Ramon & Jessica, Handyman's Honeymoon

I covered a Ramon & Jessica album a few months back (see index). Here's another. Handyman's Honeymoon (Porto Franco 036) is I believe their second. I am not sure if I am getting this singer-songwriter alt duo better than I did with their last album or if this one is more lucid, but either way I am getting it.

They cover whimsically and poetically in their lyrics topics that are much more complex than the simple folkish-naive delivery would at first indicate. And that is part of their charm. As I believe I mentioned the last time there is a sort of knowing innocence projected here, a little reminiscent of Edie Brickell but only in a vague identity sense.

And that folkish naivete is also deceptive. There's good music happening. The instrumentation/arrangements are quite interesting: toy piano, banjo, guitar, ukulele, violin, piano, etc., meld together in ways that are different. Jessica sings in a disarmingly direct way. Jesse sings harmony most of the time.

The songs have an original peculiarity and memorability. The album has a marvelous home-grown charm. Listen a few times and see.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, "Mirror Traffic," A New One from the Singer-Songwriter-Bandmember

Well alrighty then. Monday. In times of economic and non-recreational misery that I, my family, and countless others are currently enduring, it is good to hear something with an elemental song-based sincerity to wash away the many scores of pretentious pop-star plastic presences that glut the television and radio airwaves. Such straightforward no bs songwriting can be found on the new disk/download by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Mirror Traffic (Matador).

It's rock/alt directness you get on this one. No bull, honest lyrics about the world we occupy, catchy melodies, and enough of a rock edge to keep things honest. I'd say something about Green Day here, but only in the sense of the youthful sound of the vocals. Well I just did, so.

I cover so much stylistic diversity on this blog that I am not sure Mr. Malkmus will appeal to the same crowd as, say, people who would like, say, Hubble Drums. What do they have in common? Guitars, melody, a lack of bullcrap....and I hope for an open stance from readers, too. Don't limit yourself. Everybody else will want to do that so why make it worse for yourself?

And so we continue...and good luck to us all getting through the winter, eh? And thank you world events if you can manage to keep the cost of heating oil low enough and thank you nature if you can make sure the temperatures stay reasonable enough so that I can remain where I am and continue to review music. Ay-hay-men.

The Strange Boys, Live Music: Texas Rootsy Slacker Rock

Time to change it up today, and dig into something new from the alt rock world. How about a new, third album by The Strange Boys? They are a Texas outfit together three years, and the album is Live Music (Rough Trade), live pronounced as in "live and let live."

This is a mostly straightforward guitar-bass-drums-vocals-keys session with disarmingly direct, unassuming vocals from a slacker-folksie-faux-lazy lead singer, personal sorts of lyrics and original songs that have elemental charm and a recognition factor.

The band is not about technical wizardry. It's unpretentious song after unpretentious song. But you know what? There is something in the simplicity that rings authentic. And the songs grow on you.

Decline of British Sea Power, Zeus EP

The Decline of British Sea Power is one of the most interesting of today's indie rock bands. And they have become quite prolific, with the Zeus EP (Rough Trade) out in the latter half of this year and another full CD coming early in 2011.

I've been listening to the EP and it's something that grabs your ear. The songs are quirky and memorable, the vocals strong, the arrangements enveloping and singular. And the music has an edge to it, which I appreciate. In other words they continue to move in areas that made them stand out in the first place.

It's what's going on today. That is, it's what's GOOD today. One of those groups that one follows with interest. At least I do. Zeus. Come down from his cloudy Mt. Olympus.

Imogen Heap Improvises in A Special Series of Concert Downloads

Singer-songwriter-instrumentalist Imogen Heap has real artistry. She has a glorious voice, very rangy, capable of a wide spectrum of expression. She completed a North American tour recently and at each stop she devoted a portion of the concert to an improvised piece of music. She asked the audience to pick and key and tempo and proceeded to put together a piece of music on the spot. Not surprisingly her voice is a large part of the result. With the harmonization devices she can come up with a minichoir of Imogens and she accompanies and contrasts melodically on keys.

