January-Febuary 2007 - This Week's Finds

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2007

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Dec. 31-Jan. 6

"Here's Your Future" - the Thermals
Let's hit the ground running here in '07, shall we? Bracing and uncompromising, "Here's Your Future" is a two-and-a-half-minute blast of literate, crafty 21st-century punk rock from a band that walks the walk. (The Thermals made news early last year for turning down a $50,000 request from Hummer to use a song of theirs in a commercial.) Fueled by a fast five-chord guitar riff, "Here's Your Future" is both bleak and poignant; the song offers only the comfort (if you can call it that) of standing up and facing uncomfortable facts in a world incapable of saving itself, a world that looks again and again for salvation in exactly the wrong place (note opening chord from the church organ). Singer/guitarist Hutch Harris pummels his guitars and sings without quite singing while bassist Kathy Foster plays one-woman rhythm section--the band had lost its original drummer late last year so that's Foster bashing away on the drums as well. (Since recording, they've enlisted a new drummer and are back to being a trio.) From Portland, Oregon, the Thermals have been at it since 2002; "Here's Your Future" is the lead track from The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop), the band's third CD. While not necessarily a concept album, this one features songs that apparently envision the U.S. as being governed by Christian fascists. Not sure how much envisioning that took. The MP3 is available via the Sub Pop site.

"Guitar Swing" - the Winks
At the core of this peculiar but compelling song is the primordially affecting two-chord progression that works magic just about wherever it goes: this is the one where a major tonic chord alternates with the minor mediant chord--that's the I and the iii, as they say in music theory land. In "Guitar Swing," the chords underpin a cryptic song with an insistent beat and the unusual if not unique instrumental combination of cello and mandolin. In a wavery tenor that sounds, somehow, both heartbroken and indifferent, singer/mandolinist Todd MacDonald intersperses the largely impenetrable lyrics with Delphic pronouncements--"Sleepers know the facts"; "Tuxedos are only as strong as your heart"--that engage and mystify simultaneously. Meanwhile, bandmate Tyr Jami uses her cello both as rhythmic texture and melodic color, and sings a bit too, with a smiley-er tone than her partner. Don't miss the "wa-wa" duet section, beginning at 2:23, during which MacDonald and Jami explore the I-iii alternation with earnest whimsy. The Winks are a Montreal-based duo that use a rotating cast of 13 musicians to fill in as needed. "Guitar Swing" is a track off the band's Birthday Party CD, which was released on Ache Records in November. Birthday Party is the band's second full-length, widely released CD, but their eighth CD in all (the first five were limited-edition CD-Rs; they've also done a split with their side-project, Tights). The MP3 is via the Ache site.

"Hollywood" - Eastern Conference Champions
Any band combining gorgeous melody with ghostly electronics is going to bring Radiohead to mind at this point, and the suburban Philadelphia band Eastern Conference Champions certainly does that here. I will note--as I have in the past--that it is no sin for one band to remind us of another; I always believe a good song is a good song. "Hollywood" is a very good song indeed, its delicate, soaring melody telling an elusive tale of loss and disappointment, accompanied only by percussion and synths and maybe some samples. I like how the song feels expressive and expansive and even organic without any guitar in the mix. Maybe it has something to do with the sleighbells. Lead singer Josh Ostrander has a thin, high voice, not unlike Thom Yorke's, that sometimes crackles with syllable shifts; he is joined here on backing vocals by Maura Davis of the group Ambulette, a nice touch that accentuates the lullaby-like nature of the song (as do those sleighbells) while creating a little distance from the Radiohead-ish vibe. If you'd like to hear the band in a tenser, more driving mode, check out, additionally, the song "Nice Clean Shirt." Both songs can be found on ECC's debut EP, The Southampton Collection, which was released on Retone Records back in March. The band was signed shortly thereafter to Suretone Records, but what a difference two letters make--Suretone is an offshoot of Interscope Records, part of the Geffen family. ECC's next full-length will be out on Suretone this spring.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Jan. 7-13

