Taxidermists, Honesty Box

Something new in the advanced alt-rock arena today: Taxidermists and their album Honesty Box (Telegraph Harp 008, all formats). It's a duo of Cooper Handy on vocals and electric guitar and Salvadore McNamara on drums, 21-year-olds who have been playing together since 2007, Western Massachusetts residents appearing here on their fourth album, the first recorded in a studio and the first to get wide distribution.

The music is in song-form. It has an alt edge. But what stands out is the inventive asymmetry of the dynamics, chordal sequence, and guitar presence, not so much virtuoso oriented but with a sort of quirkiness that does not suggest the Beefheart guitar way as it does parallel it, not really Beefheartian, not the early Kinks, not Syd Barrett, but something akin and related, only strongly alt-slacker in orientation.

I have listened and the more I hear the more this music stands out as a definite ART. It's probably too advanced and peculiarly underground to appeal to mainstream rockers, though they would most certainly gain much from repeated hearings.

It's not quite like anything, but so consistently so as to really stand out. Unexpected progressions, guitar parts, alternating quiet lyricism and loud metal powering, drumming that fits the contours of the songs perfectly and dramatically...

This is very, way cool. Do I need to say more?

Neomythics, New Corporate Resistance

How you will like Neomythics and their album New Corporate Resistance (ExFed) depends on how much you crave new rock that is catchy but committed to telling a story--and has some heft. This band delivers that. Matt Montgomery and Gregory Howe are essentially the driving forces behind this band, which is strong on guitar plying, bass walloping and hard-ish drumming from one Lumpy and also Thomas McCree. Howard Mandel gets some nice guitar action on a few cuts as well.

It's youthful sounding in the vocal department. If you ARE young that wont be something you'll notice, though. If you aren't you'll get a feeling you were here a while ago, because of course the bands WERE young when we were.

So I am posting here because I find these guys interesting. The band has songs, a slight lyricality, solid arrangements and rock rawness in a combination that used to have a presence on top-forty radio. This is probably not going to be top-40 fare because it is lyrically direct. Well and we don't mind that, do we?

Ladyfinger (NE), Errant Forms

Today's post in a way is of a piece with yesterday's. We turn to another rather vital modern rock outfit, Ladyfinger (NE) and their third album to date, Errant Forms (Saddle Creek LBJ-177 LP/Digital). It is to be had as download or as a clear vinyl limited edition LP, the latter including a pair of 3-D glasses to view the cover with!

This is a band realizing a sublime sort of punk-classic rock maturity. The band drives hard with guitars and rhythm dominant, yet the songs, with notable vocals and lyrics both, have a subtlety that puts them in contemporary currency as not the typical rock group.

Like UUVVWWZ's second (reviewed yesterday), this Ladyfinger effort shows a musically drawn series of pictures that have been subject to some care. This grouping of new songs shows a bit more polish than the UUVVWWZ set, but both have power to spare. Both groups have given us some very first-rate songs to like. In both cases also the guitar-bass work has something much stronger and less cliche than some of what we hear these days and it has to do in part with the interesting structures the songs call up. There's a good deal to hear, ponder, grok on Errant Forms. Plenty to like!

And "like" I am doing with this one. Certainly one of the better "real" rock outfits playing today!