Month: April 2013

April Video Jam, Vol 1

Published April 6, 2013 by Stephen Carradini

Austinites The Noise Revival Orchestra toured China, and they made a 13-minute tour documentary. This mesmerizing video is not your average tour doc at all, and you should check it out the first chance you get. Which is right now, if you’re reading this. Seriously. Do it.

Remember that whole “Quiet Is the New Loud” movement that Kings of Convenience were at the front of in the 2000s? I loved that stuff. So did, apparently, Australians Breaking Hart Benton, whose lovely video for “More Than You Deserve” evokes both the beauty of the acoustic tune and the alienness of the past.

So the actual video for Phosphorescent’s “Song for Zula” is not the main draw here: I mostly just want you to listen to the heartbreakingly beautiful “Song for Zula” again.

Not gonna lie, Deb Oh and the Cavaliers’ video for “Primacy” reads like a a/v version of “What Hipsters Love.” But there’s a reason we love fencing, and globes, and slo-mo water droplets, and ink blots in water: because they’re fun to watch. (Also because they’re indicative of certain social structures that…oh nevermind, it’s just fun to watch.)

Fairmont's The Grand and the Grandiose lives up to the billing

Published April 4, 2013 by Stephen Carradini

Fairmont has been writing hook-laden power-pop/indie-pop with a bitter twist for more than a decade, and The Grand and the Grandiose is the band’s most assured work yet. Grand strips down the complex arrangements that have characterized recent Fairmont releases to a guitar/bass/drums trio with occasional contributions from piano and melodic percussion. The tunes rely heavily on the guitar-based songwriting for the main thrust of the album, especially in mood-setting instrumental opener “The Dead Leaves of Autumn.” Fairmont has been writing songs in this genre for so long that this narrow focus is a benefit instead of a hindrance: the band knows what it’s doing, and that expertise shows in these ten never-boring tunes.

The streamlined sonic palette puts the focus squarely on Neil Sabatino’s confident, excellent vocal melodies. The memorable refrain of “Misery,” the intimate performance of “The Sun Shines Only for Me,” and the “ba ba ba” background vocals of ‘Black Heart” are highlights in these tunes that don’t mince words or sounds. If you’re a fan of thoughtful power-pop/indie-pop from veterans who have the chops to make you remember a song long after it’s gone, The Grand and the Grandiose is going to excite you.

TRICKED OUT mixtape

Published April 3, 2013 by Stephen Carradini

Another mixtape! This one’s predominantly dark indie rock, instrumental hip-hop, and lush indie.

TRICKED OUT

0. “Need Parmesan” – Pjaro. From the surrealistically named Why Is No One Here I Can Make You Alt comes a crazy instrumental indie-rock piece that’s like a post-rock piece if Two Gallants were trying to play the genre and out of frustration they gave up and played really loud. This one’s surprising and intriguing.
1. “Waiting” – Program. Remember the mid ’00s, when everything was super-epic because The Arcade Fire ruled and everyone wanted to be like them? I loved that time. Program remember that time well, with synths and toms and all the right stops’n’starts.
2. “Liar Liar” – Vienna Ditto. Someday, all genres will be one genre, and I’ll be out of a job. Until then, it’s my job to tell you that tribal drums, Portishead-style vocals and swaggering guitar riffs come together for some crazy, gripping music here.
3. “View of My Sanity” – Anna Lena and the Orchids. Another singer/songwriter indebted to the icy soundscapes and incisive vocals of Portishead, another beautiful tune.
4. “Endless Possibilities” – The Boxing Lesson. Space rock that consumed an orchestra? Sign me up.
5. “Proto” – Ryan Hemsworth. This one comes from Mitsuda, the hip-hop tribute to video game soundtrack creator Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger). YES TO THE YES.
6. “I Still Think of You From Time to Time” – Louville. Trombones, pulsing beats, and wiry synths come together to form … euphoric electronica? Whatever, just roll with its beauty.
7. “Nothing Left to Say” – Poldoore. Super cool heist movies, take notice: here’s a candidate for your next soundtrack inclusion.
8. “Staying In” – Ola Podrida. Mysterious tune that kinda sounds like a dungeon level soundtrack, until the beautiful chorus kicks in.
9. “Chinese Paper Cuts” – Own Goal. The sparse instrumentation creates a unique indie-soul atmosphere that will appeal to fans of The Antlers.
10. “Blue Elvis” – Peals. It sounds like two guys sitting on the porch making beautiful, low-key, beautiful instrumental music because they can. I dig it.
11. “Seven” – Qualia. Loose, chill, moving post-rock that evokes The Album Leaf, lazy Saturday afternoons and/or epic realizations. Wonderful stuff.