"Black Mirror" - the Arcade Fire
Only a couple of times every half-generation or so are rock fans treated to music from a band so sure and firm and complete that they sound only like themselves even as each song introduces new aspects of their sound. After just one CD--2004's Funeral--the Arcade Fire appeared to be one of these bands. This song, from their much-anticipated second release, Neon Bible, suggests this Montreal septet is the real thing indeed. Over an ominous opening rumble, acoustic guitars strum a couple of insistent, unresolved chords and I'm immediately intrigued. Win Butler then lends his distinctive warble to a solid, descending melody as a vague, indescribable sound roils around him and then, check it out: a piano, somewhat distantly, pounds out four ascending (again unresolved) notes, withdraws, returning to underpin the abbreviated chorus (just the words "black mirror" repeated). See, one of the things this band does so well--and uniquely, I think--is use their instruments orchestrally, employing recurring themes as motifs that are not simply the melody the singer is singing. Another asset on display is how Arcade Fire songs can effortlessly spin out in unanticipated directions. Listen, for instance, to the dramatic turn taken at 1:20--Butler's voice leaps up into that "I may be coming unhinged" range while dynamic chords forge into surprising new territory before linking at 1:37 back to the chorus (1-2-3-4! goes the piano). Don't miss another turn at 2:17, when Butler sings an emphatic French phrase over an increasingly frenetic but still indescribable musical background; and then, ahh!, the offhandedly marvelous theme the strings play from 3:12 (announced by that great dissonant trill at 3:11), leading the song back into the ominous rumble we started with. Neon Bible is due out in early March on Merge Records; the MP3 is available in a hidden sort of way via the band's mysterious site.

"Tickle My Spine" - Looker
Punchy, uncomplicated punk-pop with an undercurrent of something richer and inscrutably appealing. I like how the head-knocking rhythm of the verse alternates with a just slightly swingier feel, almost like a sped-up Supremes song, in the chorus. Singer/guitarist Boshra Alsaadi has a voice at once higher and musically stronger than one usually hears from a woman heading a hard-rocking unit like this one. Having fellow guitarist (and band co-founder) Nicole Greco on backing vocals adds a pleasing richness to the brisk, careening vibe. In fact, three of the band's four members are women (only the drummer is male), which messes up music writers seeking to put them in either the well-worn "girl-band" box (Go-Gos, Donnas, etc.) or the "woman singer/male band" box (Blondie, Garbage, etc.). Haven't seen anyone put them in the Elastica box but there at least was one other band with three women and one man, at least for some of its life, for what it's worth. "Tickle My Spine" is a song dating back to Looker's 2004 EP, On the Pull; after hitting the studio in 2006 to record some demos with none other than Richard Gottehrer (who produced the debut CDs for both Blondie and the Go-Gos), Looker is set to release its first full-length CD, Born Too Late, later this week. The MP3 is available via the band's site. Thanks to the Deli for the lead.

"And Now the Day is Done" - Ron Sexsmith
One of the most talented singer/songwriters of his generation, Ron Sexsmith writes wondrous, lasting songs with apparent ease, but without (yet?) a lot of widespread recognition outside of his native Canada. I've stopped trying to figure out how he can keep writing so many good songs without resorting to studio trickery or drastic stylistic alteration, but ten albums into his recording career he seems endlessly able to amuse himself with a guitar, a cache of sturdy chords, and a direct vocabulary of plain words delivering heartfelt messages. Clearly his singing voice serves him well, to begin with--that achy, rounded tenor of his, as warm and tremulous as Tim Hardin's or Jeff Buckley's but with a touch of someone else entirely, like maybe Jackson Browne or, more obliquely, Elvis Costello. And even as his songs have been produced in various ways, often in a band setting, sometimes with flourishes like horn charts or strings, what remains front and center are his dual core talents as singer and songwriter. The elegiac "And Now the Day is Done" is Sexsmith at his quietest and prettiest, but listen carefully to discern how beautifully produced it is--what sounds like a stark guitar and voice number is given great depth and warmth by subtle embellishments deep down in the mix, not to mention Sexsmith's deft touch as a guitarist (check out that glistening hammer-on at 2:48). "And Now the Day is Done" is the final song on his CD Time Being, which was released back in May in Canada, finally to be coming out in the U.S. tomorrow on Ironworks Music, an independent label co-owned by Kiefer Sutherland (really) and Jude Cole. The new CD was produced by Mitchell Froom, who had his hand on the knobs for Sexsmith's marvelous first three CDs; among the musicians playing on the album are Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher, from Elvis Costello's band the Impostors. The MP3 is available via Salon.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Jan. 14-20

