Swedish is a beautiful language, quiet as it might be kept. With it’s rolling “r”‘s, tonality and it’s quirky idioms (i.e. “not for all the milk in SmÃ¥land”, which is meant to say that there are a lot of cows in the SmÃ¥land region and many Swedes who would rather not do many things, not even for all the milk those crazy SmÃ¥land cows make). But I digress. The point is that for all the Swedish exports that we here in the states are receiving — not nearly enough of them are sung in the nation’s mother tongue. Enter Vapnet–with all the same poppy, magical goodness of their Swedish-made but English-speaking brethren, but with all the pluck and grace of the oft-maligned Swedish language. Where Peter, Bjorn and John might say ” Vapnet? Very good!”, Vapnet says (with pride) bara bra! Finally, we at the ‘Hive can’t always find you a download of our very favorite songs (oh how we try), but I would highly recommend a visit to the Vapnet myspace page where you can find a brand new track featuring the lovely Mr. Jens Lekman.
The Muggabears
Now I understand NYC is all cleaned up these days. I personally have walked in Central Park more than once over the past few years without getting mugged, despite the best efforts of television dramas like “Law & Order” to keep me paranoid of being mugged upon setting foot within any of the boroughs. So perhaps it was destiny that three friends from Norman, Oklahoma, with a band named the Muggabears would move to NYC. The band’s website describes them as a “structurally-mutilated brand of noise-pop featuring blissful interplay, sonic experimentation and song destruction,” going on to refer to influences from early 90’s indie rock like Pavement and Sonic Youth. I’ll add Superchunk, Some Velvet Sidewalk, and even Polvo while we’re listing early 90’s indie rock influences. “The Goth Tarts” is from their new EP Night Choreography out on April 24th, and the other two are from their 2006 EP Teenage Cop. Wasn’t there a Law & Order franchise called Law & Order Teenage Cops?
Hooray for Earth
Given the season, it’s appropriate that “Simple Plan,” one of my favorite songs of late, could be described as triumphant. Don’t get me wrong, ain’t nothing preachy about Hooray for Earth. Though you could say they’re on a bit of a mission. They appear determined to make every one of their songs sound freakin’ epic. They start with the big-guitars-meet-big-synths sound—then proceed to send it skyward and never look back. “Simple Plan” is a classic example. For the first 20 seconds it rumbles through low-gear grunge, then bursts into a glorious, spiraling new wave anthem that would make Icicle Works blush. “So Happy” picks up the pace, like Self jettisoning in an escape pod from his bedroom studio. Their self-titled debut is worth it if only for the ridiculously catchy (as proven by the track’s popularity on iTunes) vocal hook from “Everything We Want”: “Put on your makeup, I want to get out.”
Hayward Williams
Like most people, I imagine, I go through serious phases where all I want to do is immerse myself in the Midwest. Living in Michigan and rarely traveling outside my area code makes this quite easy. And so, the landscape (flat), the language (flat), the food (fat), the culture (forlorn) all feel like home to me. Hayward Williams is from Milwaukee, hence he’s a Midwesterner, so it’s kind of like we’re related. That’s why these tracks below, from his albums Trenchfoot and Another Sailor’s Dream sound so right, to me at least. “Redwoods” is my jam for the day, even if we don’t have a tree a third of one’s height here.
Future Clouds and Radar
The name might lead you to believe you’ve discovered a bedroom-dwelling nocturne with a sampler and a laptop, but in fact it’s an apt choice for Robert Harrison’s (Cotton Mather) lilting latest project. Harrison is a friend of the gee-tar, which makes sense for an album recorded outside of Austin. But he’s also a purveyor of all the little things that make for twinkling psychedelic pop. Floating through these catchy songs about SubUrbia and jumping from Harrison’s Lennon-esque tongue are touches of bouyant pop maestros past and present: the Beatles, Flaming Lips, Beach Boys, Mercury Rev, Wilco, and Austin’s own 13th Floor Elevators. Not that you need such name-dropping to ride Future Clouds and Radar’s wave, but you may as well know ahead of time that you’re in for an aural vacation as well as a trip.
Luz Mob
Three years in the making Luz Mob recently dropped his inspired Interpretations. Luz himself plays a couple saxophones, alto and baritone, and the bass clarinet, as well as directing a gaggle of session players across the country. The not-so-unifying thread behind this collection of covers (yes, that’s The Selector’s “The Selector”) is Luz’s wide range of musical tastes: from reggae to hip hop, ska to cumbia. He pulls all the sounds together with hip-hop beats and strong horn playing. The strength of this album lies in Luz’s ability to blend the live instrumentation with the programming without the former being enslaved by the latter. Recommended for after-hour chill sessions or the lazy days you call in “sick” to work and end up dancing all morning in your pajamas.
The Fake Fictions
Barn-storming pop from the Fake Fictions, full of handclaps, shouted whiny choruses, and jangly guitars interrupted by intermittent fuzz. Welcome to spring!
Radical Face
Sam and I are duking it out behind the scenes over Ben Cooper’s musical incarnations. See, Sam beat me to the post on Electric President but was snoozing on the new release from his alter-ego, Radical Face. The rule at 3hive follows: whoever drops the links into our back-end Movable Type site first gets to review that artist. So as a place holder, I wrote: “Sure, Sam snagged electric pres, but i got radical face.” I came back today to finish the post and I find this message waiting for me: “sean is a jerk.” I don’t want to take Sam’s forthcoming humiliation public, so I’ll drop it. And that’s easy to do while listening to Radical Face. You just can’t be mad at anyone listening to these simple, yet lush arrangements. His songs are cheerful without being sappy, well-textured without being muddy. Cooper mixes his acoustic and electronic instruments well, and during the recording of “Chewing Bottles” he did so under extenuating, yet amusing, circumstances.
Tobias Hellkvist
Tobias Hellkvist is a Swedish singer/songwriter/guitarist who came to me by way of Efterklang, whose sweetly melancholy “Step Aside†Hellkvist treats with great charity on his own cover. His winsome yet penetrating vocals might remind you of Iron & Wine, as will his gentle acoustic melodies. Likewise his instrumental tracks hang in the air like autumn leaves. Sorry, MySpace seems to have made it next to impossible (at least to my limited abilities) to directly link to their MP3s anymore, but after downloading “Step Aside,†head to Hellkvist’s MySpace page and give your day an extra dozen minutes of sublime reflection.