What does it sound like to have a band of former Jersey prep school kids with great indie DNA joined by a Julliard-trained Icelandic lass? Like a glorious train wreck, actually. The Gang is a Brooklyn-based quintet started by classmates Gary Keating and Rich Bonner, who then recruited Danny Leo (fellow Seton Hall Prep grad and Ted’s little brother), Eva Johannesdottir (not an SHP grad, unless they have a branch in Kopavogur, Iceland), and Patrick Brennan (older brother of Tim in Dropkick Murphys). Yes, they’re all over the place both on the bio sheet and on the MP3s. But don’t worry because that’s the way it’s supposed to be. “One Up the Sun” seems to draw equal inspiration from Gang of Four (perhaps the inspiration for their name as well?) and Billy Joel. And “Sea So” is a cacophonous anthem of screaming vocals, screeching guitars, and a towering rhythm section that barely bothers to keep rhythm. It drives my wife insane even when I listen to it quietly, and that’s more than enough to keep it in heavy rotation on any set of speakers I have that can handle it.
Christine Fellows
I’ve been holding on to this song for a long time, at least a year or two, unsure whether or not I’d post it. Obviously, here it is… The album on which “Advice” appears, 2 little birds, is out of print; Fellows asks on her website that it not be purchased digitally, if available, as she has not consented to it sale in this manner. That said, I can certainly pitch her latest work, Nevertheless, released last November, which features the same cellist heard here, Leanne Zacharias, plus Weakerthan (and husband) John K. Samson.
Blackfire
Sometimes I like to follow links from the websites of bands I enjoy to see where I end up. That’s probably how I found Blackwater, but heck if I know exactly how I got to this Native American hard rock outfit. I will say that, after teaching about the Holocaust and the atomic bomb on consecutive days, “Mean Things Happening in this World” seems a totally appropriate song. I’d say that about the recent Michigan primary, too, but then the song would be about stupid things instead. Anyway, go ahead and get a bit heavy with this Woody Guthrie cover offered up by Navajos (hey, I taught about the code talkers, too!) Jeneda, Clayson and Klee Benally. And if you’re looking for more, on the family website you can check out their political action, past albums, multiple awards for Native artists and more downloads.
Kickstart
A wise colleague recently said of the advertising industry, “deep down inside we all just want to be rock stars.” I’m sure he’d also agree with Kickstart’s corollary that “rock ‘n ‘roll is never easy.” Kickstart plays raw and relentless barroom brawl music. Frontman Eric Strickler lights up each anthemic number with gravelly vocals and guitar licks to match. Oh, to be a real rock star.
Biirdie Takes Flight
Wire
So I was just talking in the past week with a rather new friend about our top 5 albums. So I made my list after much internal debate, and when it came to adding Wire, one of my favorite bands of all time, I had such trouble deciding between their albums Pink Flag and Chairs Missing. I ended up going with the former, but Wire is not just musical nostalgia; the old lads are still making music, as heard in the song “23 Years Too Late” below from their November 2007 release Read & Burn 03. Many more free songs available from their website.
Oh Astro
Caution! These songs may induce seizures or stuttering. My dad used to stutter severely. Up into his early 20s he could barely get out name out. He passed it down to his sons, although we never stuttered to the extent my father did. I remember going to speech therapy when I was in elementary school. They’d encourage me to stutter away. Talk right through the anticipation, the fear of stuttering. It worked for me. On rare occasions I still stutter, but it doesn’t bother me at all. With apologies to those who struggle with dysfluency, stuttering reminds me of a remix, of turntable scratching. It artfully strips down language to its phonemes. And it can be rhythmic. The sample-tastic duo Oh Astro shares my interest in stuttering. On their new album, Champions of Wonder, they strip down existing songs down to individual notes, mash in a few other songs or vocals, and freshen up or create entirely new interpretations of those source works. Said re-workings are wonderfully bumpy and jumpy and bravely taunt copyright restrictions. Oh Astro’s label, Illegal Art, “claims Fair Use for all of its releases and has professional legal counsel nearby if needed.” Smart move. A stream of the entire album is available via Oh Astro’s ecard and I highly suggest you follow along with their sample notes as you listen.
Canon Blue
You diehard 3Hivers (we love you!) will recall that Canon Blue was originally posted just three months ago. But Daniel James is giving away the new Halcyon EP for free, and it’s so lovely (especially the title track) that I felt it deserved a little more plug time. Unzip and enjoy! Canon Blue is the creation of Daniel James, a Nashville-based do-everything musician who came to my attention not through any tangential southern connection but through his European label Rumracket. That could be because he’s not your typical Nashville kind of dude. Or is he? James may prefer digital to analog, keyboards to six-strings, drum machines to high-hats, but at heart he’s a singer-songwriter in a town that cultivates and nourishes them. Good thing because Canon Blue’s helium-filled harmonies, industrial beats and sweet falsetto deserve all the cultivation they can get.
The Hermit
I found out about The Hermit after checking up on
Paper Moon, one of my favorite Canadian bands. The brainchild of musical experimentalist/drummer Hamish Thomson, The Hermit also features — with greater prominence on their most recent release, Turn Up (the Stereo) — the alluring voice of Allison Shevernoha from the aforementioned Paper Moon. Samples from the new spin can be heard over on MySpace; I like “Si vous me quittez” a lot. The tracks available here are winners from a remix contest, based on The Hermit’s 2005 album Wonderment, and they are sweet and pleasant things to listen to.