Brighter … Now! (Welcome back to the show)

Published April 2, 2013 by Stephen Carradini

I have now officially recovered from SXSW. It’s time to get back to that inbox and cover those bands you will soon love. Here’s an indie-pop/indie-rock mix for y’all; this should brighten your day.

Brighter … Now!

1. “Come Back to Life” – Hospital Ships. Sometimes I hear a song and think, “Wow, I want to write songs like that.” Stunning quiet/loud indie-rock here.
2. “Roosevelt Hotel” – Cocovan. That chorus. I’ve been singing and dancing for a week solid. This woman knows her way around a thoughtful pop song.
3. “Way Yes” – Colerain. Can you have dance-friendly energy while being deeply pensive, even sad? And make all that beautiful? Colerain says yes, yes, we can.
4. “California Analog Dream” – Vondelpark. Remember the first time you heard Grizzly Bear? Or Bon Iver? My first listen of Vondelpark was like that: instrumental simplicity that somehow overwhelmed my ears like an enlightenment experience.
5. “Monday Morning” – Charles Mansfeld. Acoustic indie-pop with idiosyncratic vocals and a unique gravitas? The more the better.
6. “Jive Babe” – Mikhael Paskalev. Squash together the frenetic vocal fervor of King Charles with the buzzy guitars of the Vaccines and you’ve got a scrumptious recipe.
7. “Monday Morning” – Younger James. (Not a typo, this one is also called “Monday Morning.”) I heard the Strokes have a new coming out. I can almost guarantee that this tune will be better than whatever that foursome is putting out.
8. “Ode to the Summer (Radio Edit)” – Syd Arthur. Someone called this prog? I thought this intricate, melodic work was what indie rock sounded like in 2013? Things just got weird.
9. “Young Men of Promise” – Yellowbirds. What a great song title. The mid-tempo, vaguely garage-y indie-pop is strong, too.
10. “Open Arms” – Fletcher. Q: What if The Walkmen were happy? A: FLETCHER. Next question.

SXSouthswag

Published April 2, 2013 by Stephen Carradini

I didn’t get as much swag this year, which was disappointing. (I think it probably had to do with the huge buzz that Interactive commanded, which drew some free free free away from the music portion.) However, I do still have some highlights from the stuff I emerged with.

Best Free Album: Separate Tongues by Defining Times. This release blew my mind with its excellent art-rock. The control that the band exercises when deciding between gentle, minimalist composition and towering rock moves was striking. They can do beautiful and powerful with equal success, which is a rare distinction. “Swan Dive” is an impressive earworm of a tune, not relenting its hold on my ears for several days. Fans of Sigur Ros will find much to love in Defining Times.

Best EP: In the Dead of Summer by Desi Roses. Half of Desi and Cody, one of the best bands I saw, continued impressing me with a six-song set of folk/country/Western swing. Desirae Roses’ vocals are impressive in their ability to convey emotion, and the tunes sway with an easy confidence that make me want to press repeat. They’re going on a tour of the west this next two weeks; if you’re out there, you should check them out.

Most Surprising Music: Young Blood Rising by The Del Toros. After seeing an absolutely powerhouse rock performance by this quartet, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that their album finds a neat analogue in Needtobreathe. Both bands can really rock when they want to, but they fill out that skill with pop-rock, acoustic pop, and even some southern rock chops. This creates a varied listening experience that propelled me through the 13-song album. The nearly 7-minute opener “Kick Drum Blues” was especially gripping.

