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Slow Club – Yeah So [2009]
tracklist:
1. When I Go
2. Giving Up On Love
3. I Was Unconscious, It Was A Dream
4. It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful
5. There Is No Good Way To Say I Am Leaving You
6. Trophy Room
7. Because We’re Dead
8. Dance Till The Morning Light
9. Sorry About The Doom
10. Come On Youth
11. Apples And Pairs
12. Our Most Brilliant Friends
Anyone keeping tabs on London’s antifolk scene over the past few years ought to be familiar with the joyous cacophony that is Slow Club. Having toured their wares relentlessly, Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor have gained a steady following of boys and girls with an ear for a melody and a soft spot for the percussive properties of a chair. Having already whetted our appetites with a string of magnificent singles and last year’s Let’s Fall Back In Love EP, they could have just lumped them together to make an LP to be proud of. But never ones to rest on their laurels, Sheffield’s finest have gone back into the studio to create a whole new bag of folk-pop gems to mix with a few handpicked and re-recorded old favourites, and the results are outstanding. Recorded almost entirely in their hometown, Yeah So was produced by Mike Timm (Pulp, Richard Hawley), and, as with their live set up, Watson provides vocal and guitar duties, Taylor sings and bashes out a rhythm on anything to hand, while friends and fellow musicians help out on everything from backing vocals to glass bottle.
‘When I Go’ gets Yeah So off to a gentle start with a tale of friendships and romantic back-up plans that aims to charm the pants off its audience right from the outset. Couplets like “If we’re both not married by 24 / will you pass me those knee-pads and I’ll get on the floor” play with the assumed romantic connotations of the boy/girl duo (although they are just good friends) and is typical of the mix of wistfulness and humour that Slow Club weave into their music. This sweet-tempered introduction is blown away by the delightfully raucous ‘Giving Up On Love’, the sound of a band enjoying themselves unabashedly, as big, bold and focused as Motown at its peak. Themes of emotional heartache and relationships coming to an end are everywhere on the album. Fortunately, Slow Club have an innate ability to sound positive, so things never get hopelessly bleak. New single ‘It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful’ mixes a wrist-slashing lyric with a deliriously happy racket to create one of the best pop singles of the year so far. Its nagging chorus of “Baby, I know it’s over / don’t tell me / please wait ’til you’re sober” is perhaps the catchiest thing they’ve ever produced, and that really is saying something.
The previously released songs that have made it onto Yeah So fit into the grand scheme of things well. ‘Dance ‘Till The Morning Light’, ‘Come On Youth’ and ‘Apples & Pairs’ are given a second airing, while ‘Because We’re Dead’ is a bolt of pop lightning at half-time to let newcomers in on the secret of Slow Club’s history so far. If there’s one minor criticism, it’s that Yeah So sounds oddly like a second album rather than a debut. Slow Club have come a long way over the last few years, and taking so long to produce a full-length album means that the result seems to be conscious of shedding the irritating “twee” tag they’ve been branded with, coming across altogether more mature, restrained and thoughtful. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a shame that the sheer youthful exuberance of ‘Me & You’ and ‘Summer Shakedown’ have been omitted in favour of a more consistent sound. With them, this triumph of an album could have been all the more magnificent. wearsthetrousers
Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs [matador, 2009]
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Done with its trip to the movies, New Jersey’s Yo La Tengo is gearing up for its next creative endeavor, the release of a brand new studio album. And a popular one at that.
No, the trio of Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan and James McNew haven’t gone all Nickelback on us. For the sake of this particular release, they’ve simply named their 12th (or 14th depending on how you count) Popular Songs. But that doesn’t necessarily mean to expect an album that will please Top 40 kids, or even longtime Yo La Tengo fans. You see, the content of this brand new offering, which is officially scheduled for release on September 8th via Matador Records, is billed as the band’s “bravest musical statement to date”. Yes, folks, we’re dealing with some irony!
Recorded in Hoboken and Nashville in early 2009 with longtime collaborator Roger Moutenot, Popular Songs is centered around a stylistic range billed as “startling,” with some parts sounding like the Yo La Tengo we’ve come to know and love and others not. The end result? “An epic work that’s cooly confident as it is wildly adventurous,” says Matador. But don’t take their word for it. Check out the album’s first mp3, “Periodically Double Or Triple” below for an early taste.
