Never timid on the mic, The Gray Kid (born Steve Cooper) unleashes the sexy falsetto and back-pocket rhymes over some giant beats. Kinda like a Pharrell for the Silverlake set. Like that means anything to most of you…don’t worry, Ann Arbor, you’ll like him, too. As CD Baby customer reviewer Tim Bones says: “Joint is flavorful. Makes you want to impregnate your local librarian.” And for the Sunday afternoon version, go to The Gray Kid’s unplugged MySpace page.
Shapes and Sizes
Victoria is a charming London in miniature (even the police sirens have that European wail rather than the standard North American whistle) carved into the brilliant and wet wilds on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The subtexts for the city, if you’re into that kind of thing, abound: a bite-sized cosmopolis carved into the heart of darkness, a town with the will of a city, a beachhead in the Garden of Eden. Shapes and Sizes are fantastic at finding that subtext, whether they’re trying or not. They hit rhythms and mimic styles like urbane pros, but they experiment like small-town kids with only themselves as inspiration. “Wilderness†lumbers along like a pessimistic comedian, hinging itself on a medley of downer horns, a charmingly amateur chorus of whistles, and the line “Susan, you can’t be tribal leader ‘coz your personality’s wrong.†It provides the perfect segueway to the melancholy opening (but not so down that it can’t hold a few handclaps!) to “Island’s Gone Bad,†but halfway through a party breaks out to the exuberant shout “I like eating fruit off of trees when I’m with you!†Aw shucks, guys, the feeling’s mutual.
Monkey Swallows the Universe
Ok, so, let’s not talk about band names. Instead, let’s talk about yesterday being the first day of summer and how, as we drive I-75 tomorrow headed Up North, “Jimmy Down the Well” will match our sunshiney moods (if not the rainy weather). Thanks, from the north of Michigan, to Paul, who sent us this suggestion from the north of England.
Mighty Six Ninety
I must be losing it. I swear I’ve posted about Mighty Six Ninety before, but I can’t find any trace of them on the site. Feeling in a particularly ’80s mood today? Then queue up some John Hughes on Netflix and get Mighty Six Ninety rockin’ on the hi-fi. Mighty Six Ninety, an L.A. five-piece, is named after the great San Diego AM station—a Top 40 channel that dabbled early on in New Wave and post-Punk. This Mighty Six Ninety would make its namesake proud. Check the New Order bassline in “Northern Border,” and the soaring vocals complete with ’80s Alphaville-esque affectation. “Leave This World” reassembles a Freuer guitar riff and runs it head on into a more shimmering moment of The Cure. Throw in a bit of attitude from The Smiths and Ultravox synths and you’d think you’re listening to a cassette recording of Richard Blade’s show twenty years ago. Fittingly, they’re making their first waves in the UK, with two singles already under their belt.
Mighty Six Ninety usher in Summer tonight at Spaceland.
The 1900s
The bouncy organ riffs sold me immediately on The 1900’s. Lines like “wrap them in licorice and tie them to stones” and the strings and french horn that close out the song complete the psychedelic smorgasbord from this Chicago sextet. Speaking of sex, it sounds like there’s a few love triangles between band members. Keep those relationships in check kids! We wouldn’t want to spoil the party before things get going. Their debut “mini-album” Plume Delivery has been out less than a month. They’d make good summer mix tape neighbors with The Zombies, Stereolab, and the ol’ Elephant 6 crew.
The 1900s play with Midlake tonight at the Mercury Lounge in New York, with shows continuing in the city for the next two nights (Fontana’s and Arlene’s Grocery respectively). More tour dates here.
Si Schroeder
I love the first line of description regarding this guy on the Trust Me I’m a Thief website: “Si Schroeder is a six-foot hairy male who makes ‘music’.” To how many people in this world does that sentence apply, I wonder. And is it the hairiness or his height that matters the most (or the combination of the two)? Anyway, with all of the above you get Irish psychedelic electronica in a cool ambient vibe, and if you find yourself wanting it more, Si Schroeder’s debut album Coping Mechanisms will be released in fall 2006.
Blowoff
Blowoff is a studio collaboration between rock legend Bob Mould (Husker Du, Sugar) and house DJ/producer Richard Morel, born out of a DJ night the two of them host at Washington D.C.’s 9:30 Club. For casual fans of Bob Mould, that entire opening line may strike you as odd but Mould has been as active as a DJ/producer in the past few years as he has been as a singer/songwriter. To some of us longtime fans, that opening line may instill fear of Mould’s signature vocals getting Cher-ified by overmodulation as they were on his latest solo LP Body of Song. But Blowoff promises to be different, by providing Mould with an ideal musical foil in Morel’s voice and production. The album is said to switch it up genre-wise — from rock to pop to dance. Fine with me, so long as it’s all as good as this teaser track which is almost Sugar-esque in its powerful pop sway and ridiculously catchy chorus. More please…
The Book of Daniel
When Jan suggested The Book of Daniel a few months ago, my first thought was of E.L. Doctorow’s novel of the same name, which was my least favorite of the texts we read in my most favorite grad school class, Prof. William Veeder’s “Contemporary Historical Fiction.” Every year I try (and invariably fail) to teach Eudora Welty’s wonderful and little-known short story “Where is the Voice Coming From” as finely as Bill did. Oh well. Anyway, here’s what Jan had to say about The Book of Daniel: “Daniel Gustafsson (who is the brother of Swedish Bright Eyes-type singer-songwriter Boy Omega) has written some awesome songs recently. Imagine John K. Samson of the Weakerthans playing beautiful jazz versions of Buckley or Wainwright songs.” Exactly. I’ve included three of the six songs available for free and legal download from Gustafsson’s EP; the rest are available at Daniel’s website, and there’s more info at Swedesplease, a really cool version of 3hive (free, legal MP3s) specifically for Swedish bands. (Who would have known there’d be enough to keep it going?)
Sarah Shannon
Today Minty Fresh announced the signing of Sarah Shannon and they tell us we can expect previews soon. Her second solo album is slated for a Fall release. Needless to say (for those who know me), I’m completely giddy at this news and it’s sent me digging through all my old Velocity Girls albums. You see, Sarah Shannon put the girl in Velocity Girl, one of the early bands that moved Sub Pop beyond their grunge roster. At one point, Velocity Girl’s 1993 album, Copacetic, had sold more than any other Sub Pop album with the exception of Nirvana’s Bleach. By no means did Velocity Girl reinvent pop music, they just did it so well. They made it sound so good. Lo-fi production and fuzzy guitars eventually lead to a perfect pop polishing by producer John Porter (The Smiths), then in 1996 it was all over. I’ll admit, Sarah Shannon’s voice sealed the deal for me. Pure aural comfort food. Timeless. Soft and smooth and never close to being cheesy. In 2000 Shannon released an under-appreciated solo record on her own label, Casa Recording Company. These MP3s are from that recording. She obviously steered clear of the shimmering indie rock Velocity Girl mastered in favor of a big ’70s pop sound. As I write this I feel like I’m reading a page-turner of a novel and I’m so ready for the next chapter. This is gonna be a good summer!
The Rentals
They’re back! After a rather long hiatus, the Rentals are playing shows and starting to record a new album. So while we wait until 2007 for said third album, enjoy these alternative remixes of two songs from their past. Oh, and check out their website for brilliant footage of Blur covering “Friends of P.”