The Felice Brothers seem to have a good time spinning out bizarre, wistful Bob Dylan-esque songs about deals gone wrong and inevitably bad relationships. The sloppy fun of “Frankie’s Gun!” makes me wish I’d been in that studio, banging on something, making some noise as the tape rolled. Made up of three actual brothers from the Catskills — Simone, Ian and James Felice — plus “a 19 year old called Christmas,” according to the press info, these guys don’t mind playing a wrong not or two. It’s the thought that counts, right? And their thoughts seem as pure and sincere as a streetcorner singer in the middle of summer, telling everyone how it is.
Honey Claws
As most of the music world heads to Austin, Texas this week for the annual South By South West music festival I’m stuck here in my front bedroom doing the virtual bar crawl hunting for something new to listen to and re-living past SXSWs. Honey Claws is just the sort of thing I’d hope to run into at 1 A.M. my feet weary from the walking, my head hurting from all the rocking, but these grooves would buoy me up for another couple hours. These two tracks sound a bit like Nine Inch Nails tempered and mellowed through Beck’s beatbox and microphone. The rest of the album will take you on a wild bounce deep into the heart of Austin’s freak-hop-tronic scene. Sure, that may just be the Honey Claws’ garage but bigger things have blossomed from humbler origins.
SXSW showcase: Wednesday night @ 115 Club.
Rademacher
Really? Has it really been two a half years since Rademacher first appeared on 3hive? This foursome, led and driven by Malcolm Sosa, continues to mature, while still doing their own thing, man. Yes, they’ve made some changes over the years–style, personnel–but they still have their independence, their quirkiness, and an ear for a good tune, finally releasing their first full-length Stunts in December 2007 after three earlier EP’s.
Original Post 8/24/2005:
Okay, there are three good things that come from Fresno, Californ-I-A, and no, not one of the three is Cher. My old lady (oh crap, she’s gonna read this, make that my young bride, to quote my father-in-law) hails from Fresno, as do Let’s Go Bowling and Rademacher. The relative isolation of the Central Valley has allowed the young ones of Rademacher to develop their own take on indie rock that is intense, melodic, and original while being vaguely familiar. The first song is from their new EP out this fall.
Under Electric Light
Danny Provencher began making music as a child secretly singing over records (something I still do, not so secretly, as a full-grown man, often over records I only hear in my head). At some point he committed his music to record, leaving out, ironically, his vocals. The earliest recording as Under Electric Light features four synth-pop instrumentals that sound like a mix between early Depeche Mode beats awash in New Order melodies. From my not-so-scientific investigation, Provencher didn’t come out of the proverbial vocal closet until about three years later. The result is a clean, dreamy, earnest style free from any bells and whistles, content on remaining inconspicuously, well, great—and entirely timeless within the window of the last four decades. “Wintertime” is nothing less than a small epic worthy of ushering out this current season, while leaving the listener wanting more: oh, play that chorus again, please! “This Moment” fills that gap by repeating its gorgeous, soaring chorus once. Oh well, I’ll just have to listen to them for the fifteenth time. Pull my leg.
British Sea Power
It must have been 2004’s edition of our year end lists when I included British Sea Power in my section of “Our Favorite Wish-We-Could-Put-Them-on-3hive Artists” after I had been enjoying their LP The Decline of British Sea Power. Now jump to present day, and, voila, here is British Sea Power on the 3hive, asking you the question in the title of their latest LP Do You Like Rock Music? It’s also my way of making up for missing them at Noisepop in San Francisco last week (I also missed the Walkmen, ug). I know, excuses, excuses.
Thao
I imagine everybody else has already heard these new tracks from Thao (formerly known as Thao Nguyen and also seemingly masquerading as Thao with the Get Down Stay Down). If not, then you should know they absolutely and completely rock (in a folk-pop way). Pulled off of We Brave Bee Stings and All, her Kill Rock Stars label debut, Thao brings in the kitchen sink and everything else to slap together a huge party in these two teeny-tiny songs. From the HGTV-inspired lyrics of “Bag of Hammers” — “Shake the frame of this house / Distress the wood, make it shout” — to the lost love of “Beat” and its accompanying brass (is that a tuba?), Thao doesn’t let you down. (Sadly, though, I think the links on her old 3hive page do.)
Hanne Hukkelberg
I’ve been a patient boy. And today all my quiet suffering and yearning pays off. Hanne Hukkelberg’s new album comes out today and she begins touring the states this week. What Hukkelberg offers this time around on Rykestrasse 68 is fortunately more of the same: beautifully textured percussion, swaying rhythms and her exquisitely delicate voice. Her bicycle returns on this recording along with 29 other different instruments. The best way to listen to Hanne Hukkelberg is to simply shut up. Shut up your preconceived ideas of what a pop song should sound like. Shut up the glut of voices and sounds you’ve been listening to all day today and let her swab your skull clean, like a slice of aural ginger clearing your head of everything before it, and hear the world for the first time again.
A Cheater’s Armoury [MP3, 5.3MB, 128kbps]
(Original Post 10/25/05):
My eight year old started up on the clarinet this year in school. Never having played a reed instrument, I took a stab at it. Wow. Blowing into that little hole to produce any sound besides that of cats mating was impossible. Lucky for us and our neighbors, it clicked with my son much quicker. Segue to a recent CD shopping spree and I bought this Hanne Hukkelberg album based on the cover art alone. Several tracks feature a gorgeous clarinet and I was anxious to play it at home. The rest of the album was simply a wonderful surprise. Ms Hukkelberg’s calm, gentle vocals evoke a female David Sylvian, and her minimal, jazz-like compositions played on, among other things, pots, pans, wineglasses, and bicycle spokes, make for an organic version of Björk.
Realistic
Realistic (brainchild of musician/motion graphics designer James Towning) started a la Negativland: whipping up a smirky hodge-podge of everything from self-help tapes to soap operas to classic rock. With Perpetual Memory Loss, Realistic rises to the next level, crafting some outright tuneful (if chaotic) thumpers from layers of sounds and samples. These tracks illustrate the contrast between albums, but don’t even represent the best that Realistic has to offer. Stream the whole album here in order to hear the excellent tracks “Music in the Round” and “Amazing Fall.”