I’ll be honest. I’ve let G. Love drop off my radar. It’s been a long while since I’ve chilled out with a cold beverage tapping my toes along with G. Love’s white boy Philadelphonic blues. He’s sweetened up his new album, Lemonade, quite nicely with Blackalicious and Lateef on my favorite track, “Banger.” Perhaps you prefer a twist of Ben Harper, or a pinch of Donovan Frankenreiter. G. Love’s got a posse and they’ve set up their lemonade and blues stand just in time for me to drop some quarters on a refreshing, late-summer cool-me-down.
Heidi Gluck
Our next artist from MusicalFamilyTree.com‘s great compilation Delicious Berries, featuring the work of Indiana musicians, is Canadian Heidi Gluck. I know, I know… it seems she spent some time in Indianapolis. Anyway, her track on the disc has a heavy country vibe that really works for me, and that you won’t find at all on the free downloads available below. The songs here are all about pop smoothness, either up-beat or down-tempo. “Open Your Eyes” reminds me a bit of Heidi’s Some Girls bandmate Juliana Hatfield. (The cover of their month-old album Crushing Love is the thumbnail image for this post.) And next week, another artist from Delicious Berries.
Dr. Dog
The details are sketchy, but Dr. Dog is the raison d’etre for the label Park The Van. Now settled in as a five piece, Dr. Dog boasts an alumni membership of 20 strong, all contributing in some small or large way to Philadelphia’s premier basement band. Dr. Dog loves nothing more to get their hands good and dirty, digging around in lo-fi dirt, 4-tracking the night away. With roots reaching down deep to Beach Boys and Beatles bedrock, they sow and reap pop blossoms cross-pollinated with Grandaddy, Ween, and Pavement. I’ve had their album shuffling through my library for over a year and shame on me for not sharing until now. But now’s as good a time as any to be a Dr. Dog fan. Next month the band releases a new EP, Takers and Leavers, then heads out on the road with Cold War Kids on their way to joining The Raconteurs tour as main support.
Vancougar
Sultry, simple, and sometimes silly girl pop from the city of, you guessed it, Vancouver, BC. Vancougar split the difference between two perennial favorites from the 3hive archives, All Girl Summer Fun Band and Dressy Bessy. Word of warning: these MP3s are a bit rough ‘cuz they’re demos. From what I’ve heard, the album is a wee bit more polished—just enough, not too much.
Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s
MusicalFamilyTree.com, a website dedicated to spreading the word about and sharing the music of Indiana bands, recently released the Delicious Berries compilation, and it is awesome. Fresh voices, ambitious sounds — I wish someone here in Michigan would tap into our local talent the way the MFT folks have. For my weekly posts in August, I’ll be featuring bands from the compilation, because it really is that good. The first, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, starts the disc, and with its deal on Artemis is likely one of the most commercially successful of the bands on Delicious Berries. The tracks below, full of quiet harmonies and pop hooks, are taken from their 2005 album The Dust of Retreat.
Relay
Let’s get this straight from the start: the band named Relay contained herein is the one from Philly, not Delaware, Jersey, England, or (for cryin’ out loud) Utah. This Relay is a purveyor of shoegaze updated for the new millenium. Well, perhaps not that updated, but Relay are putting out some fine shoegaze in our current millenium, reminiscent of those shoegazer stalwarts from the early 90’s, Drop Nineteens (who were from Delaware, even though this is NOT the Relay from Delaware). Relay’s Type/Void EP is out on Bubblecore on August 8th.
The Hourly Radio
I get the same funny feeling in my tummy listening to The Hourly Radio as I did when I first heard Placebo. Or when I eat four packages of Ding-Dong’s then wash ’em down with a Big Gulp Coke. It tastes good instantly. I get all sugared-up and heady. But just like I keep putting away the Ding-Dong’s, I play The Hourly Radio over and over, singing along, straining to reach the high parts, and pulling off over-dramatic gestures as I pretend I’m on stage with the band. See, the problem is they’re catchier than any band should be allowed with lyrics teetering on the brink of cliché, and prance-along fun in that faux-British, just-this-side-of-pretentious way. You may think I’m being a bit flip . But I am serious. Just like Sam and I were dead serious dancing around to “Come Home” ten years ago in my basement. (Wait, I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about that was I??) Welcome to my new guilty pleasure.
Jonah Matranga
Jonah Matranga is a veteran of a diverse set of rock bands (Far, New End Original, Gratitude) going back about 15 years. Jonah has now taken to the punk ethic (if not sound) of roaming the globe with a guitar and an amp and a book of intimate songs—both originals and interpretations of personal favorites. Jonah recently stepped out from behind the Onelinedrawing moniker he’d been using for his singerly/songwriterly work. Which makes sense: with music this approachable, we ought to be able to call him by name. “How Does Life Go?” is a heartbreaking yet catchy tune from a recent Welcome Home Records comp. “A New England” is a slightly Americanized rendition of a classic by one of the great living punks-roaming-the-globe-with-a-guitar-and-an-amp, Billy Bragg. If you’re digging, you should check out Jonah’s split 12-inch of covers with Frank Turner, who covers “You Are My Sunshine” and The Lemonheads “The Outdoor Type” on the flip.
Hexes and Ohs
Listening to “Alive Until Saturday Night” by Hexes and Ohs made me want to pull out my New Order albums from high school and get back into that groove again, but of course, they’re on vinyl! Like I have a turn-table… besides the one I got for my 12th birthday in 1983, which is probably in my parents’ basement somewhere. For better or worse, their other downloadable track below, “This and Other Distances,” calls to mind Death Cab for Cutie rather than the sounds from when sequencers were young. Hexes and Ohs, a Montreal duo with an ’05 album, Goodbye Friend, Welcome Lover, and maybe another coming soon, are another great suggestion from Dawntread (she sent us Canasta from last week).
The Bicycles
Got a friendly lil’ email note from Matt of The Bicycles. So friendly in fact that I had to have a listen. Sometimes good things happen just like that… Matt and the rest of this Toronto group serve up bite-size pop nuggets guaranteed to put a smile on your face and a tap in your toe. How can you not love a band that places the following notice on their download page: “Now you may think you already have ‘Paris Be Mine’ but *this* is the mix that’s on the album – spot the differences! clapclap!” That’s right, download it again because it’s got handclaps. And, best of all, they’re right.