"Sorry" - Youth Group
Crisp, glistening music that breaks no particular ground and yet makes me happy in a bittersweet sort of way and compels me to go back and listen again. This one launches with a crystalline guitar line, seven precise notes twice in a row, and check out the "off" interval on the fourth note in the second set--an ever-so-slightly jarring but actually amenable change that right away suggests a well-crafted song. I like too the subtle contrast between the song's brisk pace and singer Toby Martin's sweet and somewhat languorous delivery. Those who remember the British band James may hear some pleasing resonances here; this song boasts the soaring yet fleet-footed touch of that band's best work. I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again: "good" is a far more important value than "new" when it comes to judging music; criticism based largely upon something not being "new" or "different" enough is almost always facile and suspect, in my opinion. Youth Group is a quartet from Sydney, Australia; "Sorry" is from the band's new CD, its third, entitled Casino Twilight Dogs, which is scheduled for release in the U.S. next week on Anti Records. The MP3 is via the Anti site.

"Barracuda" - Miho Hatori
Born in Tokyo, transplanted to Manhattan in the '90s, Miho Hatori became known later in the decade as the singer in the experimental duo Cibo Matto, which combined facets of trip-hop, rock, and Latin music in a vibrant multicultural mélange. Now she's got a solo CD, called Ecdysis, on which she emerges as a frisky-quirky eccentrically accented 21st-century musician with maybe even more trans-global chops than the reigning queen of frisky-quirky eccentrically accented 21st-century musicianhood, Björk. While happy enough around beats and programming, Hatori likewise employs on her CD a globetrotting battery of esoteric organic instruments--repique, zabumba, timbau, and Indian ankle bells among them--that lend an earthy sincerity to the sound. "Barracuda" in particular is propelled by an exotic drumbeat, a slinky, Latin-esque keyboard riff, and a stuttery monkey-call-like counter rhythm. Head full of transcultural metaphysics (she counts Joseph Campbell as a major influence), Hatori writes both concretely and obliquely, which is a fetching combination: I sense the real world very much around her, even as I can't make heads or tails of what she's talking about most of the time. The culiminating section in which she sings multilayered Portuguese (I think?) lyrics against that jungly backbeat, plus some sort of accordion, (starting around 2:20) is exuberant fun. Ecdysis was released on Rykodisc in October; the MP3 is via Toolshed, a music promotion company.

"Deadringer Deadringer" - the Book of Daniel
I have something of a soft spot for singers who don't have pretty voices who sing pretty melodies, from Bob Dylan and Tom Waits to Shane McGowan and Peter Garrett and then some. Sounds like Gothenburg's Daniel Gustaffson is a budding member of the group; older brother of Boy Omega's Martin Henrik Gustaffson (who also plays in Book of Daniel), Daniel G., leading his loosey-goosey, eight-person ensemble, doesn't grumble like Waits or go gruffly off-pitch like McGowan but his voice sounds mostly like he thinks he's still talking rather than singing--which makes the melodic charm of this swingy, homespun tune all the more charming, to me. There's something of Moondance-era Van Morrison in the air here, filtered through a rollicking Swedish-pop sensibility. When the band joins in for a bit of call and response (around :43), it's hard not to smile. Later on, the extended trumpet solo (starting at 2:51) is just plain cool. "Deadringer Deadringer" is from the Book of Daniel's debut full-length CD, Songs for the Locust King, which was released late in November on Riptide Recordings in Germany, and then again in late December (I think; the precise date is oddly difficult to discern) on the Malmö-based Black Star Foundation label. The MP3 is available via Riptide.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Jan. 21-27

