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THIS WEEK'S FINDS THIS WEEK'S FINDS Jan. 6-12 * Another year, another 150 high-quality free and legal MP3s that will be brought to your attention via the Fingertips web site. If you find the service valuable, perhaps this is the year you're ready to offer a modest ($5 or $10--that's all, folks!) contribution. Or, if you've contributed in a past year, maybe it's time to do so again. The good news is you can now donate via PayPal. And you don't need to be registered with PayPal to do it! You can contribute using a credit card via the secure PayPal site. Click the button below the MP3 reviews to transact. Fingertips thanks you, your integrity thanks you, and all the artists featured throughout the year here thank you too. "On the Chin" - Grey Race I'll start the new year with a couple of songs that are not really new at all--a reminder that a song is always new if you haven't heard it yet. "On the Chin" begins with a straightforward eighth-note riff linked by an amplified acoustic guitar-neck sound, which emerges after the riff is heard the second time. If it's gratuitous, movement-wise (the guitarist doesn't really need to run his fingers up and down the neck like that), percussively, it's at the center of the riff, quietly threading through the song and tacitly foreshadowing the later emergence of actual stringed instruments in the mix. And, what the heck, because I'm a foreshadowing fan, I hear in that slidy sound, additionally, a hint of the vocal intervals that singer Jon Darling will soon be leaping with his pliable tenor--intervals topped by notes he has no business hitting with such glee. The string players who enter during the bridge (at around 2:07) and step briefly but incisively to center stage for the subsequent return of the chorus (2:39) probably have no business in the song either but the thing is so judiciously assembled it makes perfect sonic sense at that precise moment. "On the Chin" has been floating around the blogosphere--just barely--since June, when the Brooklyn-based trio's first EP was released; the subsequent Grey Race album containing the song, entitled Give It Love, was released in September on Unfiltered Records. "Une Américaine à Paris" - Rupa and the April Fishes Born in the Bay Area to Indian immigrant parents, Rupa Marya spent a good amount of her childhood in both Northern India and France, which at least partially accounts for the zesty, gypsy-inflected sound she coaxes out of the April Fishes, an ensemble featuring a guitar, a cello, a trumpet, drums, upright bass, and accordion. Singing in fetching French, Marya mixes musical cultures in a way that may sound pastiche-like to purists but sounds vibrant and beguiling to me, thanks in large part to the song's simultaneously energetic and intimate vibe. (That's a more unusual combination than it may initially appear.) Marya herself strikes me as a preternaturally charming vocalist; listen to how musical she sounds when she's trying not to sing so prettily (that speak-singing section beginning at 1:38) and see if you are charmed as well. Note that if you are at all insecure about your accomplishments to date on the planet Earth, you may not want to know that Marya, singer/songwriter, guitarist, and driving force behind Rupa and the April Fishes, is a musician at night and an honest-to-goodness M.D. doctor during the day, currently on the medical faculty part-time at the University of California at San Francisco. She has also worked as an independent radio producer, in between medical school and going to work as a physician. But remember that this is not a competition; admiration is the proper response to someone this talented and driven. "Une Américaine à Paris" is from the debut Rupa and the April Fishes CD, Extraordinary Rendition, originally self-released on Bateau Rouge Records last January and scheduled for an international release in April on world music label Cumbancha Records. "The Silence Between Us" - Bob Mould A bracing shot of earnest, subtly melodic rock'n'roll, "The Silence Between Us" ranks up there with the best of Mould's solo output. Lionized for his role as Hüsker Dü lead man, Mould has been an inveterate blogger but spotty solo artist, recording infrequently and often steering clear of the guitar-based blitz of his first group and its more commercially-capable successor, Sugar. There is no reason to expect again from Mould anything resembling the gut-deep fury of Hüsker Dü; so while I'm not hearing the volume or speed associated with that seminal band, what I am connecting to across the years is Mould's willingness after a good long while to put some meaningful electric guitar back into his songs, while at the same time maintaining a precision in songwriting characteristic of his best work (and often, I think, missing when the volume gets cranked too high, particularly in his post-HD material). This one does nothing fancy, but some well-timed melodic intervals and chord detours lend "The Silence Between Us" an almost noble sort of stature. The guitar solo that begins at 2:20 is worth the download alone, offering a succinct balance of brain and brawn, complete with a nifty electronic coda. "The Silence Between Us" will be found on Mould's forthcoming CD, District Line, slated for release early next month on Anti Records. MP3 courtesy of Spinner. THIS WEEK'S FINDS Jan. 13-19 * Read the latest Fingertips Commentary, all about Radiohead's In Rainbows gambit and what it may really mean in the long run. "Cherry Tulips" - Headlights At once delicate