The New Pornographers were one of the earliest posts on 3hive, back three and a half years ago when Sam and I tossed up a handful of MP3s from some of our favorite albums from the year previous. We didn’t offer much in the way of commentary back then (not that we do presently either), so for those who’ve been hiding under a rock for the last three years, and have missed out on The New Pornographers, here’s a bit more to chew on. The sequence to their new album Challengers threw me off on first listen. It starts off with “My Rights Versus Yours” a familiar, subdued type of Carl Newman tune, complete with a french horn (used, surprisingly, for the first time in a New Pornographers’ song). It builds like a rock opera opener and sets up me up to bounce around to a frantic track like “All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth” or “Mutiny, I Promise You.” But my patience is tried and I have to wait through three more songs, including Dan Bejar’s “Myriad Harbor,” before my expectations are rewarded. Dont’ get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Each song is great! It’s just going to take repeated listens before I can appreciate the album as a whole, unlike the first listen ecstacy I experienced hearing Electric Version. Considering today’s song-based attention span, I must sound like an old man, talking about spending time with a whole album! Well, this codger appreciates the fact that Newman, Case, Bejar & Co. continue to create whole albums worth those repeated listens.
Lavender Diamond
Where’s the “Easy Listening” genre when you need one? I remember seeing Lavender Diamond once on The Lawrence Welk Show in 1977, when I snuck out of bed to hide behind the couch and see what my parents were watching. Then again, Becky Stark almost certainly wasn’t alive in ’77, so maybe it’s just the big yellow smiley-face sound that’s taking me back. These tracks are from the band’s 2005 EP The Cavalry of Light; a full-length album, Imagine Our Love, was released by Matador in May of this year.
Deer Tick
My first experience with Deer Tick was a prime example of the “please listen more than once phenomenon”. Upon first listen, I was impressed by the intro’s twangy vibe… and then singer John McCauley’s voice began to sing. My heart sunk. “Too raspy,” I thought. “Discordant!” I proclaimed. Then I gave it another shot. And another. By the fourth play, I was not only digging the delicious twanginess behind the singing, but I was swooning on McCauley’s gritty voice and stylistic odes to a day long gone. I got on board whole hog–music, lyrics and voice. I was passing the song to friends. I was soliciting Shan’s advice. (He said of “Art isn’t Real”–“its a great summer twilight tune” but then wanted to make sure “Art isn’t Real” wasn’t the band name. It’s not.) And so in this, the twilight of our summer, the ‘Hive gives you summer twilight tunes to ride out on the August wave to. Do me proud and listen no less than three times.
The Caribbean
The Caribbean’s Michael Kentoff is man enough to admit Washington DC cliques like the Teen Beat, Dischord and Simple Machines crews intimidate him. Who wouldn’t be? Those three labels have fiercely defined, executed, and promoted the D.I.Y. aesthetic-ethic. You don’t get “cooler” than those folks. In the face of it all, risking potential hip-ness, Kentoff and his band mates, have consistently created smart, personal pop songs. Gentle, comfortable music you can cozy up to like you would with a “friend with benefits.” I get the same warm, fuzzy feeling from listening to The Caribbean as I do shuffling through discarded peanut shells and sitting down to a cheeseburger and bag o’ fries at Five Guys Burgers & Fries. I can’t hear about anything happening in DC without thinking about my favorite burger. The Caribbean may not fit in with the usual DC suspects, but they can take solace in their mutual vicinity to a tasty burger (I should never post while hungry…).
Pinback
Like just about everyone, I often think of bands in terms of the other bands of which they remind me. For Pinback, I picture them as a West Coast Sebadoh. Even though it’s meant in the most admiring way, such a classification is not fair because it may make it sound like they’re somehow aping the discordant yet melodic Bostonians who like their Splatter Technique lyrics with healthy doses of punk guitar and punker feedback. Plus, there’s the whole repetition thing that Pinback takes much further than Lou and the gang: chords, chorus, repeat. You can hear it all the way through Pinback’s discography and right up to their most recent, Autumn of the Seraphs. And contrary to every track sounding the same, each one finds a new way to make the same old thing sound totally original. No wonder Pinback’s following is so loyal. Check out a new track and some older ones, then check out Pinback guy Rob Crow, whose recent solo release kinda-sorta sounds like Pinback but kinda-sorta covers even more new territory.
