Two events, no, three events have created this post about the Valentines. One, WindyLou, a 3hive reader, asked why my year-end list did not include more Memphis bands. Two, my friend Vince made a submission about the Valentines, a Memphis band who moved to Washington state. Three, the Monday holiday completely messed up my schedule so I’m a little late today. I really thought it was Tuesday.
So the Valentines (formerly the Dearest Darlins) make fun music with simple keyboards, guitars, and a crappy microphone. A little indie, a little rocksteady, a little toe-tappin, that’s what the Valentines are all about.
A good friend of mine used to regularly harp on me using the line, “Sean, you don’t know anything about music before 1979.” He was referring to the year XTC released their album Drums & Wires, the first album I ever bought with my hard-earned, paper-route cash. In a way he’s right. I didn’t have older siblings whose album collections I could pilfer from. I started with XTC and moved forward, not looking back much. Admittedly, my ability to reference back to classic ’60s and ’70s rock is lacking. Had I ever gone back and done a bit of homework I’d be able to better situate Madman Moon in that spectrum, because they fit in there somewhere. Shades of Bowie, ELO, and even The Doors come through, but there’s another connection or two in there that I just can’t nail down. Anyone else care to take a stab at it?
2006 will be a good year if we keep getting MP3s from Australia’s Modular Records. Home to a wide range of goodness — from the epic rock trip that is Wolfmother to the Avalanches’ turntable bricolage — Modular is set on opening the world’s ears to Sydney duo The Presets, whose dark, moody (and sometimes sleazy) electro funk gets remixed here by labelmates Cut Copy. Sounds like they dialed up the “
Cub Country is Jeremy Chatelain who’s done time with bands like Jets to Brazil, Handsome, and (taking it way back) the SLC hardcore band Lumberjack — a band I interviewed on my first radio show, a little punk rock thing called “Unrest on the Seventh Day.” All-around quality this kid Jeremy. Cub Country began while Jeremy was living in Brooklyn as an outlet for his own songs that had no home. Ironic that a move out east initiated his western sound. It’s 2006 (a new year for all of us, have a happy and safe one!) and Cub Country is now situated in Seattle and should have a new album tracked and ready to go soon. 
As I was putting together 
I first heard White Hassle on the Grand Life compilation for the Soho Grand boutique hotel…because that’s how we roll in the 2-1-2. I wanted to share “