Each improvisation is dedicated to a particular local charity. They were recorded and all of them can be downloaded from her site http://charity.imogenheap.com via a contribution ($1 or more) to that charity. (I believe there are 24 (?) separate improvisations available from as many city stops.) It's a great idea and the results that I have heard are fully worthy of her growing reputation. The one I've listened to at length is from her Washington, DC concert. Very beautiful Help a charity and dig Imogen off the cuff by checking some of them out!

The Mynabirds: Indie Pop-Rock Warblers

Readers of this blog know that we cast a wide net now and again to cover releases of various sorts. Today we have chance to look at a recent releases by a group called the Mynabirds and their 30-minute CD What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood (Saddle Creek). It's a collection of songs from the pop edge of the indie rock scene. The female vocalist is very good and solidifies the identity of the band. She has a strong set of pipes which she sometimes uses in a kind of richly sotto voce manner--in other words her singing is not full-throated at all points. She can get a breathier sound at times for higher expressive variety. The songs seem good and I would think as they keep on they will get even better.

There is a slight garage tinge to the music, but at the same time a sophistication to the songs to make it an intelligent sort of pop. I like this band and look for development down the line. If you are in the mood for a down-to-earth set of pop tunes, support the indies and check it out.

Joanna Newsom and Her Voice, Her Harp

When I first heard Joanna Newsom on one of her earlier albums, she hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. The Milk-Eyed Mender was pretty much her, her unusual voice and wonderful harp playing. Her voice sounded like she was much much younger than she was, but it was completely distinctive. The harp? Very nice. And she wrote songs that had whimsy and substance at the same time.

From what I understand, she developed a condition in her vocal cords that needed attention and she was forced to stop singing for some time. She is, happy to say, back with a slightly changed voice (it no longer sounds as young) and with her creative powers at a razor-keen sharpness.

She has a new 3-CD (or LP or download) box set of her songs, Have One on Me (Drag City). It has a classic quality. I mean she addresses the song form as art, not pop. In that she is like Joni Mitchell at her best. And like Joni, her music is intensely personal and romantic in that widest sense. There the similarities end.

The box set gives you a big helping of Joanna's songs, her harp, sometimes her piano playing, and sensitive story-weaving. Ryan Francesconi put together the arrangements and they are very appropriate. Strings and such are there as needed, nicely voiced, sparse, never intruding, never too dense to obscure that Newsom vocal and instrumental charm.

She is beyond classification. Singer-songwriter? Yes. Alternative rock or something? I guess. But what she does is art song for today, if I would venture to say (which I obviously would, since I just did!) There is nothing like Joanna Newsom out there. It is music to live with happily. But it isn't what anybody else is doing. No, not Norah Jones. Joanna Newsom.

The box set is available at a terrific price. Google her and you'll find it straight off. I recommend it completely. Some terrific songs can be yours. This is real musical talent!

The Cave Singers Explore Folk-Roots Indie Rock

The alt-indie scene can be exhilarating. Truly anything goes. Anything can be revisited and transformed. Anything can be appropriated, de-appropriated, combined with anything else. . . .

Into this open environment springs The Cave Singers and their recent release Welcome Joy (Matador). They play a kind of folk-infused, rootsy acoustic-electric rock that has a modified deja vu feel. Yes, we've been to similar places before, but not THIS place exactly.

It's a guitar-centered, vocally rough-hewn, originals-oriented band. And it comes together in a way that makes listening a good thing (and with all the music I plow through weekly, I appreciate that!)

They have a direct approach and it communicates. The songs have interest. The band has interest. What more?

Alaska in Winter, The Music, That Is. . .

January 26, 2009—Brandon Bethancourt heads up an outfit known as Alaska in Winter for today’s CD. He plays most of the instruments and writes the material. Their CD Dance Party in the Balkans (Milan) is an unusual mix of songs that have bitter-sweet, naïve and melancholic qualities. Some of it sounds like it came from the Twin Peaks soundtrack in that series' more “innocent” moments.