and sturdy, quirky and poppy, summery and somehow wintery too, "Cherry Tulips" embraces a seemingly endless series of opposites--in addition to containing the aforementioned dialectics, the song strikes me likewise as both lo-fi and polished, retro-y and current, crisp and echoey. And if that's not enough, singer/keyboardist Erin Fein manages to be at once airy and substantive, both forthright and mysterious. Or maybe I just can't make up my mind today. I do know that I'm enjoying this one without reservation, from the shadowy opening heart-throb pulse through the sped-up Motown rhythm and maybe most especially the soaring, melodic, call-and-response payoff in the chorus, which enlarges the song in a way I can only describe as florally. Headlights is a trio from the Champaign, Illinois area; "Cherry Tulips" arrives in advance from the band's second CD, Some Racing, Some Stopping, scheduled for release next month on Polyvinyl Records. MP3 via Polyvinyl. [FS] "Gila" - Beach House Sometimes it'll be one melody that does it, one melody that is robust and agreeable enough to hang a song upon. And "Beach House," a languorous new song from the Balitmore duo Beach House, gives us that melody as its opening salvo, the first thing we hear from singer Alex Scally's mouth: a dreamy, downward-tending progression that's actually two lazily swinging four-note descents tucked into one another. Drenched in reverb, steamy organ, and unplaceable atmosphere, the melody hooks me for good the second time, when the upturn at the end disappears; the simple act of staying on the same note one extra time changes the chord, the mood, the trajectory of the song on the spot (compare 0:25-0:26 to 0:32-0:33 and see if you feel it.) Now normally I'm not sure I enjoy songs with quite this much blurry reverb, but I realize in listening that it's not the blurry reverb that bothers me per se, it's the tendency for songs with a lot of blurry reverb to be blurry through and through--indistinct melody, hazy structure, vague instrumentation, vague everything. "Gila" is exactly not that; it's as precisely crafted as they come, in which case the smeary touch of the reverb offers an enriching counterpoint, in maybe the same sort of way it works when a happy-sounding song has sad lyrics, or a song with fast underlying rhythm has a slow melody. Listen in particular to the guitar, which plays chord-free accompaniment throughout, offering nicely-etched lines that curl in and around the vocal melody. "Gila" comes from the band's forthcoming CD, Devotion, which will be released next month on Carpark Records. MP3 courtesy of Pitchfork. [FS] "Henri" - the Heavy Circles In one of the more unusual multi-generational (but not really) musical couplings in recent memory, Edie Brickell has teamed up with her stepson, Harper Simon, to put out an album as an entity called the Heavy Circles. Simon is Brickell's husband Paul Simon's son from his first marriage, and I said multi-generational "but not really" because as it turns out, Brickell is only six and a half years older than stepson Simon, who's 35. And here they are, serving up an offbeat, atmospheric homage (it seems) to French painter Henri Matisse, describing Matisse's imagery via a hypnotic rhyme scheme over a circular, spy-movie motif, fleshed out with some cinematic synthesizers and the barest touch of crunchy guitar. I'm not sure there's any more point to it than there was when the elder Simon sang rapturously, and surreally, about René Magritte back when Brickell was a teenager. But it draws me in and then--nicely--lets me go, without fuss. Songs under three minutes always score extra points with me. But: combine the son of a '60s and '70s icon with a woman most often considered an '80s one-hit wonder and the cool factor is way low on this one; I'll be surprised if the blogosphere pays much positive attention. But I've always admired the clear-voiced Brickell as a singer; maybe this collaboration will help her shed her outdated public identity. The self-titled CD, to be self-released on a label called Dynamite Child, is, yet again, due out next month. THIS WEEK'S FINDS Jan. 20-26 "Boys" - the Autumns Riveting, dramatic, slightly breathless, and thoroughly satisfying, "Boys" is the perfect soundtrack somehow to a crisp blue January day, even if the band is named the Autumns, not the Winters. The song opens with a distinctive drumbeat that launches us into an edgy, unusually dynamic melody. The edginess comes from two elements: first, the melody appears to start off the tonic--that is, the tune begins within a chord that is somehow not home base, which is an unusual circumstance, especially in a pop song; second, the melody never in fact seems to settle in a place that feels centered. The third and fourth measures are the closest we get to a "home" feeling, harmonically, and even there it's vague and fleeting; after that, the melody in the verse springs from an almost startling series of chord changes. And the band is really just getting started at that point. The chorus continues the kinetic vibe: an angular guitar chord--another off-center thing--leads us into a soaring section in which singer Matthew Kelly, leaping up a minor sixth (0:26), shows off a formidable falsetto; here the melodic momentum is such that it seems to be dragging Kelly along with it, the way the tide moves the water but is not the water: up and down he goes, in and out of his upper range, and in and out of singing actual words--the lyrics break for a stretch of wordless syllables right in the heart of the chorus (which themselves mirror the underlying drumbeat), and the effect is of a song overcome by its own fervor. Perhaps long-time Fingertips visitors remember the L.A.