"Down in the Valley" - the Broken West
Big Star meets Wilco; irresistibility ensues. With its muscular tom-tom beat, feedbacky guitar, sloppy-tight harmonies, and organ solo, "Down in the Valley" walks that great great line between power pop and garage rock--a line walkable only by bands that really know what they're doing. As a matter of fact, although the year is young, I think I'm going to be hard-pressed to find in 2007 another chorus as infectious as this one. Two things in particular make it work so well. First, the set-up: after the verse (starting at 0:38) we get a two-line lead-in before the chorus, and the chords that finally usher us in are both perfect (a classic series of resolving steps) and imperfect (they're hardly actually there; rather they are largely implied). This is why, I think, we're left in such a delicious state of anticipation at 0:46, waiting for the chorus to give us the resolution we crave. (It does.) Second, the harmonies, and specifically the harmony in the seoncd line of the chorus, where the melody repeats but the vocal harmonies, has shifted. What I'm talking about: compare the sound of the harmonies on the word "sundown" (0:50-51) (the voices are singing the same note) to the harmonies on the words "no one" (0:57-59)--here the backing vocal splits off, going up a whole step while the melody goes down a third and we get that mysterious fourth interval for a note and there, that does it for me. Perhaps for you too, now that I mention it? The Broken West is a young quintet from Los Angeles who sound as broken in and familiar as an old pair of slippers. "Down in the Valley" is from the band's disarmingly titled debut CD, I Can't Go On, I'll Go On, to be released tomorrow on the excellent Merge label.

"Carouselle" - Nicole Atkins
Attentive Fingertips visitors may remember Atkins from the delightful "Skywriters," a song from her self-released debut CD that spent a few months on the Fingertips Top 10 late in '05. Shortly thereafter, she was snapped up by none other than Columbia Records, which will release her next full-length CD this spring. In the meantime, an EP quietly emerged at the tail end of '06 called Bleeding Diamonds, and from it, "Carouselle": a charming amalgam of Kurt Weill and, oh, maybe Jenny Lewis? (Aha: an appropriate confluence, given Weill's obsession with the name Jenny!) Alternating between a minor key, cabaret-ish piano vamp in the verse and a sweet, swinging Brill Building-y chorus, the song offers a bittersweet, idiosyncratic, smartly-crafted tribute to a demolished seaside amusement park ride. Atkins so sneakily blends typically discrete musical styles that you have to pay close attention to realize she's up to something unusual. While you're paying close attention, I urge you to listen as well to the depth of character in her voice; if you don't concentrate, she may sound simply like another breezy-voiced flavor of the month, but no no no, she's a keeper, with that rich, unexpected, and beautifully controlled vibrato and a simmering sense of passion kept just below the surface. I dare you to listen to how she sings the word "fantastic" (1:34) and not find your heart skipping a beat; or maybe you'll just fall in love on the spot, as perhaps I have. The eagerly-awaited Columbia full-length does not yet have a release date.

"To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" - My Teenage Stride
Buoyed by the same brand of upbeat moodiness that characterized many an old Smiths song, "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" is a sparkly bit of catchy but inscrutable guitar pop from the Brooklyn-based one-time one-man-band My Teenage Stride. Jedediah Smith is the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist who launched the band, by himself, a few years ago; for a good part of the new CD, however, he assembled a stable foursome, and will perform live with them now as well. While I cannot personally vouch for the claim that Smith is "a living compendium of virtually every pop style that has existed from 1956 through the present," as per his PR material, who am I to argue? He's apparently written more than 500 songs in his still-young life, and I've only heard four of them. I will say that Smith's music does exude an easy-going expertise; check out how nicely he blends the two (maybe three?) guitar sounds that drive the piece, and check out too his dexterous vocal layering--I really like how his extensive use of same-note harmony vocals serves to render all the more glowing the harmonies that subsequently differentiate. "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" is a song off Ears Like Golden Bats, the new My Teenage Stride CD, slated for a February release on London-based Becalmed Records.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Jan. 28-Feb. 3

"In Transit" - Albert Hammond, Jr.
With a name that sounds surely like he must be some rough-and-tumble Delta bluesman, Hammond is, rather, simply the guitarist in the Strokes--oh, and also the son of the guy who co-wrote the '70s hits "It Never Rains in Southern California" and "The Air That I Breathe." Neither of those connections, however, set the stage for this chimey, brightly-paced, instantly likeable song. While the sharp guitar lines are reminiscent of something you'd hear from the Strokes, the vibe is lighter, airier, and poppier. Hammond betrays an unexpected affinity for ELO (there are moments when his voice in fact sounds eerily like Jeff Lynne's), complete with that old band's penchant for sky- and space-oriented sounds and imagery. Listen here how the melody in the verse seems literally to float in space above the double-time background; then in the chorus, the idea of floating in space is accentuated by those Star Trek synthesizers. (Hammond sings about how he "went too far" just as the background implies "where no man has gone before": cute.) "In Transit" is the lead track from Yours To Keep--the first solo album released by any member of the Strokes. The CD was released back in October in the U.K. (where the band have always been huge); the U.S. release is slated for March, on New Line Records. The MP3 comes from the New Line site, via Filter.

