When CoCo B’s dropped their new tracks into our mailbox I experienced a spell of flashbacks: me and Matt from The Bronx hauling out to Anaheim every Sunday night, Alberto’s burritos in hand, along with crates full of CDs from Orange County bands. This was back in 2002, before Indie 103.1 was around, and a small staff of music-heads were running a great alternative station with a stupid name: Cool 94.3. Matt and I produced and hosted a (four hour!) local show called Go Loco and CoCo B’s track “Big Okie Dokie” was practically our theme song. I haven’t heard anything from them until now.
It appears CoCo B’s have been laying low, working day jobs, taking lots of time to record their new album. Alex Newport mixed the record. Sounds like the band has pulled out all the stops. Compared to the small, hushed strains of “Big Okie Dokie,” their new songs, like “Modern Lover,” are built to rock The Pond without losing their uber-indie cred. Kevin’s vocals are the American, sweeter, less monotone version of Mark E. Smith—which, ironically, make them sound nothing like Mark E. Smith if that makes sense. Gentler than The Replacements, less drugged out than The Lemonheads, CoCo B’s wear their fuzzed-out pop anthems on their sleeves as they shoulder their way through the crowd of bands hoping for their fifteen minutes. This review outta be good for .001 seconds. At least.
CoCo B’s are playing May 10th, with Ima Robot at Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.
Joe is reigning king of the mix tape. While most of us have grown lazy (just look at our sporadic podcast output), Joe still makes mixes — most often on CD-R these days — with little more impetus than capturing a theme or mood: spring songs, road songs, grading papers songs, cooking songs, songs featuring a particular girl’s name… The latter prove to be the most difficult (unless your name happens to be Baby), which is why Utah Carol’s latest album, Rodeo Queen, reminded me of Joe. Among the 13 rich country pop songs we have “Kimberly Smiles,” “I’m Sorry Maria,” “Sam’s Ranch,” and, featured here, “Ruby” and “Come Back Baby” (see, they even have Baby covered). Utah Carol, named after a traditional song about a cowboy who dies trying to save his friend from a stampede, are in fact the Chicago-based JinJa Davis and Grant Birkenbeuel. They take country and pop influences with equal weight, producing precious harmonies, delicate instrumentation, loping rhythms, and memorable lyrics. Hit record, Joe.
At the risk of sounding like one of the tools in an Astrid Swan song, there’s nothing more alluring than a complex female musician. Of course, the Finnish singer/songwriter is all too aware of this, as the title alone of “They Need You If They Think You Love Them†makes clear. So, perhaps I think she loves me, or perhaps I just like the sharp wit of her lyrics and the tender knowing of her vocals. Think Tori Amos in moments of levity or Aimee Mann at the piano. It’s something lovely, if heartbreaking, if totally intoxicating.
We’ve had so many requests to post CocoRosie that I don’t even know who to thank for the suggestion. What do these fans dig so much about CocoRosie? How about: cool beats & fractured rhythms, sonorous atonality & coherent dissonance, pageantry & experimentation, mythology & realism. Sierra and Bianca Casady — Rosie and Coco — do their own thing (that is, that thing that good artists do). This can be heard on their latest album, The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn, out now on Touch and Go Records.
Last year, on March 8th, Ted Leo was playing in Ann Arbor, at a show I really wanted to see. There was something more important to do, however, and instead of catching Ted live, I saw my son enter life, a little early but more than ready. Not long before the delivery, my wife asked to hear her favorite TL song, “Me and Mia,” and the lyrics were just right: “Do you believe in something beautiful? Then get out and be it.” Maybe this is a good message for today, too, considering Blacksburg. It seems to me that the families of the victims, the students, those in grief and mourning need all of us to be more beautiful, to be better. I haven’t heard the new Ted Leo/RX album Living with the Living yet, but I’m hoping its filled with the powerful songwriting found on “Me and Mia” or “Ghosts” or “Biomusicology” — honest, straightforward and necessary examples of compassion, anger, hope, righteousness. 
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.
I haven’t listened to this album much because I CANNOT STOP listening to track number four, “Lightbulb.” Seriously, it’s a problem. You know how some songs reel you in when you first hear them and you develop a temporary addiction to them? I fall for all the hooks: the layers of guitars thicken, leading up to the vocals, then drop out only to build up again until they pull all out all the stops at the chorus…”Can’t you see it sucks the life out of me…” I wish I could figure out the next line! It’s a good thing Alisa’s out of town with the girls, because she’d have pulled out her hair by now. She doesn’t have much patience for my obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to my latest pet sounds. This song also makes me wanna pull out some Ocean Blue (anyone remember them?) and revisit that band. There’s a lot more meat to the Mezzanine Owls though. Sometimes I don’t repeat “Lightbulb” soon enough the beginning of track five, “Graceless,” leaks into my head. The play between the fuzzy guitars and the tambourine recalls The Jesus and Mary Chain. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to snap out of my funk here, but the rest of the album sounds promising.
The Metasciences = super-duper lo-fi, boy-girl, brainiac geek-themed pop. There are folks out there who love this already, without even downloading a track, and you know it. The entire Pencils Down album is available for free download (of course) and a fine interview with the band (Ruth Barabe and Daniel Kibbelsmith) is up at