Has it really been a year since The Lodger released their first album Grown-Ups? Here they are again with their new LP Life is Sweet, not even twelve months later, turning it up a notch with crisp production to further refine their Yorkshire pop sensibilities. Let’s just hope that they can keep up this pace!
Original Post 6/17/2007:
I’m starting to worry. Maybe cause it was my birthday recently I’m getting all nostalgic. Yes, I know things go in cycles, and the past few years of music have been heavily borrowing from the 80’s, but that was my decade. I would hold a tape recorder up to the radio to record Wang Cheung. I bought Tears for Fears on tape, Joy Division on vinyl, the Smiths on CD, Camper van Beathoven on a t-shirt, and the Cure on a poster. I saw the Descendents live and Dance Craze and Athens, Ga, Inside/Out on VHS. The 80’s were good to me. But it’s the next cycle that’s starting to worry me. Don’t tell me you haven’t seen the kids starting to sport long stringy hair and flannel shirts. We’re on a fine line between the next “scene” going hippie or retro Pearl Jam. Let’s just get it out of the way before my kids hit their teenage years.
The Lodger and their fine Yorkshire guitar pop, though, ain’t going down without a fight. While influenced and even motivated by the songwriting of such guitar pop stalwarts as the Wedding Present and the Housemartins, this Leeds band’s debut album Grown-ups, adds their own personal touch and a host of modern sensibilities, like crisp melodies, high-energy honesty and reverb-free drums, all evidenced in the outstanding “Let Her Go.” Just what an old fella needs to feel young again.
Time to hit Athens again with the indie rock of Mass Solo Revolt. Other reviewers, publicists, and music sources bring up the apparent 90’s indie rock influences of MSR, listing off the obvious suspects, but what else would one expect of a band that grew up on said influences? MSR, though, aren’t content with just mimicing; they have an earnestness that shows they’re doing what they want to do. The Flaming Lips, Dinosaur, Jr., Superchunk, The Wedding Present, and (personal fave) the Grifters have been known to have that effect on impressionable young ears.
Good evening. I’m going to try very very hard not to make any “Pants” jokes here. O.k. — Let’s do this. He impressed Mr. Peanut Butter Wolf and now he’s impressing us with his neon-bathed, wheel-pitched funk. A sneak peak at the new album from James Pants, “Ka$h” draws a lot of comparison to Prince, Pharrell and the ’80s. More specifically, I would say it dates back when nerds *weren’t* cool, and Mr. Nelson was knocking the genres of the day on their sorry asses. There’s a DRM version out there now, but I’m holding out more. You could say I can’t wait for the rest of these Pants to drop. Ah, crap. I’m soooo sorry.
The heat wave blasting Los Angeles has got me pining for summer and sparkly bright summery tunes. I’m swimming in the latter thanks to Julie Ocean. Featuring Jim Spellman of Velocity Girl and a handful of other post-punk DC notables, Julie Ocean does 10 punky-pop songs in just over 25 minutes. They’re sweet, catchy, and quick. Remember the Christopher Walken “cowbell” sketch? I can imagine Julie Ocean playing in that sketch and Walken telling them, “you know what you need are more handclaps.” All their songs are handclap friendly, but thankfully they don’t indulge themselves until the very end of the record. Just like Walken says of BÖC, Julie Ocean “appears to have a dynamite sound.”
Must admit, I’ve always wanted to have a 3hive soccer team. Many years ago, I scored over 
The Awkward Stage ended up being one of my happy finds, with “West Van Girl,” “1000 Teenage Hearts,” and the title track from Shane Nelken’s debut album, Heaven is for Easy Girls, all being worth at least $.99 at the legal download site of your choice. Hopefully the band’s sophomore spin, Slimming Mirrors, Flattering Lights — out in June, two days before my birthday! (hint, hint, Mint Records) — will offer up another set of smart Canadian pop from the sensitive and supremely talented Nelken. “Anime Eyes” is a rocking little piece of candy sweetly luring us in.
The artistic interpretation of a wiring diagram of the band’s setup found on their website sure tells a lot about Shy Child. It lists “Lead Synth 1”. And “Lead Synth 2”. And “Lead Synth 3.” No “Non-Lead Synth” shown. No “Just Plain Ol’ Synth” either. The three lead synths, undoubtably fighting for that “Lead Lead Synth” position, give a glimpse into the electronic frenzy that is Shy Child. Their story: the band was a side project that somehow found legs, made an album on the cheap, played SXSW, and got picked up by a bigwig producer, in this case Paul Epworth of Bloc Party and The Rapture, resulting in their new album Noise Won’t Stop.
David Sylvian resurrects what he calls a “lost classic,” in this the third and final album by the Swedish band Anywhen, The Opiates. The band dissolved before the album was completed and singer Thomas Feiner pushed on, dedicated to finishing the project. He did so at risk to his own well-being. A self-described loner, “being around people [has] always caused me some tension and discomfort,” Feiner nevertheless sought out the talents of the Warsaw Radio Symphony Orchestra. Working with them made him a “nervous wreck,” but he also described it as the high point of his musical career. The Opiates seem to benefit from these tensions. The album leads with “The Siren Songs,” a lush, celebratory epic in which Feiner revels in submitting to his muse, then slowly wanders along a road less traveled to “All That Numbs You,” a mournful study of a life dragged down by a “job you hate to buy things you don’t need.” Every step in between features Feiner’s rich baritone accompanied by either delicate or driving cinematic orchestrations. A lost classic indeed.
Before I ever listened to the sloppy, (mostly) instrumental rock of Providence’s Six Star General, I liked them. Check out these blurbs from their Rhode Island-based label, 75 or Less — regarding the 2007 album Sick Stars, Sister Cyst, note that it includes “covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Butthole Surfers and Jonathan Richmond”; the album Already on One, also from 2007, “clock[s] in at 26 minutes, … their longest release to date … includes a pair of instrumentals. Influences include Mudhoney, Spacemen 3, Silkworm”; and their self-titled album was “recorded in six hours with no overdubs – 11 tracks in 22 minutes – equal parts punk, quasi-metal and distorted pop.” Unlike a lot of the garbage that publicists and label folks offer up, these assessments and observations totally match up with the ten minutes of music available for download in the four tracks below. Who cares if these guyscan barely play their instruments? They make noise and have fun at it (and for my ears at least, the less singing, the better). Check out “Sun Up Pants Down” and see what I mean.
I recently caught the last hour or so of the classic documentary Athens, Georgia Inside/Out. That LP was probably the most used vinyl of the summer between high school graduation and my freshman year of college, Love Tractor and Pylon being two of my faves at the time.