It is decidedly unusual fare and remains mournfully tuneful throughout. The band and these tracks were born out of a period Bethancourt spent with his laptop in, yes you guessed it, Alaska. When? Winter. The vocals are sometimes vocodered for a robotic despair, sometimes not. Zach Condon sings on a cut. What else? I can’t say I dislike it. I don’t. There are haunted moments. It certainly seems winter-like in its icy outlook on the world. It makes you wish spring would come sooner than it will. [A year later and we have another spring. And so it goes.]

Serena-Maneesh, Unusual Alt From Norway

In my early years in the music business, I came to realize that there were at least two ways to listen to a piece of music in the rock-pop bag. There's a way that attempts to gauge commercial success, in which case you are looking to a song and whether it has enough hookiness to catch the average listener and get them to want to hear it again. Some of that has to do with the repetition of the name of the song, in the classic formula, and it relates to Madison Avenue forms of sloganeering; a form of brainwashing, if you will.

Back in the mid-'70s I was seeking an A & R position after a bout in music publishing and a little previous A & R-production. I had an interview with the then-young Arista Records. Part of the interview process involved picking three or four songs I thought would, or should become hits. Now even though I had placed the song "Can't Smile Without You" with the label and knew Barry Manilow was going to record it, I could not stand the song. Sure, it had all the makings of a hit with the formulas that were firmly in place by then, but I just didn't like it from a musical point of view. I didn't pick that song, didn't get the job and went my not-so-merry way. But it later hit me that I was listening with my musical ears at that point and should have stifled that form of listening for the interview.

I still listen with the non-commercial evaluatory ears when I listen to rock (or other forms of music) and I think I am right in that I tend to gravitate towards the music that gets the indie-alt-progressive-punk categorization in the rock bins, with a little metal thrown in. It is music that purposely disdains the obvious hook, the name-of-tune brainwashing structure, and instead goes for the long form, the long haul, the lack of the sing-song repetitive chorus, the song that doesn't try to sell itself. The commercial formula mostly leads to really bad music and it's part of the problem we see out there with the majors. All they can do is produce records that are designed for huge success. And that makes for a horrible musical result at least half the time. It also leads to boom-or-bust sales figures.

A long intro there but I lead up to my real subject: the second CD by Norwegian rockers Serena-Maneesh, S-M2: Abyss in B Minor (4AD). This is a group that writes songs with a rock-pop veneer, but they are anti-hook songs. A song like "Blow Yr Brains in the Morning Rain" obviously has no aspirations to enter the mainstream, and I think that's probably a wise thing. How many "real" rock acts get in the top forty today? Not very many. Why alienate the audience who will like your music to take a lottery shot in the popularity poll of the great "unwashed masses." That fickle group could well send you packing after one hit, if you are that lucky, and then your career is pretty much shot.

What S-M2 does is avoid all of that. Central to their music is dense wall of sound, the psychedelic sinfonia, with guitars and such blocking out big chunks of musicality. Then there's a very appealing, gentle sort of female vocalist who sings some impressionistically indistinct sorts of songs. The songs take a number of listens to digest, and the obverse side is that this CD can withstand many listens without the fatigue of pop-simplicity brain-stultification you get with that other kind of music.

There's a slight edge of metal here and there, but mostly the band heads you down a cosmic wind-tunnel of lush, spacey sound and doesn't let up until it's time to do so.

Chances are slim that we're talking about a top-40 hit with this group. That's all the more reason to like them. And all the more reason why I would never had fitted in doing A&R for the majors in their heyday. All the better for them and all the better for Serena-Maneesh, who get my attention and appreciation, if they should find that a worthy thing....