-based Autumns from three years ago, when they were featured here for the song "Slumberdoll." That was darn good; this is truly great. "Boys" is a song from the CD Fake Noise From a Box of Toys, the band's fourth, which was released in the U.K. in the fall, and is slated for a U.S. release in April on Bella Union. "Bag of Hammers" - Thao With the Get Down Stay Down Thao Nguyen has a woolly-textured, back-of-the-throat sort of voice that brings to mind Erica Wennerstrom of the Heartless Bastards. Thao has an airier air about her, however--a feeling supported by the cheery banjo with which she chooses to accompany herself and the sprightly, slightly cockeyed rhythm that bounces us along. The jaunty guilelessness on display in fact puts me in the mind of the sound pioneered by Talking Heads in their early recordings: this sense of simple yet off-kilter music that surprises even the people playing it, as they play it. Nguyen, from Virginia, released her first CD in 2005, a solo effort entitled Like the Linen. The disc eventually found its way to Tucker Marine, who plays with Laura Veirs and has produced the Decemberists and Sufjan Stevens. And now, also, he has produced We Brave Bee Stings and All, Thao's second full-length, recorded with her band, to be released later this month on Kill Rock Stars (that's a record label). "Bag of Hammers" is the album's second track. [FS] "Him" - Biirdie This one features both a classic-sounding melody, almost folk-like in its sturdiness, and an ongoing urge to deconstruct it. Sometimes oddball electronics wander in. Other times, the band grinds itself more or less to a halt, just when you were air drumming to the Phil Spector-ish beat. The bass, meanwhile, seems to come and go, and when present opts often for extended notes rather than a typical, rhythm-oriented pulse. And how often does the worn-out sounding male vocalist get a sweetly harmonizing female vocalist to sing with? Not very often is the answer. So this trio calling itself Biirdie--oops, another L.A. outfit this week--kind of makes you listen more than once. Much the way their name kind of makes you look more than once. In the old days, by the way, I'd find the oddly-spelled name somewhat irritating. But here in the Google Age, the name is a boon: search on "Biirdie" and you pretty much get stuff about them and only them. However accidental the origin--they had wanted merely to be Birdie but there was already a Birdie band--the strategy appears sound. I fear a trend coming on. You'll find "Him" on the CD Catherine Avenue, coming out this week on Love Minus Zero Records. THIS WEEK'S FINDS Jan. 27-Feb. 2 "Power" - Nick Jaina A brisk but elegiac piano sequence, underscored by some spooky strings, leads us directly into the intriguing melody of this new song from the Portland, Ore.-based singer/songwriter Nick Jaina. I've been trying to put my finger on just what makes the tune so compelling, and I'm thinking it has something to do with Jaina's prominent use of semitones, or half steps, which is not something you hear a lot of in indie rock, or classic rock, or any other kind of rock or pop for that matter. The half step is the smallest commonly recognized interval between notes in Western music, and the most dissonant when played in combination. When related within a melody, however, strange and wonderful moods emerge. Listen to how the notes he sings on the words "of the moon" (0:34) and "sacred tune" (0:37) sound so divergent, so firmly separated, and yet lo and behold they are only a half step apart. The illusion is achieved by his returning, in between, to the same notes he was singing leading into the "moon" part. So what we're hearing is not just the half-step difference in the end notes but the significant difference in sonic relationship between the top and bottom notes in the two segments (i.e. the "moon" segment and the "tune" segment). More semitones are used, in sequence, as the melody line resolves (0:38-0:42). And I know, this kind of thing sounds neither exciting nor, often, comprehensible in an attempted written explication. And worse, with pop music in particular, I'm always caught in the awkward position of claiming treasure in a seeming musical trifle. What I describe here, after all, is no stunning revelation in music theory land. But the very thing that causes many classical aficionados to sniff at the simplicity of pop music is, I would contend, pop's very strength--what Proust, of all people, referred to as "the magic appeal to the imagination" found in things that those interested only in "intellectual weightiness" would condemn as "frivolous." Then again, maybe I'm all wrong. Maybe the song is compelling because Jaina was playing on Elliott Smith's old upright piano. Jaina was the last person to play it before it was given to the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Or maybe it's compelling simply because Jaina--itinerant, whimsical, a former archaeology student--is himself compelling, in a quirky sort of way. "Power" is from the CD Wool, Jaina's second, and his first for the Hush label. (He recorded the vocals for the album in his kitchen, "refrigerator unplugged so as to be quiet, food slowly spoiling," according to his web site.) Expect Wool in early March. MP3 courtesy of Hush; lead courtesy of the indefatigable Largehearted Boy. "Warning" - Wye Oak This is an unusually breezy-sounding setting in