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.
The New Pornographers
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.
Mirah and Spectratone International
Observations of insects are typically rendered so clinical that you may as well be studying accounting or, on the flipside, so elementary that you’re dealing with plush caterpillars whose sole purpose is to teach your child how to hug. Share this Place: Stories and Observations is, well, a creature of a different stripe. The multimedia project commissioned in 2006 by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art features music by Mirah (repeat after me: We love Mirah) and her longtime collaborators Lori Goldston and Kyle Hanson, AKA Spectratone International (also with Jane Hall and Kane Mathis), and stop-motion video by Britta Johnson. It sounds like something that could easily become child’s play, and in fact the chamber pieces are indeed playful and alive — Spectratone’s arrangements give a subtle bounce to Mirah’s ever-airy vocals, and Johnson’s stop-motion insects are made from all manner of found objects and wander around rolling dung and other fun things. But it’s also serious literary entomology thanks to its source material: Jean Henri Fabre is considered the father of the study of insects and is most remembered for telling his tiny friends’ tales as first-person narratives. So it is that in “Credo Cigalia†(video below) a cricket addresses us with “you’ve no choice but to listen to my song.†And on the fantastically delicate “Community,†rather than a standard lecture on the group habits of six-legged creatures, you get a lullaby so sweet and smart that you’ll want to sing it to your sons and daughters all the way to MIT.
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.
Nyles Lannon
Mr. Lannon needs to make up his mind! He’s released music under N.Ln, N.Lannon, and now, finally, under his full name Nyles Lannon. Whichever moniker he chooses you can expect moody, alluring songs with amazing melodies. Straight forward folk songs like “Did I Lose You?” quietly recall the work of Elliott Smith while “Next Obsession” punches a little harder and is not unlike another favorite of mine: Calla. It was news to me that he split from his band Film School, but now that he’s focused hopefully he won’t suffer from any further bouts of identity crisis. Because I’ll tell you right now Mr. Lannon, after this post, I’m not going to dedicate another one to any further name changes. As it stands I believe you hold the record here at the ‘hive with four different pages. And just in case anyone mistakes my tone: I jest. It’s all good. Thanks for the fine tunes __ Lannon.
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.
Rob Crow
An indie monagamist he ain’t. Pinback’s Rob Crow has, like, a gazillion side projects so that he always has some kind of outlet for making music. (Even more reason for the Sebadoh/Lou Barlow parallels – see Pinback entry.) That’s OK though because Crow is what in the business they call “solid.†Pinback have quietly become one of the standard-bearers for indie/college rock, and when Crow steps out for a side/solo project, he’s hardly Roger Daltry or that Mike guy from Genesis. His latest album is called Living Well. The cover shows him in front of his house with a cup of coffee, some Halloween pumpkins and wearing a shirt with a Pentagram. If that isn’t living well, then I’m a monkey’s uncle. And “I Hate You, Rob Crow†is quite catchy for a, uh, kissoff? hatemail sendup? self-loathing anthem? Tell us, Rob.
Oakley Hall
Zingerman’s is an Ann Arbor original, a foodie university of its own providing in-depth instruction on eating well and fully savoring the experience. Last week, on their Eat American road tour, my friends Cheech and Lisette toured the ZingEmpire (I tagged along too), and found both incredible hostpitality and the kind of quality food products that their trip is all about finding and highlighting and protecting. As we were working our way through some of chef Alex Young’s transcendental BBQ at Zingerman’s Roadhouse restaurant, I was thinking that 3hive should have been providing the soundtrack to our dining experience. We tend to be pretty committed to things that are obscure and high quality — most importantly, things that we like — a philosophy that pairs well with Zingerman’s approach to food.
With this in mind, here’s Oakley Hall, offering straight-up boy-girl Americana folk rock from Brooklyn. Listening through the tracks below will gove you a good sense of the band’s various sounds. “No Dreams,” off the forthcoming album I’ll Follow You, rocks out in a way that seems from a totally different world than the restrained sounds of “Living in Sin in the USA.” This diversity shows of instrumentation, vocal style (and vocalist), tempo, volume, and just about every musical aspect you can think of gives a welcome sense of freshness to Oakley Hall. Too bad the closest they’re coming to Detroit is Chicago.