ORIGINAL POST (9/17/04):
For those who consider “indie” a genre rather than just a classification, it’s probably such lo-fi, wounded-guy sounds as Sebadoh, Built to Spill, and Modest Mouse that come to mind when you hear the “I” word. But don’t forget about Pinback, who return to rock your world — well, that may be a bit overstated — with some loopy, melancholic, melodic pop. What’s new is “indie” again on the splendid single “Fortress.” The others are just for nostalgia’s sake.
The Airborne Toxic Event
Any band using Don DeLillo references for their nom de plume are friends of mine. The Airborne Toxic Event is named after a chapter in DeLillo’s 1985 novel, White Noise. Their EP sounds as if it was recorded during that same era. The band has been wafting across Los Angeles airwaves and blogwaves with their upbeat yet dour songs, the tempo made for the dancefloor set, the lyrics for the brokenhearted. It’s still too early in their career to determine how things will pan out for The Airborne Toxic Event, they’ve only released four songs, but considering they’ve had a run of shows and a single release in the UK there’s a good chance they’ll be affecting a lot more people with their own White Noise.
LoveLikeFire
Can you really fall in love at first sight, or is it just infatuation? Romeo thought he was in love when he first saw Juliet: “Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” I’m feeling a little loopy myself after hearing “S.O.S.” from San Francisco’s LoveLikeFire. The song blows open like a track from Bossanova, or Trompe Le Monde, then settles into a nice Cure-esque riff (“A Forest?”) and finally into a breathtaking chorus where singer Ann Yu sounds like a more forceful Siouxsie. I love LoveLikeFire like I love all of the above. No, I know it’s just infatuation. I don’t have a long relationship with LoveLikeFire. I haven’t put in hours and hours of intense listening. I haven’t dreamt or loved along with their music. It sure feels like love though. Call it what you will; I’m going to let myself wallow in the butterflies I get from LoveLikeFire.
Squalls
It’s been a whirlwind of a week; my wife and I took our 1.5 & 4 year olds to New York City, and you know how that is. We met up with 3hive’s Lisa at the Pink Tea Cup, rode the Staten Island Ferry, wandered the neighborhoods and Central Park, hung out at Coney Island with my friend Matt and his 4 year old, etc. (Speaking of Matt, his band Gift Shop has just relesed a new album. If I could figure out how to link to songs on MySpace, I’d be posting them today.) And once I got home, I found out my friend Cheech is coming to Michigan to visit Zingerman’s deli on his Eat American tour. In honor of all this… experience, I’m posting a band dear to my heart, Athens, GA’s long-defunct, early-80s, totally awesome (and please don’t wreck this aspect for me) Squalls. They had the opening track on the Athens, GA / Inside Out soundtrack, which was MY soundtrack and hairstyle guide for my senior year of high school. Anyway, in these low quality live tracks, you’ll find pleasant, Talking Heads inspired pop, but really, that’s not the point. This is the good stuff, no matter how it sounds, and I want you all to have a little taste.
Licorice Roots
Let me preface Licorice Roots by saying they’re an acquired taste. I admit I almost didn’t last twenty seconds into their record. Their wobbly, off-kilter sound knocked me off balance at first. At first. But I held strong and as soon as I ventured four tracks deep, their song “Hey There Little Love” saved the CD from certain eject-death. I learned to appreciate Licorice Roots for their peculiar low-fi-ness. It’s as if The Seeds were playing underwater, with a sprinkle of attitude courtesy of Ween. My swimming trunks are on and I’m in mid-cannonball, ready to take the Licorice Roots plunge! P.S. If the vocals are a bit much for you, check out the title track “Caves of the Sun.” It’d make a great soundtrack to a SpongeBob SquarePants Spaghetti Western.
Mono in VCF
To make up for a few posting days I’ve missed during my move to Cali, it’s two-for-one day.
Recalling a simpler time with simpler pop, Mono in VCF have graduated from the University of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood (school mascot: The Some Velvet Mornings) magna cum laude. Okay, that was lame, but these songs are so fresh and clean and original (in a 2007 way) that they are completing enthralling, and you should just download now. An MP3, like a picture, is worth a thousand words.