"Chemicals for Criminals" - Manic
After a short atmospheric recording studio noodle, this one leaps out of the speakers with remarkable assurance for a new band. We get an incisive melody, a strong, sly beat, and ringing guitars shot through with a hint of dissonance, all held together by singer Paul Gross's full-throttled delivery that, like the song itself, manages to combine indie spunk with the sort of blazing poise one expects from an arena band. This is one of those unusual songs where the hook comes at you in the first line of the verse: that melody is the centerpiece of the song, and as often as it's repeated, it manages to continually engage me. Maybe it's the octave harmonies (gotta love those octave harmonies); maybe it's the fact that it's based on the same notes as "Whistle While You Work." "Chemicals for Criminals" is a song off this L.A. foursome's debut release, Floor Boards, a five-song EP on Suretone Records that came out last week. The MP3 is via Suretone. As a matter of fact, right now Suretone is offering the entire EP for free on its site; follow this link and it's yours, after you unzip it.

"Girl in a Tree" - the Young Republic
Back we go to the Young Republic, and back we go to that resonant two-chord progression I wrote about a few weeks ago. This time it's supported with this marvelous Boston band's vivid and inventive instrumental sensibility: we get a variety of strings, we get a flute, and I think a trumpet, and maybe a tambourine and a mandolin? The eight members of the Young Republic are classically trained and obviously play and think like a true ensemble, but instead of being subsumed by an actual orchestra (in which you don't hear, for example, a single violin as often as "violins"--a different sound), they play in a setting in which each voice can be heard distinctly. The perky way the two central chords are presented in the intro, on a sprightly variety of dueling stringed instruments, is but one example. And let not the sophisticated musicianship allow us to lose sight of another of the band's primary assets, which is singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Julian Saporiti, whose textured ache of a voice recalls an earthier version of Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. "Girl in a Tree" is a song from the band's most recent release, YR7, which yup is their seventh release; the MP3 is via the band's site. And I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the Young Republic is one of the 13 bands featured on the Fingertips: Unwebbed CD, which is available currently for a $12 donation.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Feb. 4-10

"Thank God for the Evening News" - Fulton Lights
Satisfyingly moody and intriguingly entitled, "Thank God for the Evening News" unfolds with vivid style over an unhurried beat and minimal chord changes. Now then, I like chord changes and pretty much thought I required a good number of them in a song; and yet here's one with maybe two chords in it and I'm quickly and continually engaged. Well. How can this be? Certainly the beat beguiles, combining an electronica-like ambiance--including the subtlest sort of clanky, scratchy noises and thin, smashy drums--with organic sounds, including in particular a nice assortment of strings, employed with great color as the song progresses. Could it be that Andrew Spencer Goldman, the driving force behind Fulton Lights, uses the texture of the beat in lieu of chord changes, as its own sort of structure and substance? It's a theory. What he also has going for him is a wavery tenor, and a billowy melody for it to sing--moving and rising and sinking enough to distract you from the single-minded chord structure. The lyrics, at once dreamlike and caustic, add to the stylish desolation, like this recurrent series of lines: "I've seen blurry vision/I've seen slow explanations/I've seen false advertising/And wholesale degradation." "Thank God for the Evening News" is a track off the debut Fulton Lights CD, self-titled, which is due out next month as a joint release on Goldman's own Android Eats Records and Catbird Records, a label associated with the estimable blog The Catbirdseat. The MP3 is via the Fulton Lights site.

"Eye for an Eye" - Telograph
Here's a band from Washington, D.C. with a song that sounds like an intriguing cross between, oh, maybe Echo and the Bunnymen and early R.E.M. Singer Andy Boliek definitely has something of Ian McCulloch's deep-throated, romantic baritone, while the glistening guitar lines and soaring refrains bring you back to the early '80s in a number of ineffable ways. Even so, I don't hear this as simply a throwback or retread; there's something crisp and present in the sound. I like the hunger conveyed by Boliek's yearning, repeated return to the E-flat and D notes near the top of his range (for instance, as he sings "border" at 1:02), and love how the bittersweet atmosphere is enhanced by an extended melody that takes us, with a tender sort of briskness, through a lovely series of chords (no shortage of modulation this time!) that to my ears give the song both lift and depth--listen, for instance, from 1:24 to 1:54. "Eye for an Eye" is one of five songs on Telograph's debut EP, Little Bits of Plastic, which the band released on January 1. The MP3 is via the band's site.