which to encounter such fuzzy/droney guitars. And yet therein lies a good part of the appeal. So here we have vocalist Jenn Wasner, lightly, airily singing the sing-song-y tune to a perky, march-like beat, and listen to what-all is going on around her: extended drones of feedback-laced guitars, rising and falling according to their own logic, existing in their own time and space. Seriously, after the lead guitar offers a fuzzed-up version of the main melody in the introduction, we don't hear anything straightforward out of the guitars for quite a while. Try listening to this and imagining the song without either the vocals or the drums and you'll see how driven by entrancing noise the piece actually is. I particularly enjoy the instrumental breaks, which begin with a vague effort to give us the opening riff again, but it never manages to emerge completely amidst the semi-chaos; the second and longer of the two breaks, beginning at 2:04, has the happy Yo La Tengo-ish capacity to sound simultaneously crazed and cozy. Listen also to the shifty time signatures. The sing-song-y, march-beat-ed verse is given a rhythmic tweak by a dropped beat in the fourth measure. This creates an extra dollop of semi-chaos in the instrumental sections connecting the verses, during which the beat of the entire song seems to have been misplaced. And then the chorus, or what passes for a chorus here, re-establishes some sonic order but all of a sudden, somehow, we're in 6/4 (or 6/8?) time. For all the noise, this is one smooth song. You'll find "Warning" on the CD If Children, slated for release in April on Merge Records. The Baltimore duo Wye Oak, by the way, was until earlier this month a band called Monarch; a self-released version of If Children was put out originally last year under the old name. The change was prompted by the existence of (at least) two other bands named Monarch, and was no doubt connected to their Merge signing. The Wye Oak, you may as well know, was the honorary state tree of Maryland--it was a specific tree, of great renown, that was believed to be more than 450 years old when it was, alas, destroyed in a storm in 2002. "Sad Songs" - the Pendletons I'm never sure quite how or why it happens, but sometimes a song that seems at one level a pretty basic genre exercise at another level rises way above that for me. "Sad Songs" is an excellent example. A stompy, country-tinged garage rocker, there's something in the basic vibe that sounds like it's been cycling through rootsy musical ensembles since the dawn of time. Or at least since the 1950s. When the melody is so strongly rooted in a classic rhythm like this (Johnny Cash, anyone?), that's a sign of a genre exercise. And there's nothing wrong with that; it just doesn't tend too often to inspire a melody-oriented listener like me. But here are four relative youngsters from Athens, Georgia, cranking it up and cranking it out and what do you know?: it's a blast. Why? No doubt the appeal has something to do with the energy of the playing. Check out, for instance, the speedy, stuttering guitar riff that anchors the end of each verse, at the "no no no" part (for instance, at 0:30)--it's done with this tight-loose sort of accuracy that conveys an image to me of everyone in the band moving up and down in unison to the stutter of that little lick, in a manner at once comical and serious. And listen by all means to drummer Ben DuPriest, who bashes and bangs and still keeps a train-like pulse; he manages to sound rowdy and polite at the same time. Oh, and don't miss (e.g. 0:39) the thrilling, brilliant mini-rolls (are these paradiddles? I'm not up on my drumming lingo) that he uses to puncutate each lyrical line in the chorus, except the last. Maybe that's what's doing it for me. The (maybe) paradiddles. "Sad Songs" is from the Pendletons' debut CD, Oh, Me!, which was released electronically this summer on the digital label Indie Outlaw. THIS WEEK'S FINDS Feb. 3-9 "Power Lines" - the Interiors I can't make out what they're singing about, and the title doesn't necessarily imply a fun time, but the music is extremely good-natured, in an early Talking Heads-ish sort of way--the stuttering drumbeat, creative bass playing, swooping melody lines, and singer/guitarist Chase Duncan's amiable, wide-mouthed vocal style (sounding quite a bit like Dave Matthews doing a David Byrne imitation) all contributing to that sensation. One of the things that I think makes the rhythm here so ear-catching is the dynamic interplay in the rhythm section: listen in the introduction and the verse to the stark difference between the steady, clockwork bass and the changeable drum pattern. Interestingly, the bass breaking free of its strict pulse is more or less what creates the chorus, as the melody itself does not alter that much. On guitar, Duncan adds a handsome depth to the chuggy ambiance, with rounded, semi-drone-like tones and ringing arpeggios. No doubt he's very happy to be doing all this, after a freak accident last year required the amputation of a fingertip. (Of all things.) This happened the day after the Chicago-based trio had signed with the record label 54°40' or Fight. The band had to take most of last year off while Duncan, thankfully, recuperated. Their self-titled label debut is slated for an April release. MP3 courtesy of the band's site. "Bodyguard" - Dawn Landes "Sultry" and "banjo" are two words not normally encountered within the same sentence. But Dawn Landes, the Louisville-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, is one those 21st-century musicians