Friday: I was thinking perhaps I slightly overstated my case yesterday and want to clarify. I would certainly not be one to disdain out-of-hand the use of a returning chorus in song form. That has been with us since long before the commercial music industry existed and there are many wonderful songs that make good use of the device. My point is only that AS A FORMULA, the hook-chorus does not necessarily lead to good music. When the industry evaluates songs solely on this criteria, some bad music can result. Good song form does not require the chorus-hook, and sometimes liberation from this device can lead to fresh sounding music.

The Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree

January 19, 2009—I took a look at the Mountain Goats’ site before sitting down to pen these lines. They have a bunch of releases and it appears that bandleader/singer John Darnielle put his most personal thoughts and experiences into the lyrics on the CD up for consideration, The Sunset Tree (4AD), recorded in 2004. Now as an outsider to band lore this doesn’t mean anything to me, other than that he spills his guts obliquely and there are those who will care. Not that I don’t, but hey it’s like listening to a stranger on a train confessing details of his life that you're not really sure what to do with. All I can say is “bully” for this guy.

There are 13 songs of a folksy-songwriter sort, Erik Friedlander plays some nice cello arrangements and the rest is pretty much all Darnielle. His voice doesn’t appeal to me much. It has a chipmonky rasp. Now I can’t say THAT is enough for me to turn something off, physically or mentally, so I didn’t. In fact I listened five times, the fifth as I write these words. It’s an acquired taste, but I’m afraid I haven’t quite acquired it yet. He feeds his kittens, dons or doffs his earphones, wants some lady to kiss him on the mouth. As a youngster I used to overvalue the appeal of my everyday life for others. Perhaps early adulthood makes you feel that way. Now I’m not so sure. This guy has something to say, but I’m not certain that it’s something so urgent you must rush out and pick up this CD. And it's ultimately all in the telling. I don't believe that this particular telling quite reaches the level of "art."

Pavement Resurfaces with New "Best of" Compilation

The US alt-indie rock group Pavement reigned in the underground of the '90s. They maintained a loyal following for their magnetically loose slacker-grunge lead vocals and garage guitar band ethos. They broke up in 1999 in a state of exhaustion and have been silent for ten years, much to the disappointment of their fans.

They plan to regroup and begin playing live again this coming September. To commemorate that and celebrate the more-or-less ten year anniversary of their demise, Matador released this month Quarantine the Past, a generous 23 track compilation of their best. That includes the singles, select album tracks, and a few of the early songs, altogether covering the 1989-1999 period.

I've been listening to the comp and it most certainly puts them in a good light. It's unpretentious guitar band music, making the most out of the elemental chord progressions, lyrics that show a bit of despair and disgust, alt drum throbbing. There's good-bad and bad-bad in this genre. Pavement is good-bad. The primitive charm of their delivery does not sound dated.

Yo La Tengo's Odd and Ends Better Than Some Bands' Primary Releases

Yo La Tengo has been around longer than cell phones (in the mass-consumption sense). Somehow that reassures me. Their 2-CD compilation Prisoners of Love has much good music that they’ve made during their initial tenure at the top of the "unpopular" (as in not pop) underground indie-alt rock pile. We’ll take a look at that set in a few days but first, I want to talk about the optional third disk available in the set (or separately as a download): A Smattering of Outtakes and Rarities 1986-2002 (Matador). This is a judicious grouping of 16 tracks—unreleased, rare, alternate versions, remixes, original versions. There’s even a very grungy version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”

Listening to this album, I never get the feeling that these are leftovers in any negative sense. If nobody told me it was a rarities comp, I would have thought it just an excellent album, which it is.

It shows you all facets of the group, the garage sophistication, the psyche-jams, the space age retro, the melodic songs with simple but really attractive guitar-bass-drum elements, the songs where what’s-her-name the drummer sings, the mesmerizing sound tapestries.

This to my mind establishes how good the band really is. If your leftovers are very hip and excellent, then there is depth, there is breadth, there is warp, there is woof (woof-woof). I am pleased. Do you care? The point is that I think you’ll be pleased too. To hell with the “hit parade,” Yo La Tengo is currently in the top ten of MY indie charts. And that to me is what matters. Your charts might find this up there, too.