Best Song I Found Buried in a Compilation Album: “Hold Ya” by JKL, on 2012 Indie Music Channel Awards Edition. The joyful sound of it reminded me a great deal of Michael Franti and Spearhead’s “Say Hey (I Love You),” and that’s always a good thing.

Best Flyer I Was Handed:

Their music is pretty awesome too: the opening track of their latest album is a version of the theme from Zelda: Link to the Past‘s Dark World theme. BOSS.

Honorable Mention: O Conqueror‘s slick cardstock flyer got me to their webpage, where their moody, acoustic-led indie rock impressed me.

SXSW Friday: Wild Cub / Leagues / Roadkill Ghost Choir

Published April 1, 2013 by Stephen Carradini

I thought I was going to a Wild Child show at Maggie Mae’s, but I ended up at a Wild Cub show instead. Instead of folky pop, Wild Cub purveys dance-friendly indie-pop; I’m down with that. The best moment came in their closer “Summer Fires,” where they toned down the perkiness and amped up the dance elements. By the time the song reached its whirling, enveloping conclusion, I felt like I was listening to an LCD Soundsystem song. That’s about the highest praise this guy can give to a dance band: when the parts come together to be more than their individual sum, and it seems like a song might not and shouldn’t ever end, you’ve reached the peak of dance-rock performance. Good work, Wild Cub.

I found Leagues through a compilation, where the stark, memorable guitar riff of “Magic” caught my attention instantly. The restrained, thoughtful pop-rock that Leagues purveys puts them in the same category as bands like Spoon and Elbow that take small elements of a tune and elevate them to monumental status. The set I caught at SXSW put the unique cohesiveness of their sound on full display.

The band plays largely off empty spaces, populating the songs with tensions that are resolved by the interplay between the guitar, bass, drums and Thad Cockrell’s voice. The fact that guitarist Tyler Burkum, drummer Jeremy Lutito and Cockrell all have long careers in music shows, as the tunes shine by being pared down to the bare essentials. You can always add more to a song, but taking away things and still making successful tunes is impressive. Their songs are just a blast to listen to, and although they don’t particularly inspire dancing, they made me smile.

I trekked over to The Palm Door for the Team Clermont showcase, and I was pleased to find that it was in a rental space instead of a “dirty rock club” (as the lead singer of Fol Chen would later announce). It’s funny that the venue was so squeaky-clean, because the low-slung, southern, rootsy rock of Roadkill Ghost Choir would be the perfect fit for some hole-in-the-wall joint. The six-piece band’s sound filled the venue with melodic, earnest tunes that dropped down to near-silence before roaring to life again. The vocals were a focal point, as Andrew Shepard’s voice displayed unbridled fury and creaky uncertain in equal turns. Listening to such an evocative voice work its magic is one of my favorite things in music; hearing a band back that up with equal passion and fervor is even more of a joy. Roadkill Ghost Choir is highly recommended for fans of Drive-By Truckers, My Morning Jacket and the like.

SXSW Friday: Kail Baxley / Fol Chen

Published April 1, 2013 by Stephen Carradini

While at the Team Clermont showcase, I saw a few of KaiL Baxley‘s tunes in between conversations. Baxley has an slurry, engaging voice that he set over an acoustic guitar for a mysterious, haunting vibe. After the room-filling sound of Roadkill Ghost Choir, Baxley’s sound was a nice sonic change of pace.

The last set I caught was Fol Chen’s set of fractured, rhythmic dance-pop. I danced more at Fol Chen’s set than any other at SXSW, because their insistent, pulsing rhythms called for it. Their unique sound relies much more on rhythms than melodies to get their message across, although there are definitely still synth notes and vocal melodies sung across their percussive frameworks. The female vocalist tied together the synths and percussion, as well as making their live show; her movement around the stage was the only bit of action from the band, who was busy making the intricate sounds. Several other people got in the dancing action, and it was a blast of a set. It definitely sent me home from SXSW on a high note.