who appears comfortable juxtaposing sounds, vibes, and emotions--while happily emerging with a firm voice of her own, rather than a pointless mashup. (Not all 21st-century musicians are as fortunate. Just saying.) So here, then, we get a minimalist groove, some almost trip-hoppy but organic aural space, Landes' pretty yet matter-of-fact voice (a disarming blend of deadpan and sultry), and yes, somehow, too, a banjo. Anchored by its deep, unhurried bass line, "Bodyguard" unfolds in its own world, both musically--beyond the banjo, don't miss the sleighbells in the distance--and lyrically: "I had a dream that we were robbed/They took the moldings off the walls/Erased our signatures from things." Those are remarkable opening lines, I think, for their concrete, casual leap into the surreal, beautifully served by a melody spanning a full octave. Landes here is mining an actual, terrible real-life incident (not an intentional theme, this week, honest!): her apartment was in fact broken into, and they took her stuff (though not, I imagine, the moldings), including her laptop and hard drive, which at the time contained the only copy she had of her entire new album, then ready for production. Gone and not coming back. She didn't try to re-create it; "I just started over from scratch," she has said. "I wrote 'Bodyguard' in the kitchen while waiting for the police to show up." I hear something of the incomparable Jane Siberry both in Landes' vocal presentation (Sib fans note her abrupt "Where've you been?" at 3:22) and in something inscrutable residing deep down in this strange but hypnotic song. "Bodyguard" is from the CD Fireproof, which was recorded live in a single day in an old fire station in Brooklyn. The album will be released next month on Cooking Vinyl; MP3 via Cooking Vinyl USA. [FS] "Sarah's Game" - the Loved Ones Musical genres are a funny thing. As labels, some are very broad and more or less indispensible--say, blues or jazz or reggae--in that they clearly describe a distinct universe of music, while leaving lots of room for variation. Many others make an effort to slice and dice music into narrower and narrower sub-universes (jangle pop, anyone? folktronica?), with the unfortunate end result of implying many more boundaries than there need be, especially within the broad, theoretically embracing kingdom of rock'n'roll. (To me, the only sensible boundary to make is between good music and bad music, but we'll leave that for another time.) I bring this up because the Loved Ones, a quartet from Philadelphia, are supposedly a punk rock band on a punk rock record label. The band's previous releases, a 2004 EP and a 2006 full-length, were hailed as fine punk rock by people to whom such things matter. Punk rock, it turns out, is a genre particularly resistant to boundary crossing. Punk rock fans often start to get suspicious if the music gets too "catchy" or "melodic" (which is exactly, by the way, when it starts becoming actual music rather than unprocessed noise, but we'll leave that for another time also). So I don't know what the punk rock purists will make of "Sarah's Game," but to me, this is a great listen: simultaneously harsh and focused, passionate and engaging, with a powerful melody, nicely crafted lyrics (note the internal rhymes), careful musicianship (the two guitars work impressively together), and even a harmony or two. God forbid! "Sarah's Game" is from the CD Build & Burn, which comes out this week on Fat Wreck Chords. MP3 via Fat Wreck Chords. THIS WEEK'S FINDS Feb. 10-16 * Not sure if all you guys who read "This Week's Finds" here on the main Fingertips web site are aware of the Fingertips blog, which for years has been pretty much of an echo of this page. More recently, the blog has begun to branch out a bit. Last week, for example, it debuted the Fingertips Outshout--which is a widget/gadget thingy that lets me introduce one of the songs with a recorded voice message. This technology lets anyone send a song to a friend with a recorded message attached, either online or via a cellphone; it comes to us courtesy of the web site Outshouts. I'll be doing that weekly over there on the blog for a while and we'll see how it goes. Meantime, I'm plotting out a way to introduce an Outshout here on the main site. Stay tuned for more details. * Don't forget that Fingertips now accepts PayPal--meaning you can use a major credit card to donate, and do so via the ultimate in secure sites. Small donations are wonderful and very kind. Note that I will soon be discontinuing my use of the Amazon Honor System donation system, which I had previously been using. I'm eager now to let that go because that page has been the single biggest contributor to spam in my emailbox, thanks to Amazon's public display, on the Honor System page, of one of my email addresses. Anyone particularly attached to Amazon should donate that way soon, because it'll be gone by the end of the month. PayPal donations can be made using the button below. "Striking" - Francis and the Lights Funky but sleek, with squeally, retro synthesizers, staccato (and super-tight!) guitar lines, and, what solidifies this one for me, a stirring vocal performance from frontman Francis Farewell Starlite, who attractively combines an airy Prince-like falsetto with a Marvin Gaye-like huskiness in his lower register. For the life of me I can't figure out how this song actually works so well. There isn't any traditional song structure here to speak of--instead, we are given an extended musical phrase that works as a free-floating anchor; listen