Kurt Vile Makes Snotty, Repetitious Music. That's Good!

Sometimes bands lose sight of part of what makes rock work. Now there’s more than one way to skin a drum, but repetition has been an important aspect of the music since its evolvement out of blues and jump in the ‘50s. Kurt Vile (not to be confused with German composer Kurt Weil, obviously), picks interesting musical hooks and then hits on them with a burning presence, varies them, and adds a nicely raw vocal style. Now if you think all of that is easy, listen to much of the music made in the name of rock for the past 20 years. Many artists either avoid grooving repetition or just don’t have the knack to get the right ones and hit on them with style. Subsequently the music doesn’t always rock out the way it could.

Vile’s latest, Childish Prodigy (Matador) rocks out. Listen to “Freak Train” and you’ll find yourself sinking into the groove. It’s hip and it’s hypnotic. Compared to some music, it may be simple, elemental, but that’s deceptive. This is rock that has the kind of smoldering energy of classic urban blues. And the music has contrast. A song may center around an acoustic guitar figure for Mr. Vile, or there may be a bigger wall of tone and a more electric ambiance. And the vocals are just snotty and impolite enough to speak truth.

Kurt Vile has the kind of regenerative balls that rebirths the alt scene, or whatever term one might want to use. Categories are just convenient pigeonholes, shorthand ciphers to indicate what to expect. Expect solid, heartfelt rocking on Childish Prodigy. Kurt goes back to elemental roots to recharge the music. Listen and you’ll understand that we're not talking about something simple or limited. Approach his music on its own terms and you’ll see that everything lays out just right. He has it.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

Originally posted on November 12, 2008

So what about some music? Today’s CD is not something I would have sought out on my own. It’s a songwriting-making-music entity called Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. This is at least their second album, I think, and it’s called The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager (Atlantic).

I assume from that title and the sound of the disk that it is geared to the younger folks. But the consistently musical quality of the CD means anyone who wants to check out some current sounds can appreciate it. These are real songs of an unhappy young fellow and how he feels. There are some nice acoustic guitar moments and good arrangements. I am glad the song form has not died and these people show you how that is the case. So long until the morrow.

Arctic Monkeys Make A Virtue of Their Limitations

Originally posted on November 6, 2008

Guitars, bass, drums, vocals, the classic lineup for alt-indie groups following upon longtime practice that starts at least as early as the Ventures (sans vocals, of course) in the late ‘50s. England’s Arctic Monkeys follow on that path, and on last year’s Favourite Worst Nightmare (Domino) they perfect their rough and tumble version of the instrumentation with a group of songs that have a brash freshness.

They aren’t afraid to stick within their musical limitations and make something good of them. It’s beyond garage, mind you, and they work hard to populate each song with arrangements that transmute and transform the basic aspects of playing in this style. So there are plenty of things that let you hang your hat on your ears and give them some healthy exercise, to garble and mutate a set of metaphors.

Who is Xavier Rudd?

Originally posted on November 5, 2008

There is a fellow named Xavier Rudd. He has his fifth album out there now, Dark Shades of Blue (Anti-). Like yesterday’s artist, he’s an Australian born music maker. Singer, multi-instrument player and a guitarist who often uses the slide and gets a powerful electric sound, Rudd makes his own brand of rock that draws on blues, reggae, and even Australian Aborigine music to concoct a blend that is as interesting as it is varied.

Guitarists will appreciate his approach and those who look for another voice in the rock arena will find it in him. Pretty impressive music and socially conscious too. The future is here and this music forms part of it. I like that.

