talent.”

Computer Magic gives me hope. Hope that in today’s pop culture ruled and reigned by the likes Lady Gaga and Jersey Shore I can steer my daughter towards a more palatable pop icon(oclast).

Found Out from Electronic Fences EP
Grand Junction from Spectronic EP
Holiday Song from Spectronic EP
The End of Time from Spectronic EP
Everyone Feels That Way Sometimes from Spectronic EP

thecomputermagic.com
whiteiris.tv

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Suedehead

One of the off-shoots of British Mod music is a branch known as Northern Soul which took its cues from little known American soul bands. Now a little known band out of Costa Mesa, California is doing its darndest to revive the sound here on U.S. shores. That band, as you probably already guessed, is Suedehead and they have quite the pedigree. Singer and guitarist Davey Warsop used to sing with a British punk band called Beat Union. Chris Bradley (guitars) ran a small punk rock label called Unity Squad Records, and keyboardist Greg Kuehn did the same for punk rock legends T.S.O.L.

While Suedehead definitely has a punk rock energy and aesthetic about them, they’d be more fit at the head of dance floor than a mosh pit. They wear their affinity for Paul Weller and all things Jam on their sleeves, and that’s a good thing. Rocking out to their new EP, I’ve been asked several times if I was sure this isn’t Elvis Costello. And I’m sure, but it’s a good comparison if we went back in time and Costello was 27 again. The two treats we’re including from the band represent the second, darker half of their EP: the crowd favorite “Young & In Love,” and the video for the oh-so-danceable “Can’t Stop.” Tune in!

Suedehead – Young & In Love

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Velocity Girl

I have this tendency to get addicted to songs to the point that the people around me begin throwing heavy objects at my throat and knee-caps. The detox process consists of playing the song over and over while I write a little narrative of my relationship with that song. Lately, I haven’t detoxed; it’s hard to get back into that habit once you’ve abandoned it. After today I promise not to discuss my lingering absence.

My latest awakening is due to one of my all time favorite roadtrip songs, “Go Coastal”by a forgotten favorite: Velocity Girl. I rolled the song over, along with a gaggle more, in a recent refresh of my exercise playlist (I only listen to that about once a week by the way…) and now I can’t live without it. It took me about 10 listens to re-memorize the lyrics, I’m slow like that, and now I’ll enjoy singing along to it for another 50 or so.

I talked a lot about Velocity Girl in my Sarah Shannon review, and now I’ll reciprocate. After Velocity Girl broke up in ’96 (the same year I brought a child into the world, man, those 14 years flew by), Sarah reappeared with a couple of the velocity boys in Starry Eyes, put out two solo records in ’02 and ’06, sang on a Free Design cover with Styrofoam, brought a couple of children into the world herself, and is now writing and performing songs inspired, I imagine, by those children. I’m gonna call my friends at Yo Gabba Gabba and see what I can do about getting Sarah’s voice stuck in the head of cool kids and parents worldwide!

Forgotten Favorite [MP3]
Go Coastal [MP3]

Velocity Girl at subpop.com
thenot-its.com

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3hive Rewinds and Fast Forwards

Let’s face it, 2010 was less than stellar at this url. The principals and our reviewers all dropped out of ear-shot simultaneously and for months 3hive has been out of commission. No particular reason really. Life unplugged us, and once unplugged it’s hard to get back into gear, back into the groove.

Twenty-eleven’s gonna be different. I can only speak for myself, but I’m back on the wagon. I’m good for a couple posts a week, maybe even three. I’ll likely drop in the readings I’m obsessed with on occassion, like this, this , and this.

3hive’s Most Popular Posts from 2010:

11. Jaga Jazzist
10. Inlets
09. Let’s Say We Did
08. Happy Birthday
07. The Royal Chains
06. Bonobo
05. Junk Science
04. Cap’n Jazz [re-issue]
03. Galactic
02. Phantogram
01. Tycho