carefully and you'll see that every lyrical line features some variation of this phrase, if often a truncated variation. The lyrics are equally slippery. Something in Starlite's restrained but impassioned tone implies the pursuit of love, as do some of the ordinary yet mysterious sentences we hear ("I don't want to lose you though," "There's something in the air tonight"). The edgy, postmodern funk suggests a certain amount of interpersonal heat as well. But your guess is as good as mine. Use on your valentine at your own risk. Not a lot of info on this young Brooklyn band is available except for the fact that they play around Brooklyn a lot. One notable fact I managed to unearth is that two of the four (or maybe five) members appear to be drummers. "Striking" is the lead track from the debut EP, which is self-released and available as a free and legal download via the band's ordinary yet mysterious web site. "Buildings and Mountains" - the Republic Tigers Here's a song with everything going for it: ear-opening atmosphere, engaging melody, interesting/familiar vocals, and then the clincher--a killer, in-through-the-back-door hook in the chorus. From beginning to end, the production is gorgeous; I particularly like how the crisp acoustic guitars are blended into the song's larger, lusher soundscape, which utilizes a wash of wordless background vocals as its own sort of sonic building block. Listen how that high vocal note promotes an almost Morricone-like sense of uneasy loneliness in the long introduction, as well as in the verse. And that mood in turn sets up the surprise resolution of the chorus, which begins as a fairly straightforward extension of the musical feeling of the verse, before gliding, seemingly a half-moment too soon, into a previously unsuspected major chord--in the phrase "before our eyes" (1:21 the first time), the major chord unfolds onto the word "eyes" (and the set-up chord, on the word "before," is lovely too). All in all, what we have here is an excellent argument for the timeless value of knowledgeable production, an argument worth restating in a decade that's been overflowing with do-it-yourself uploaders and their quixotic belief that people will listen to just about anything. A few people will, no doubt. Many many more people would prefer to listen to something well-crafted, well-performed, and thoughtfully assembled. Don't you kind of want to know that the band took longer to make the song than it takes for you to listen to it? Expect to hear a lot from this Kansas City quintet, not least because they are the first band signed to Chop Shop Records, the new Atlantic Records imprint run by Alexandra Patsavas. Patsavas, as music supervisor for The O.C. and Grey's Anatomy (among other shows), can probably take single-handed credit for the emergence of TV as a music-discovery medium. "Buildings and Mountains" was on the band's debut EP, which was released online in December, and will also be the lead track on the full-length CD, Keep Color, scheduled for release at some as-yet unspecified date in the not-too-distant future. MP3 courtesy of the still skeletal Chop Shop site. "Neal Cassady" - the Weather Underground There's something brilliant and Clash-like in the air here, as a smart young L.A. quartet sings of the famous Beat Generation figure in a rough-and-tumble musical setting that starts in a loose-limbed lope before shifting, like some lost track from London Calling, into a galloping, wild-west rave-up. And while singer/guitarist Harley Prechtel-Cortez doesn't sound like Joe Strummer, he kind of still manages to sing like him: rough-hewn heart on the sleeve, lyrics juiced with spittle and passion. And this relatively short, often forceful tune is further enhanced by an arrangement at once casual and expert; touches such as the wordless background vocals (it's wordless background vocals day!) of the introduction (0:32) and the variety of terrific guitar sounds on display (don't miss that great untamed slide that gets unleashed during the song's closing minute) suggest a knowing combination of instinct and craft at work. The Weather Underground--they take their name from a documentary about the '60s and '70s radical organization, The Weathermen--is a group that prompts the musical question: can a band be too smart for its own good? Among "influences" listed on their MySpace page are Jack Keruoac, Luis Bunuel, Werner Herzog, Ingmar Bergman, Bernadine Dorhn, and my favorite, the first one listed, Guillaume Apollinaire, the French surrealist. Me, I say bring it on. If we can get enough bands going like this, maybe we can delay the inevitable demise of reading we're always being warned about at least one more half-generation. You'll find "Neal Cassady" on the band's self-released Psalms and Shanties EP, their second, which came out in the fall of '07. A third EP has been recorded and awaits release. THIS WEEK'S FINDS Feb. 17-23 * So this year's repository of SXSW MP3s is now online, as the indie world awaits the arrival of the crazy big Austin music festival next month. A quick (very quick) perusal of the offerings gives me the sense that, like last year, the MP3s available via SXSW are not in many cases exclusive, in that lots of them are songs that are available elsewhere online. Fun it still can be to hunt through them, however; the determined mouse-clicker is bound to uncover some buried treasure or another amongst the (literally) hundreds of songs. I'll be featuring all the really good ones I can find in the month we have, now, leading up to the gargatuan