Travis Morrison, the artist formerly known as 25% of The Dismemberment Plan, drops his first solo record just a year after the demise of TDP. A glimpse into Travistan (the first three tracks offered here) reveals PETA-inspired pop, an eager, piano-driven morality play, and a sing-song memoir cluttered up with live studio audience effects and Defender(TM) samples. Lick off Ben Fold’s sugar-coating, but don’t go as dour as Elliott Smith, and you got Mr. Morrison here.
The Shifties
West Coast slowpop vibe via Windy City. The pace picks up by “Can’t Go On”: the verses spunky like “Kids in America” while the chorus jangles like something off Reckoning. A fun find from the suggestion box.
The Legends
A Stockholm band built on the whims of nine friends, many of whom had never even picked up an instrument before, with the simple desire of writing songs together. A study in desire, fuzzed out guitars, drive, and handclaps.
Dirty on Purpose
Dirty on Purpose are at once oddly familiar and distressingly hard to put a finger on. American Analog Set meets Modern English? Yo La Tengo meets Arab Strap? Or Belle & Sebastian meets Clan of Xymox (…I know, don’t ask)? Or is it just me? They are crisp and clean, their guitars and vocals soaring above the driving rhythms. So listen to “Mind Blindness.” If you like, then and only then download “Monument,” as it’s a miserly 80 kbps.
The Black Keys
The two-man jam might make you think of the White Stripes and the name doesn’t do anything to discourage the comparison. So you might as well just go with the roadhouse flow and enjoy some new and old from the duo with the reverb to shake your favorite parts and the quiet side to make you wanna kiss somebody sloppy.
Death From Above 1979
Death From Above (with the 1979 tagged on to appease disco-clash mongers DFA) churn out thick, intelligent crotch rock from a mere drum kit and bass guitar… aaaand with that I’ll have to end my blurb, ’cause anything I could say after “thick, intelligent crotch rock” would sound just plain lewd.
The Fiery Furnaces
You know what they say about the Fiery Furnaces: an MP3 is worth a thousand words. So rather than listen to me babble, just download and listen.
Inouk
A swirling mÈlange of sonically expansive country and shoegazing blues, or maybe just good-old roadhouse reverb. Whatever you want to call it, it’s music to these weary ears.
The Waxwings
Heavy on harmonies and trippy licks, The Waxwings pay more homage to British psych pop than to their Detroit garage rock forebears. Who cares, so long as it feels good, right?
Sonic Youth
The coolest. The greatest. The loudest. And how about that Kim Gordon?