Label this track from Teargas & Plateglass “dark.” Not dark like teen angst dark, but dark like Darfur, like the Balkans, like Kenya, like Cambodia. Dark like genocide. Dark like 4,000 more U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq than W.M.D.s found in Iraq; that kind of dark. “One Day Across the Valley” is almost too much; the percussive drum track, the spoken word memory of pure violence, the sparseness of the sound. Like the photos from My Lai or Rwanda, you want both more and less in the given output — more justice, less brutality, more hope, less reality. “I felt a lot of pain,” says the narrator, and it’s hard to understand how this could not be a universal response. From the album Black Triage, with accompanying videos available on the band’s website.
Okay
The first time I listened to Okay was somewhat of a brief and cynical experience. Too cute in its depression, I thought. Their upcoming album Huggable Dust is made up entirely of one-word-title songs that run an average of about two and a half minutes. It’s quirky before you even press “play,” and it gets quirkier once Marty Anderson starts in with his lonesome little-boy quaver over an acoustic guitar and other sounds and instruments reach for a melancholy kind of folk-pop. Yes, it’s a bit of a lo-fi cabaret. But it’s one you won’t want to stop watching thanks to how personal those somber lyrics are made to sound through Anderson’s home recording aesthetic. Fans of Daniel Johnston, The Flaming Lips, and the Elephant Six collective will find much to like. The rest of you might, too.
The Strugglers
Brice Randall Bickford II + friends + Carrboro, NC = The Strugglers. It’s all about location, right? Grab the finely aged “Goodness Gracious” and bask in a little Southern twang & steel guitar — warm, sad sounds, protective like an grown-up version of your childhood blankie. Like he sings in the song: “Don’t you know what will happen with you staring at the world like this?” Or download “Morningside Heights,” the poppy, wise opening track from the band’s 2008 release The Latest Rights and get lost in the violin’s reel from down South to the Upper West Side. The Strugglers stripped down, sedate sound provide a nice reflection of place; that is, the U.S. of A.
Make a Muxtape
Man Plus
Seattle’s Man Plus is kind of like 3hive–a bunch of dudes, one girl and all about the music. When I run low on musical suggestions, I tend to stream KEXP radio when I wake up in the morning and when I did just that recently, I came across this. I was very happy about this find. I have to give much love to the good people at KEXP for always throwing up something new, something smart and being profound musical locavores. To my ear, Man Plus is definitely music from the Pacific Northwest. I have no idea how one really defines “music from the Pacific Northwest” in 2008–but I’m feeling like it has to be part rock out music, part semi-impenetrable lyric (see: “I want to be the number 12”) and, of course, part unrestrained angst (see: all those gloomy pretty guitars attended to by the tendency to move from pretty singing to expressive yell-singing). It has been the soundtrack to this gloomy but sweet morning, and to many others.
Bunnygrunt
A few months back while at my brother’s, I picked up his bass guitar and started absent-mindedly playing it. At one point I suddenly realized I was playing the bassline from a Bunnygrunt song, “Macho Beagle” from their Standing Hampton 7″ from 1994. Which lead me to wonder whatever happened to Bunnygrunt. The good news: Matt Harnish and Karen Reid, the brains behind this outfit, are still going strong. The bad news: “Me & My Vampire Friends” (in MP3 below) is too criminally short to give more than just a taste of their light-hearted, quirky, funny pop, but here you go anyway.
Meho Plaza
Each dose of Meho Plaza’s quirky, hooky electro-punk takes care of business, then bolts—leaving you craving more. I’d hardly call it minimalist, only that each musical element is used cunningly and sparingly. If there is an imbalance worth noting, it’s that Mike Thrasher’s lyrics take a back seat while the Moog gets its own dressing room—but it’s all for the good. From what I’ve read, their live show’s even better than the recorded version, and quite different. Alas, I’ll never know firsthand until they get enough funding to tour beyond of their SoCal homebase…so buy this record (available on iTunes), if only for me and everyone else east of the Pacific Time Zone.
P.S. Whew, I made it to the end of the post without referencing Wire… Oops!
The Love of Kevin, Colour, Chaos, and the Sound of K
Compare and contrast my post of May 18, 2005, with this one. Same band. Same song title. But just as the Swedish duo of Lindefelt and Fredrik have changed their performing name from The Lovekevins to The Love of Kevin, Colour, Chaos, and the Sound of K (or “The LK” for short), they have also changed their style. “Stop Being Perfect” has gone from being a textbook Swedish guitar-pop song to a textbook Swedish electronic pop song (there’s the contrast). No change though in their ability to craft a catchy pop song, one that induces singing along and toe-tapping. For the curious, some of those older “guitar” songs from their 2005 Max Leon EP can be downloaded from the Songs I Wish I Had Written website below.
Original Post (as the Lovekevins) 5/18/2005:
There’s nothing quite like blindly buying an album at the local record store and finding something you just love. Trust me, I’ve bought some real junk over the years (Betty Boo circa 1990, anyone?) in that pursuit. But I’ve found some really good stuff. Sometimes it’s the album cover (Jessamine), sometimes it’s the record label (Henry’s Dress), sometimes it’s just a good vibe (Super 5 Thor). Even today, in the new millenium, that still happens with the world wide web. I stumbled across a real gem of band, the Lovekevins, on the online store Delicious Goldfish Records. Fantastic Swedish pop that soars and bounces and captivates and I just have to go listen to “Stop Being Perfect” again right now.
Continue reading “The Love of Kevin, Colour, Chaos, and the Sound of K”
Pretty Good Dance Moves
P.G.D.M. will, as the title implies, keep the dance floor packed at the silent disco. It’s fitting because the electronic instrumentation approximates The Postal Service while the lovely female vocals will be a warm wooby for fans of Cat Power and Bat for Lashes – in other words, it’s great music for dancing with yourself, even when you’re dancing with the masses. I’m giving the band short shrift with such simple comparisons because I’m in a hurry today, but I ask—nay, admonish—you to not give them short shrift yourself, because beats like these don’t often come with such pretty and smart heartstrings attached.
Hilotrons
Apparently, in Michigan at least, spring is refusing to be sprung, so the only thing to do is get happy. Canadian bands, especially those not from BC, have extra special cred in this regard as their weather is even worse than ours. Hence Hilotrons, of Ottawa. Fun fun weird fun — lousy, whiny vocals, heavy 80s-ish synth, bouncy, boppy awesome blast. I’ve been spinning their new release, Happymatic at home a lot, and darn if it ain’t working! Alas, I can only offer an excellently representative minute and a half (“Dominika”) for free and legal download; check out the mySpace, buy the album, whatever it takes to get happy, it’s worth it.