event. For more info about the SXSW site, see the SXSW entry in the Music Site Guide. "Parallel Lives" - La Scala We can all use a big heaping dollop of melodrama with our pop every now and then, and La Scala is happy to deliver. (Even the name of this Chicago band implies something larger than life and over the top.) Up above the introduction's searing, machine-gun guitar line and the '80s dance beat, listen to that second guitar plucking out a homely, vaguely East European motif. Or maybe it's not a guitar, as it sounds like a bouzouki or some such old country instrument; in any case, this is the best kind of musical melodrama--the kind that has you smiling for potentially unknown reasons. Like for instance the verse. Listen, in the second half, to how singer Balthazar de Ley and one of the guitars "harmonize" in a crazy sort of way--the guitar plays a line completely in sync with the melody rhythmically, but squonking all over the place harmonically. It's kind of wacky but also subtle--you might not notice, but, again, it creates an enjoyable mood. And then there's that resplendent, two-part chorus, at which point this song truly sounds like some great early '80s post-new wave hit, an impression furthered by de Ley's familiar-sounding voice, which has the throaty warmth of one of those dreamy New Romantic-era singers. De Ley by the way grew up both in Paris and in Champaign, Illinois, which may at least partially account for the intriguing, old-world sensibility laced into the band's sound. La Scala was just formed last year. "Parallel Lives" is from their first EP, The Harlequin, to be released next week by the Chicago-based Highwheel Records. "My Father" - Raise High the Roof Beam And now we get the antidote to sweeping, driving melodrama: the vulnerable, acoustic-based "My Father," from singer/songwriter Thomas Fricilone, also Chicago-based, doing Salinger-inspired musical business as Raise High the Roof Beam. I find myself engaged right away by the broken descent of the opening riff--we begin with a standard downward progression but what's less standard is how it stops and hangs out at the third note, two notes short of the resolution. We suspend there for the same length of time it took to get us there, and then the resolution is turned upside down: after hearing 5-4-3, and hanging out on 3, we then get 1-2 rather than 2-1. It's all very simple and clear but interesting, and implies overturned expectations or unexpected conclusions, themes that bear out lyrically as the song unfolds. Fricilone has a quavery voice that does not always stay on pitch, but in the particular musical setting he gives himself here the end result is gracious and affecting. For all that it may sound at first like a simple acoustic-guitar strummer, there's actually a nimble array of instruments weaving together, including piano, ukelele, eletric guitar, maybe a melodica, and perhaps a synthesizer. Fricilone also double-tracks his vocals here, which I think gives them extra potency, and maybe compensates for the pitch variation, while maintaining the underlying fragility that serve the lyrics especially well: "My father told me I'd be late for life/That's okay 'cause I think that waiting's all right/I avoid the news for things that I might fear/My father tells me all the things that I don't want to hear." "My Father" is a song that will appear on Raise High the Roof Beam's Family EP, a work that is still in progress. MP3 courtesy of Fricilone's web site. "Pull Me Out Alive" - Kaki King Dipping for the first time into the new SXSW MP3s, I've pulled out a plum, and an unexpected plum at that. Kaki King is a musician known initially for her ear-opening acoustic guitar virtuosity, which she has had a tendency to put on display in songs that are maybe a little complicated. Even as she has expanded her sonic palette over the past couple of years, and started singing on her songs, she has not previously focused her music quite so pointedly. But for her soon-to-be-released Dreaming of Revenge CD, King had producer Malcolm Burn at the board. Burn has worked with everyone from Bob Dylan and Patti Smith to Emmylou Harris and the Neville Brothers; he apparently told King, "If someone can't be sawing a log in half and whistling along to the song, I don't want it on the record." Thus has King's music taken a turn towards the accessible, shall we say. And it doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. Accessible doesn't mean uninteresting, or bland. "Pull Me Out Alive" alternates itchy, idiosyncratically propulsive verses--check out the way her vocals are layered (starting around 0:29) to sound like a slightly out-of-sync conversation--with a drony, dreamy chorus that finishes on a wonderfully unresolved chord. I find the instrumental break at 2:10 particularly interesting; employing an intriguing blend of electric and electronic sounds, it nevertheless strikes me at its core as something she might previously have used at the center of one of her acrobatic and percussive guitar displays. While those who latched onto King for her instrumental mastery may be disoriented by a song like this, I kind of like it. And I assume she still does play the guitar now and then. I guess we'll find out when the CD comes out next month. That'll be on Velour Recordings. MP3, as noted, via SXSW, and this one may in fact be exclusive. [FS] THIS WEEK'S FINDS Feb. 24-Mar. 1 "Childproof" - Batteries Slinky, dark, and peculiarly catchy, "Childproof" sparks such conflicting retro vibes in my music memory that I couldn't immediately figure