"I'm a Broken Heart" - The Bird and the Bee
Awash in an echoey, vaguely '60s-like aural landscape, "I'm a Broken Heart" reveals itself to be brand new at its core, a combination of electro-retro sounds that we've never quite heard before. Inara George sings the coy melodies with a beautiful airy tone, while keyboardist/producer Greg Kurskin surrounds her with a warm but quirky mix of jazzy sounds, the line between electronic and organic completely obscured. On their MySpace page, the duo describes their music as "a futuristic 1960's American film set in Brazil." While this inspired pronouncement doesn't quite nail this particular song's sound, an alternative self-description, "psychedelic Burt Bacharach," is right on target: if you have doubts, check out the extended horn work, from 2:50 to 3:19, particularly the staccato-y melodrama starting at 3:06. That's Burt on some sort of drug, all right. George by the way is daughter of legendary Little Feat leader Lowell George, who died back in 1979 when she was five; Jackson Browne is her godfather, and sang on her first solo CD, All Rise, which came out early in 2005. "I'm a Broken Heart" is from the self-titled debut CD for the Bird and the Bee, which was released, interestingly, on Blue Note Records (normally a jazz label). The MP3 is via the fine folks at betterPropaganda.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Feb. 11-17

"Every One of Us" - Goldrush
We don't seem at a loss here in the still-young year for brilliant, glistening rock songs. Here's another, from the fine British band Goldrush. I love how the guitars add texture and tension to the song's galloping beat, both the wavery synth-y line that arches like a siren above and the waves of skittery feedback-like chords that fade in and out below. But maybe the best thing on display here is Robin Bennett's voice, which I find deeply affecting--a rubbery and slightly trembly tenor that at certain moments brings Ray Davies to mind (as, happily, do the melodies). And please listen to the words, which start out poignant and then turn transcendent, as the song makes that rare, exceptional link between the socio-political and the interpersonal. What begins as a moving statement on 21st-century alienation gains depth and spirit as the perspective angles in on a single human heart: "And if nothing is the way that it was/ Well there's one thing you can be sure of, because/ We are not the way that we were/ She will forget about you/ So forget about her." The title phrase proceeds to assume two competing, plaintive meanings. Nice nice work. "Every One of Us" is a song from the band's new CD, The Heart is the Place, which is set for release next week in the U.K. on Truck Records, an impressively robust label run by Bennett and his brother Joe, who is also in Goldrush. The CD has been out since mid-January on City Slang, the band's German label. No word yet on a U.S. release date. The MP3 is available via City Slang.

"City Morning Song" - Sarah Shannon
With its sunny, late-'60s/early-'70s swing and bright-eyed production, "City Morning Song" has seemingly little to do with the noise pop favored by Shannon as lead singer of the mid-'90s band Velocity Girl. And yet, what, to my ears, made that band's fuzzy, atmospheric music work so well was Shannon's airy voice floating above the busy, churning din. Remove the busy, churning din and here's her airy voice, set free in a vastly different musical landscape, in which we can now hear its attractive, meatier, Laura Nyro-ish-ness, especially in her lower register. Loving reverberations from a bygone era suffuse this snappy little number: the sly time-signature stutter that perks up the piano chord section introducing and anchoring the song; the piano itself, all guileless chords and happy rhythm; and, but of course, the trumpet--emerging in the background at 1:10, and you don't quite hear it, but hear it enough to make the short solo (1:42) smilingly inevitable. (Burt Bacharach, at least, would be smiling.) Shannon clearly feels at home here--City Morning Song is her second solo CD, and her previous effort, a self-titled album in 2002, found her likewise reveling predominantly in a '70s-flavored land of horns, keyboards, and evocative rhythms. City Morning Song was released last week on the Chicago-based Minty Fresh Records; the MP3 is via the Minty Fresh site.