A Flaming Lips EP

Originally posted on October 27, 2008

The Flaming Lips and their Yoshi were mentioned earlier in this blog. I still feel that the group's main thrust is the adolescent shtick. Pop-rock for the pre-teen and teen folks. On the other hand, a car commercial was running this summer with “Do You Realize” as the theme song. Now sometimes I search Madison Avenue for deep meanings when there aren’t supposed to be any. Why that song? Probably somebody said, “We need to license a hit that would be nostalgic for x year olds.” Or maybe they just needed familiar music. At any rate the car in question and the song did not seem to fit. We’re all gonna die and some nymphet has beautiful eyes. Fine. Buy that car and you’ll be happy like a 13 year old on a first date. Then you'll die. Is that it?

I now listen to the EP that followed Yoshi—Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (Warner Brothers). It has two remixes of “Ego Tripping” and a version of “Do You Realize” with some beats. There’s a heavy synthesizer component to these mixes, and I guess you could dance to most of it. There are also new tracks. “A Change at Christmas” has nice sentiments and could fit in with your holiday listening if you need some new things to add to your festivities mix. OK, Flaming Lips have some memorable melodic hooks and I can’t say that I dislike the stuff. Seems like music one outgrows though. . . or looks back to fondly as associated with youthful activities. Tomorrow we grow up. . . or we have already. No choice there. Signing off with a Dixon number two pencil.

Will Staind Leave Its Mark?

Originally posted on October 22, 2008

When a band sells millions of CDs, that implies a certain acceptance on the part of the music public. So what’s the point of a review here? I speak of Staind. I am just getting around to their Chapter 5 album (Atlantic) and I know there’s a new one. I received the deluxe edition of the 2005 release, which contains extra cuts and an entertaining DVD covering the making of the album and live footage. It’s no secret that CDs of this sort are compressed at the max and mastered at a level that is super hot, so that whatever machine or format you listen with cranks the music at a level comparable to late night TV ads for Ginzu Knives or other such items. The difference is that the movie it blaringly interrupts is the movie of your life and the product the CD is selling is ITSELF. Now I have no intention of getting cranky about this state of affairs, but it can be quite annoying if you have a multi-CD changer and one comes on that literally shakes the foundations of your soul, not to mention fillings and bridgework. Enough of that, though.

Staind is cool with me. There’s musicianship and definite tunesmanship. The instrumental work is competent and well wrought. My only quibble is with the vocal harmonies, which have a certain sameness in terms of intervals. Please, more than 3rds and triads would add a level of interest. Also, there’s an awful lot of music on this disk—more than 70 minutes worth. That’s good from a value standpoint but if you are like me and still conceive of albums as something to listen to as a unit, straight through (I know that may date me), it gets tiring with all the full-out cranking and emotions-on-your-sleeve vocalizing. But overall, groups like Staind are a good thing, a healthy component of the rock scene. Guitar lovers will appreciate their acoustic and electric string envelopment. This is no jamband though, so don’t expect much solo work. Power chord fans will be rewarded with splattering bursts of sound that have great power. But hey, if you know these guys, I don’t have to tell you, do I?

Say Yes to Nosound: Listening to "Lightdark"

Originally posted on October 14, 2008

The dreamscape qualities of some of the new progressive-alternative rock can be quite haunting, like a dream of your first love filtered by time and the mist of the passing blur. Nosound’s new album lightdark (Kscope) is like that. The band is the vision of Giancarlo Erra. One cut has No-Man’s vocalist Tim Bowness. The whole thing lays out long and leisurely, lingering over ambient textures that flow evenly and directively, slowly making their way like the water in a small brook.

Lyrics evoke memory-images in the mind, and there’s a hint of the psychedelic, mellotron laced music of an earlier era, a kind of sensitive, musically more savvy Pink Floyd, a King Crimson for today’s jaundiced world. There are some lyrical guitar solos and echo-rich vistas of sound. The mini-epic "From Silence to Sound” has moments that can only be described as beautiful, a word I do not often use. Lightdark is a real treat for the musical senses. It is a band that must be a trip to catch live. Grab the CD to get the studio magic that results when they layer sounds with musical care. It’s a good one.