I feel Clay’s pain. My ears have been ringing steady since February 2006. And I play guitar even worse, way worse, than Clay, but I do wear earplugs. Like a religion. Tinnitus still struck. It doesn’t bother me during the day, just when I lie down at night to sleep. The remedy? MP3 player of choice. Just be sure to keep the levels down so you don’t further ruin your hearing. I just found what I’ll be falling asleep to this evening: Red Collar. These Durham, NC rockers take me back a decade or so, sounding like a solid Dischord band if Dischord were down south in Alabama. Country Fried Hardcore? Springsteen fronting Fugazi? Sacrilege? Perhaps. I’ll definitely be breaking the first aural health commandment tonight: keep it below 11. This’ll drown out the ringing nicely.
The Bosch
I usually don’t read e-mails from publicists — sorry… I know it must take so long to cut and paste our names (usually incompletely or incorrectly) into the form messages you send out that often do not reflect any real understanding of what this blog does — but Tony’s pitch for The Bosch caught my eye. Now, I’m not usually one for crazy, mixed-up comparisons, and I almost got lost in the ones provided for The Bosch: Joey Ramone, Dick Dale and Brian Wilson, or maybe The White Stripes, The Violent Femmes and Phil Spector, or even The Clash, the Femmes, Spector, Bruce Springsteen and Man… Or Astroman. However, I like enough of these performers to download a few tracks, and I liked them enough to share them with you. This NYC quartet offers short, rich, intense songs that are better enjoyed on their own, without comparison. These are from their newest album, Hurry Up, while four more off Buy One, Get One, from 2005, are available on the band’s website.
Ryan Ferguson
Alright, I’m super-geeked for this one. “Only Trying To Help,” Ryan Ferguson’s first solo album is out in just about a month, August 21st, on Better Looking Records. Ferguson continues to shape his songs around the acoustic guitar, but he fills in the surrounding space with plenty of electric guitars, piano and xylophone, fully fleshing out tracks. Compared to his more stripped down EP (which is still available in its entirety below), Ferguson had the time and the room to see his songs through and add the proverbial bells and whistles. The three tracks offered here are just the beginning of his spot-on songwriting. His attention to hooks paired with an intensity, just this side of his No Knife days, make for an entirely re-listenable record. “Only Trying To Help” is what “pop-punk” should be.
Remission [MP3, 4.5MB, 192kbps]
X’s and O’s [MP3, 3.9MB, 192kbps]
Kill My Confidence [MP3, 4.5MB, 192kbps]
JakobÃnarÃna
I can imagine a relay race where Mark E. Smith runs the first leg. He makes his way around the track and when it comes time to pass the baton he doesn’t want to give it up. He thinks the race is 4×1600, when it’s really 4×100. See, just when I think there can’t be another Fall record: there’s another Fall record. That’s not a bad thing, but other bands are ready to take their baton and run with it. Iceland’s JakobÃnarÃna (their debut album hits this fall) seem ready to go the distance. Their music is crisp and full of youthful energy while vocalist Gunnar Ragnarsson sings with a mature timbre similar to Mark E. Smith, despite the fact that he’s probably young enough to be Smith’s grandson. Thematically, compare and contrast the pogo-core of JakobÃnarÃna’s “Sleeping in Seattle” with Minor Threat’s hardcore “Out of Step.” I wish more of America’s youth were as out of step with pop-culture.
Hey Lover
Hey Lover is the latest boy/girl duo to be covered here on 3hive. So while Hey Lover proves the genre is still going strong, with plenty of opportunity in the single guitar and drums space, this Portland band is also the most likely to destroy their kit with their frantic punk-pop pounding. And that’s a good thing.
The Like Young
“For Money or Love,” the second song on The Like Young’s Last Secrets really says it all about the Like Young: for the love of their music, for the love of the band, for the love of each other (they’re married), Amanda and Joe made sacrifices to do what they loved, despite the struggles with money. Last Secrets explains it all, and perhaps, fittingly, was their last album before they retired the band back in August. Many more songs of their duo-punk-rock from earlier releases can be downloaded from their site.
The Thermals
Like that sullen kid in high school who was aggressively straight edge and pissed off because no one else knew what it meant, the one who deliberately got every question wrong on the ACT because it’s harder than getting every question right, like Minor Threat 25 years earlier (jeez, is it already that long?), The Thermals have something to say and they want to make sure you don’t miss it. Offering loud, sloppy, aggressive “post-pop-punk” as they like to call it, this Portland band’s brand of anti-establishment, high-octane anger is gaining so much ground it made The New York Times a few weeks ago. The top two tracks below are from their most recent effort, The Body, The Blood, The Machine, recorded by Fugazi’s Brendan Canty. (See, there is a Minor Threat connection.)
The Fatels
Sure, the UK’s The Fatels are starting to get some buzz, as they say in the biz, but boy I am a sucker for their distinctly London-eque, pounding punk/post-punk pop. Especially refreshing is knowing that only three people made all this racket! More downloads available on their sites below.
The God Damn Doo Wop Band
I did a workshop at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum about ten years ago — how to be a rock & roll teacher, hell yeah! — and there was this guy who just kept asking questions about doo wop bands. He was one of those guys who feels the need to comment at every single meeting, and so it was all like, “What about The Marcels?” and ” What about Vito and the Salutations?” or whatever. Most of my classmates had enough of him by the end of our first session together. Anyway, I have a feeling he would not appreciate The God Damn Doo Wop Band. Though tapping in to the grand tradition of the venerable genre, these Midwest girls (on the voices) and guys (on everything else) are clearly doo-wopping their own way. Straight out of the Twin Cities, their 2006 album Broken Hearts received a bunch of critical acclaim that, in true 3hive tradition, we totally missed last year.
The Crabapples
Yes, OCD, you don’t need to tell me. “Hi, my name is Clay, and I’m obsessively compulsed with Slumberland Records!” Hey, the first step is admitting you have a problem. And my problem is the self-described “loud but melodic…catchy tunes played with sloppy abandon” that are Slumberland Records and the Crabapples. Continuing with the self-descriptions, the Crabapples rush “along in a breathless blur, fuelled by lager, explosive tunes and a love of great pop.” I’ll be sure to bring that up at my first meeting…