"Advice for Young Mothers to Be" - the Veils
Based charmingly, if unexpectedly, upon classic doo-wop chords and melodies, this song has a mysterious appeal that I'm still trying to figure out. I like, to begin with, when songs are simultaneously accessible and weird. And yes, I have to say that the sound of a young indie band singing anything that sounds remotely like doo-wop is immediately odd--but, also, resoundingly familiar because of the time-honored musical setting. So, there: accessible and weird. And the accessible weirdnesses thereafter pile on, from Finn Andrews' quavery, croon-y baritone to the lilting, semi-reggae-ish shuffle this comes wrapped in to the inscrutable lyrics and indirect Smiths-like vibe--I can't put my finger on that one precisely because Andrews doesn't really sound like Morrissey but there's something in, maybe, his delivery that does the trick: try when he sings "The friends who care still call you on the phone" (1:18) or the words in the chorus "Your advice for young mothers to be/ Will never find the words, darling believe me" and see if you can't hear it. "Advice for Young Mothers to Be" is from the Veils' second CD, Nux Vomica, which was released in the U.K. last fall on Rough Trade Records, and is scheduled for a U.S. release in April on Great Society Records. Andrews, by the way, is son of Barry Andrews, once of XTC and later of Shriekback. Based in New Zealand, the Veils are now a trio; they were a quartet on their first CD, The Runaway Found (2004), and everyone but Andrews from that incarnation is gone.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Feb. 18-24

"Hardcore Hornography" - Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked has the happy ability to sound completely unfettered and at home in a multiplicity of musical styles; you can now add straight-up New Orleans party music to her impressive list of genre performance credentials. And leave it to Shocked, a born activist and good-natured hell-raiser, to serve up this traditional good-time music with an added jigger of social awareness, hot sauce included: "That was one blow job you won't forget/ I ain't talkin' 'bout Katrina yet/ When that brass band starts to play/ Lay back and think of the U.S.A." Mardi Gras spirit infuses both melody and accompaniment; there is so much movement in the roisterous sound that you'd swear this must have been recorded while everyone was marching down St. Charles Avenue. Shocked plays here with the Newbirth Brass Band, trumpeter Troy Andrews, and a trombone player so authentic his name is simply Trombone Shorty. After flirting with mainstream folk-rock success back in the late '80s, Shocked has gone on to record an idiosyncratic string of albums, including an ambitious yet free-spirited trilogy (yes, three separate CDs) released last year on her own Mighty Sound record label. Her next CD is due out this summer; another trilogy appears to be in the works. "Hardcore Hornography" is offered up for Mardi Gras and to bring awareness to the ongoing plight of New Orleans, which remains largely abandoned by the federal government. The song is available for free via her web site (you can also pay for it via iTunes if you want to support the artist). Thanks to Bruce at Some Velvet Blog for the head's up.

"If That's the Case, Then I Don't Know" - the Electric Soft Parade
At once squonky and lithe, the latest effort from the British brother duo the Electric Soft Parade features anthemic chords and resounding beats, scuffed up fetchingly with fuzzy guitars and electronic blips and boops. Add Alex White's nicely vulnerable, Brit-poppy vocals and the whole manages to trump the sum of its parts--quite an accomplishment, as the parts themselves are pretty darned keen. A casual know-how informs both the song structure and the production; we get a masterly mix of rhythm and melody, guitar and drum, busy-ness and spaciousness, loud and soft. The loud-soft thing is especially cool, since the White boys (Tom's on drums) aren't offering a standard sort of "here's the soft part, here's the loud part" approach as much as utilizing the dynamic range of sound throughout, much as a first-rate black and white photograph will display the blackest black, the whitest white, and many gradations of grey in between. Another cool thing is the nifty coda: note at 4:02 how the song's drive shifts gears, the beat moving to swinging triplets, before the drums pretty much disintegrate, electronically. Or something like that. The song will be found on the band's next CD, No Need to Be Downhearted, their third full-length, scheduled for an April release on Better Looking Records. The MP3 is via the Better Looking site.