out what it was reminding me of--usually a sign that the influences are being integrated into something fresh and tasty. So I hung in there, kept listening, and sure enough some seductively--and chronologically--divergent sonic elements revealed themselves to my dissecting ear: there's a '60s garage rock feel to the guitar sound, yet also something spiky and Television-like (late '70s); there's a Doors-like organ ('60s again) and a Morphine-like saxophone (hmm: '90s); and then there's a lead singer (one Dave Frankenfeld) with a shivery, nasally, talky croon that sounds something like Stephen Malkmus (still current) trying to sing lead for a mid-'70s Steely Dan album. While somewhat recognizable when teased apart this way, the cool thing is how briskly and matter-of-factly "Childproof" weaves them together. And what about that recurring "hide your eyes"/"hide and hide" part? That has a mysterious appeal to me in a this-is-really-familiar-but-not-quite sort of way that sometimes happens with new songs that stick in my head. When I first heard this song, in fact, I actually had to check to see if it was a cover version of an older song, such déjà vu was I experiencing. For all I know, this part in particular does come straight out of some older song but for the life of me I can't place it. (Feel free to let me know if you know what I thought I was thinking of.) A five-piece whose members come from the north country of Minnesota and Wisconsin, Batteries put out a debut CD late last year entitled That Great Grandsuck of the Sea--and no, I don't know what that means, either. "Childproof" is third song on the album, which was self-released. "Beyond the Door" - 13ghosts Phased, psychedelic vocals mixed with crisp, George Harrison-y rhythm guitar give this one an immediate trippiness that might seem mere affect were it not for the terrific melody lurking at the heart of the chorus. For all its sonic largeness, "Beyond the Door" all but shimmers with focus and restraint. I like, for instance, how the chorus, when we first hear it, is delivered (0:29) as the instrumental accompaniment pulls back, everything seemingly run through the same distortion the vocals are undergoing. So we don't actually receive the full effect of that great melody the first time it arrives--we hear it, but we don't really hear it. This is a most excellent songwriting trick but it only works with an excellent song. ("Beyond the Door" qualifies without reservation.) And so, you see, when the chorus returns (1:12), its full power hits us all the harder. Note that the band still throws us a bit of a curveball--listen to that guitar line that drones through the first half of the melody in the chorus and feel the extra depth that dissonance can bring to music, at least when we're in the hands of talented musicians. (Otherwise, alas, it may simply be noise.) 13ghosts, from Birmingham, Alabama, is one of those fortunate bands that contain two strong singer/songwriters--in this case, Brad Armstrong (who sang the last time Fingertips featured the band) and Buzz Russell. Russell is out front this time around, and his interest in swirly, spacey aural space is paired, happily, with unusually sharp pop chops. Normally, folks who want to take us on a space ride forget to give us something to sing along with. Russell, however, has melody, nice chord changes, and smiley-harmonies pouring right out of him here, all in the service of a song about death, and the possibility of life thereafter. The gracefully modulating "oohs" that you hear after the chorus, by the way, were, according to Russell, "supposed to create the effect of taking a Xanax or something to ease the anxiety"--the anxiety of facing the possibility of an afterlife, he says. "Beyond the Door" is a song from the band's forthcoming CD, The Strangest Colored Lights, to be released next month on Birmingham-based Skybucket Records. [FS] "Regarde" - Monade Bordeaux-based multi-instrumentalist Lætitia Sadier, one of the two founding members of Stereolab, has had her own side project going now for the better part of the last decade (Stereolab, a "post-rock" pioneer, has been around since 1990). She calls it Monade in part for a concept taken from 20th-century Greek philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis, referring to the undifferentiated psyche (before the id, ego, and superego break apart), and also for how it is rooted in the word "mono," which in turn is related to the word "stereo," and thus neatly implies her working on her own, apart from her more well-known band. And right away, if nothing else, I appreciate the depth of a European education. As for the music, the suave yet playful "Regarde" launches off an alternating minor/major chord motif, and unfolds as a kind of cool, Euro-march for the lounge crowd, driven by Sadier's husky, Chrissie Hynde-meets-Brigitte Bardot voice (and yes, sports fans, Chrissie Hynde did in fact mention Brigitte Bardot in a song once; small world!). Plus, there's a trombone, which is apparently one of Sadier's main instruments. Halfway through, the song abruptly slows to a slumberous waltz (1:50), begins to pick up speed and orchestral drama (2:40), then melts precipitately back into the original tempo and rhythm (3:01) in a manner at once awkward and--I have no idea why--exceedingly charming. Don't miss it. "Regarde" is from Monade's third album, Monstre Cosmic, which was released last week on Too Pure Records. MP3 via Pitchfork. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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