Malcolm Middleton is one half of Scotland’s Arab Strap. On his second solo album, Malcolm expands on his earlier work and the sounds he churns out for Arab Strap. Folksy one minute, almost danceable the next, Malcolm shares the highs and lows with equal beauty. But make no mistake, this being Scottish, the self-loathing is still there; just listen to the chorus of “A Happy Medium.”
The Happies
A handful of us here at the 3hive were involved, musically, many years back. First, at an AM radio station we basically hijacked for a summer, then at a CD exchange (remember those?) called Sonic Garden. Blurb designed the logo. Soon after that fell to pieces, Sam and I started up an indie distribution company called Happyville (I’m sure we’d unanimously agree that 3hive is our best venture yet). ANYWAY, The Happies are sorta namesakes, and are not-so-coincidentally, from the state of Utah, where we initially made our acquaintances. They also make endearing, quiet, lo-fi pop songs, for which I am a complete sucker. Thanks to Todd Simmons for dropping this into the ol’ s-box.
The Weakerthans
In light of the recent discussion in Wisconsin to legalize cat hunting (if you haven’t heard about this, check here), it seems appropriate to post The Weakerthans, whose “Plea From a Cat Named Virtute” is actually told from the perspective of a cat. Katherine slipped me a disc of their melodic Canadian punk/pop, replete with a little steel guitar here and some blazing noise there, and it’s been the only rotation in my car’s CD player for a few weeks now. As for the licensed hunting of feral cats, it seems like The Weakerthans would likely not approve. To my knowledge, 3hive has no official position on the matter.
Out Hud
Let’s hear it for the Golden State! No, Out Hud ain’t no Midwest transplant, but straight outta Californ-I-A. Between Out Hud and !!! (with which they share members) the Williamsburg myth loses steam (hasn’t it already?), proof that geography has little to do with rhythm. “How Long” is retro without kitsch, funk with a pinch of punk, and completely danceable. Get down on it.
Swoon
Need another reason to move to or at the very least vacation in Sweden? Swegazers. Yeah, that’s Swedish shoegazers, and our pick today from the suggestion box, Swoon, have coined the term. Like one of the masterpieces of shoegazing, Lilys’ 1992 album In the Presence of Nothing, which deliberately mimicked My Bloody Valentine, Swoon are not ashamed to show their influences, and like Lilys, they do it so well that their songs can stand alone on their own merit. So those of you wondering what your band would sound like if you were raised in Sweden on Chapterhouse, Ecstacy of St. Theresa, Ride, and even Lilys, that’d be Swoon.
The Frames
First, some bidness. We’re happy to announce our first reskin since we started 3hive just over a year ago. Jon has whipped up some hot new colors for spring and a tighter, meaner sidebar featuring our patented Navotron technology. If you’re having trouble seeing any of this new sweetness and hence have no idea what we’re going on about, holding down your shift key and hitting the refresh/reload button in your browser a couple of times should do the trick. And now…
Although it would be easy to dismiss the Frames as a Celtic Indigo Boys for the way their fans can sing along so dutifully to “Star Star” and “Lay Me Down,” consider this post (and the hardly-facile climax to “Dream Awake”) an admonition not to dismiss The Frames so quickly. The harmonies are sweet, the lyrics are tepid, the guitar strumming is as reassuring as a bubbling brook — and in spite of all this, they sound awfully fine to these aging ears.
Bettie Serveert
My brother-in-law Pete has been wanting to suggest something for 3hive for awhile now, I think, and although he’s pretty much committed to the music of his glory days in the mid- to late-80s — think U2’s Boy or Rum, Sodomy and the Lash by The Pogues — he pulled through with Bettie Serveert. “Attagirl,” off the Dutch band’s recent album of the same name, kind of has a new wave groove going, maybe. Anyway, Pete’s a hero of mine, along with my sister-in-law Cindy, because they actually hired a babysitter(!) for my favorite niece and nephew and went to see Bettie Serveert live(!!) not too long ago. They even got her autograph(!!!). I can hardly remember those days…
Smoosh
Yeah yeah, I know they’ve hobnobbed with Katie Couric on “The Today Show,” that they’re a couple of preteen sisters, and that they’re all the rage these days, but Smoosh are pretty damn good. Let me share something I learned from listening to “Massive Cure”: Asya and Chloe are not scenesters, hipsters, teenstars, or fakers. They’re in this for the music, the very purest motive there is. Sure, there are lots of indie band comparisons, but 12-year-old Asya sings like a 12-year-old PJ Harvey, and 10-year-old Chloe shuffles the drums like nobody’s business. Girl power!
Quantazelle
I remember the 1984 Olympics here in Los Angeles. At least one of the bike races snaked around my friend Donald’s neighborhood in Laguna Hills. We went. Our view was a section of straightaway; it was as exciting as watching ice melt. When I was living in Salt Lake City, a couple of real nice fellows bribed the IOC into bringing the games to town. I set 2002 as my goal to leave Utah, a chance to move home and to avoid the hoopla that was sure to follow. I met my goal three years early… All of this as a preamble to say that “Braking (Hushed)” sounds like it could be the Olympic theme song if mankind is ever transformed into robots. That, or a really great remake of the Tron arcade game soundtrack. Speaking of arcade games, I swear there’s a Marble Madness sample in “Stereofoam.” I hope Quantazelle enjoys arcade games as much as I imagine she does.
Kid Lunch
People ask me where we come up with all the good stuff we post on 3hive. It’s hard to explain except to say that we sometimes seem to benefit from some sort of collective stream of consciousness. To wit: spring springs in Detroit, which reminds Joe of Hayden’s music; Joe posts Hayden, which reminds Eli of Kid Lunch who is a Canadian colleague of Hayden’s; Eli drops us a note about the Kid; I like the name and download some tracks from his 1999 self-titled debut; I like them enough to download the entire thing (it’s available for free on his website); I scrap together a post which says nothing about the music itself and voila! It’s just that easy! Kid Lunch may be in semi-retirement — his last live gig appears to have been in 2002 — but his sonically diverse album holds enough promise to leave me wondering if/when he’ll return with more good stuff. In the meantime, let’s see what kind of associations this post triggers… The suggestion box is open.