"Limbs" - Emma Pollock
A lovely piano refrain, composed of a careful series of arpeggios, runs through this pensive acoustic ballad. The song builds to it slowly--piano is part of the central sound from the outset, but the anchoring refrain is not heard until 1:12, and from there it accompanies the verse as it proceeds, falling away during the understated chorus. Overall, "Limbs" advances with a beguiling sort of relaxed meticulousness: not a guitar string, not a piano key is used without precision, and yet, perhaps because of Pollock's warm, and warmly recorded, voice, the effort sounds easy-flowing, almost impromptu. The song seems to emerge from some mysterious, unflappable inner space; despite the strong melody, the effect is still somewhat trancelike. Emma Pollock was one of the founders, in Glasgow, of the well-regarded '90s band the Delgados, who were also responsible for launching the important independent record label Chemikal Underground. The band split amicably in 2005; Pollock has been signed to 4AD Records since. Her solo debut is forthcoming at some unspecified date. "Limbs" is so far a free-standing song. The MP3 is courtesy of SXSW.com, which has just unleashed its latest storehouse of free and legal MP3s, oriented now towards the 2007 festival happening next month in Austin.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Feb. 25-Mar. 3

"23" - Blonde Redhead
A ravishing combination of guitar noise and melody. I'm a sucker for the combination of guitar noise and melody, particularly when the melody comes, as here, via a breathy, difficult to decipher soprano. Kazu Makino may as well be singing in Serbo-Croatian for all I can understand her; the only thing I'm picking up is that she's actually saying "two-three" rather than "twenty-three" (so, no, no tie-in to the Jim Carrey movie; just an unexplained coincidence! bwa-ha-ha!). And let me get more specific about the guitar noise, because it's a particular kind, the kind where the chords just seem to melt or bend continually into one another; the guitar is played (via a pedal of some kind?) more like a keyboard, with a sustained tone rather than in discrete strums of any kind. (Ah, note how the song is introduced by a few keyboard chords. Another unexplained coincidence?) I invite you to go back and listen to the entire song and try only to hear the guitar rather than the singer. It's almost mind-blowing. Blonde Redhead is an intriguing, international, NYC-based trio--Makino's from Japan; her bandmates are twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace, from Italy. "23" is the title track to Blonde Redhead's forthcoming CD, the band's seventh, scheduled for release in April on 4AD Records. The MP3 is available via Spinner, the AOL Indie Music Blog.

"Hard Line" - Jill Barber
Anything this sharp and snappy is pleasant enough to listen to from the get-go, but for me what renders it memorable is Barber's voice. Just a quarter step away from a twang, Barber may sound somewhat like Nanci Griffith, and maybe also somewhat like one of the McGarrigle sisters, or both of them, but the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based singer/songwriter is truly her own singular self. In a way, the snappy vibe is almost a distraction--I get caught up bobbing my head and tapping my toe and I don't really listen, much the way one gets caught up in daily living and forget, for days on end, simply, to be. And yet, of course, the paradox is one needs the form to give rise to the essence. So I wouldn't trade the snappy vibe here for anything. And I keep listening, keep trying to sink fully into this indescribably rich and playful and sweet and knowing voice, even while bobbing my head and tapping my toe to a song that acquires a deep and meaningful momentum underneath the peppiness as it unfolds. "Hard Line" comes from Barber's second CD For All Time, which was released last year in Canada on Outside Music. The MP3s is available via SXSW, one of the hundreds of new free and legal MP3s recently posted there for the 2007 festival.

"You! Me! Dancing!" - Los Campesinos!
This song's almost excruciatingly slow build is completely worth it when the payoff arrives: the itchy, catchy, joyful guitar riff that announces the true beginning of the song (well over one minute after it actually starts) and propels us giddily through the rest of it. There is, however, way more to "You! Me! Dancing!" than fun guitar work, and exclamation points; Los Campesinos! are a seven-piece band from Cardiff with a no-holds-barred instrumental sensibility--glockenspiel (that's the tinkly xylophone-like sound) and melody horn (a type of melodica) are both prominently featured among the free-spirited mix. And talk about free spirits: all seven members of the band have taken on the last name Campesinos! (with punctuation). Thickly accented lead vocalist Tom Campesinos! upends rock history with his unexpectedly endearing persona. In the past, a thick British accent has been all about punk posturing. Here it's just a guy who's not sure about his dancing ability. "You! Me! Dancing!" is a song from the band's self-released EP Hold On Now Youngster, which came out last year; the MP3 is via the BBC (and hm I have to investigate the BBC music sites more carefully; could be a good source of free and legal music). Signed to the British label Wichita Recordings towards the end of '06, the band's first label release, a seven-inch single called "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives," came out this week in the U.K. The band, bless their seven hearts, is giving it away for free (as a .zip file) on their website.

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