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!
Compare and contrast my post of May 18, 2005, with this one. Same band. Same song title. But just as the Swedish duo of Lindefelt and Fredrik have changed their performing name from The Lovekevins to The Love of Kevin, Colour, Chaos, and the Sound of K (or “The LK” for short), they have also changed their style. “Stop Being Perfect” has gone from being a textbook Swedish guitar-pop song to a textbook Swedish electronic pop song (there’s the contrast). No change though in their ability to craft a catchy pop song, one that induces singing along and toe-tapping. For the curious, some of those older “guitar” songs from their 2005 Max Leon EP can be downloaded from the Songs I Wish I Had Written website below.
Apparently, in Michigan at least, spring is refusing to be sprung, so the only thing to do is get happy. Canadian bands, especially those not from BC, have extra special cred in this regard as their weather is even worse than ours. Hence Hilotrons, of Ottawa. Fun fun weird fun — lousy, whiny vocals, heavy 80s-ish synth, bouncy, boppy awesome blast. I’ve been spinning their new release, Happymatic at home a lot, and darn if it ain’t working! Alas, I can only offer an excellently representative minute and a half (“Dominika”) for free and legal download; check out the mySpace, buy the album, whatever it takes to get happy, it’s worth it.
This post has been a long time coming. Because I haven’t loved any music lately, and because, well, I’ve been so very MIA. So first things first, hello again! Some things change (i.e. the seasons, my computer [!!!]), etc but thankfully never, ever my weakness for the british accent and quirkilicious bands. I’m really glad that these poppy, punky girls and boys decided to cite Architecture in Helsinki as an influence on their own accord, so I didn’t have to do it first. Los Campesinos has the same big, bombastic, pleasantly messy collective sound and the same absolutely misleading kind of name–these seven british kids don’t appear to be anywhere from anyplace that speaks any kind of Spanish (although I could be wrong). I feel like seeing them live (which I have not) would be a blast of colors and dancing and rocking out and just a whole lot of fun. I look forward to it.
It was my daughter’s birthday yesterday and the major festivities happen today, so the in-laws are in town (they just walked in the door) and my hosting and fathering skills are required, but I don’t want to short change the ‘hive or this band. Lucky for me, Anne and Miles of Vanilla Swingers just dropped these tracks of gold into our suggestion box yesterday, saving me the trouble of digging through piles of mail, electronic and snail. While their name rings oxymoronic (I imagine swingers to be more of a Rocky Road or Chocolate Fudge Ripple variety) there’s nothing contradictory about Vanilla Swingers’ music. Moody, electronic tracks are the backdrop for hushed boy/girl vocals telling the story of two lovers who run away to London then travel back in time. “I’ll Stay Next to You” epitomizes Vanilla Swingers’ cinematic themes and sound, while “Danger” sounds as if the Pet Shop Boys slowed things down to about 90 bpm and were fronted by a gorgeous, brunette chanteuse. Oh yes, despite their name Vanilla Swingers sound very brunette, the color of my desire.
Before you download “On the Floor” from this group of Spain-bred English-speakers that have already invaded Europe and, if their wishes come true, will invade the United States next, you might want to hop into your Mini Cooper and drive back to 2002. We Are Standard’s brand of art-school-post-punk-cool-geek music—they cover “Waiting for the Man” for crying out loud—reached its high water mark around that time, with all of the “The” bands (Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Moldy Peaches, Hives) selling records and getting airplay on terrestrial radio (remember terrestrial radio? You didn’t even have to pay for it!). That’s not to say that they don’t sound good today. On the contrary, lead singer Deu Chacartequi almost makes me believe he really is both a sex symbol and a rock star. The thing that keeps such hubris from being too nostalgic and goofy is that you get the sense that he doesn’t quite believe it himself. But he does a little.
Danny Provencher began making music as a child secretly singing over records (something I still do, not so secretly, as a full-grown man, often over records I only hear in my head). At some point he committed his music to record, leaving out, ironically, his vocals. The earliest recording as Under Electric Light features four synth-pop instrumentals that sound like a mix between early Depeche Mode beats awash in New Order melodies. From my not-so-scientific investigation, Provencher didn’t come out of the proverbial vocal closet until about three years later. The result is a clean, dreamy, earnest style free from any bells and whistles, content on remaining inconspicuously, well, great—and entirely timeless within the window of the last four decades. “Wintertime” is nothing less than a small epic worthy of ushering out this current season, while leaving the listener wanting more: oh, play that chorus again, please! “This Moment” fills that gap by repeating its gorgeous, soaring chorus once. Oh well, I’ll just have to listen to them for the fifteenth time. Pull my leg.
I imagine everybody else has already heard these new tracks from Thao (formerly known as 
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.
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.
Emma Baxter and Daniel Noble, recording as Orilla Opry for Montreal’s Ships at Night Records, make an awesome noise. Folk-influenced, stripped-down pop, sometimes harmonized, sometimes dissonant, with hooks and crannies and texture and detail — if Orilla Opry was a house, it would have character and heavy duty curbside appeal. Try “Riverside 2,” off their latest album Lighthouse for Stragglers’ Eyes, for one of the prettiest, most ear-pleasing songs of the year (well, technically, from late last year).