Additional details including a tracklist, information pertaining to a new Buy Early Get Now campaign for the album, and fall tour dates will be unveiled in the coming days – perhaps as soon as tomorrow. consequenceofsound
Pissed Jeans – King of Jeans [subpop, 2009]
tracklist:
False Jesii Part 2
Half Idiot
Dream Smotherer
Pleasure Race
She Is Science Fiction
Request for Masseuse
Human Upskirt
Lip Ring
Spent
R-Rated Movie
Dominate Yourself
Goodbye (Hair)
If 2005’s Shallow was Pissed Jeans coping with moving out of their parents’ homes, and 2007’s Hope for Men their initial reaction to the mechanical lifestyle of a wage-earner, King of Jeans is their formal and uneasy acceptance of adulthood, by way of one hell of a rock record. Working with renowned producer Alex Newport (who holds a Fudge Tunnel pedigree and has worked with such luminaries as At the Drive-In, The Locust and Sepultura), Pissed Jeans have pushed further into the raw, minimal core of heavy rock music with King of Jeans. Masters of the mundane, beasts of the banal, high priests of the humdrum: these four, white, male high school graduates hardly look further than their own appendages for artistic inspiration, content to execute their own brand of brash and heavy punk music in the Joe Carducci-approved standard rock formation of guitar, bass, drums and vocals. From simple minds and simple fabrics comes this King of Jeans. And there can be only one.
Mochipet – Bunnies and Muffins [daly city, 2009]
tracklist:
01. Anthem (4:28)
02. Spring (Feat.Daedelus) (3:42)
03. Prolonging forever (3:43)
04. Memories (4:18)
05. Pachyderm Pounce (3:48)
06. Fool (Feat.Spaceheater) (4:59)
07. Underwater (Aardvark B-Boy beats) (Feat.Roman Ruins) (5:10)
08. Do geese see God (4:44)
09. And so it goes (4:59)
10. The Erhu Song (2:52)
11. End of Summer Song (4:27)
12. Oly (5:16)
13. Tinker (Feat.Aeroc) (4:27)
14. Roll credits (4:27)
Hot off the heels of Mochipet’s “Microphonepet” banger which gained him a spot on NBA2k9 Videogame along side acts such as Beastie Boys, N.E.R.D., and The Cool Kids, comes a more melodic and subtle record. Cozy enough for an afternoon stroll but still intricate enough for any hard core music aficionado. Bunnies & Muffins bounces you all the way from glitch-hop to symphonies. Tracks like “Prolonging Forever” and “Fool” Bring elements of Ratatat and Prefuse73 with a more harmonic organic feeling. While “Anthem” bangs you over the head like a Bon Jovi on Kraftwerk.. Tracks from this album are surely going to add Mochipet’s appearances to more Movie Soundtracks, and Radio Playlists. There might be a reason why he was nomited as one of the Best Electronic Act of 2008 by many publications such as The Clash Magazine (UK), Bay Guardian, and The SFWeekly. Kid Koala – “Mochipet is hilariously funky, he should score the next Katamari video game, you can quote me on that. :) e”
ecovillage – phoenix asteroid [darla, 2009]
tracklist:
01. Small Bright Points
02. Arise From Ashes
03. Lost In The Tides Of Time
04. Here And Now
05. The Sun Will Shine On
06. Dawn Was Brand New
07. Horizons And Beyond
08. Invitation
09. When Souls Collide
10. The Key
11. Phoenix Asteroid
12. Mustard Seed
Featuring Manual’s Jonas Munk and Jakob Skott of Syntaks and Ghostly International Ecovillage take the shoegaze craze into new territory with Phoenix Asteroid, steering the genre away from the more blustery My Bloody Valentine end of the scale and into the more dream-pop styled textures of Cocteau Twins and Robin Guthrie’s various projects. On something like ‘Arise From Ashes’ you can hear something else creeping into the mix too, with some similarities bringing to mind A Mountain Of One’s new-age-y Balearic sounds. For all this, you can still hear the same deeply textured sounds pioneered on Munk’s earliest material as Manual, proving he’s no trend-surfing fly-by-night.
alasdair roberts – spoils [drag city 2009]
tracklist:
1. The Flyting of Grief & Joy (Eternal Return)
2. You Muses Assist
3. So Bored Was I (Dark Triad)
4. Unyoked Oxen Turn
5. The Book of Doves
6. Ned Ludd’s Rant (For a World Rebarbarised)
7. Hazel Forks
8. Under No Enchantment (But My Own)
Over the past dozen years or so, Alasdair Roberts has quietly maneuvered his way into the light as one of the most salient and sapient folk musicians today. Originally the leader of his own variably-staffed group, Appendix Out, Roberts had the good fortune of counting Will Oldham among his earliest fans, gaining him a much-deserved leg up at Palace Records and, later, Drag City. After three Appendix Out records, four solo, and one super-folk collaboration (the Amalgamated Sons of Rest EP with Will Oldham and Jason Molina), we have arrived at his fifth solo record, Spoils, which easily ranks among his best.The early interplay between the warm tones of piano, bass, and Roberts’ gently jangling guitar in the album’s opening song, “The Flyting of Grief & Joy (Eternal Return)”, lays exquisite groundwork for the other, ‘flashier’ attributes of the album: Its density of lyric delivered through Roberts’ winsome, pastoral Scottish warble, its discerning arrangements flecked with instruments of antiquity (in “Flyting’s” case, harpsichord and viol), and its classicist nature, which we and presumably its author can only experience through the prism of modernity. Of course, it’s a little easier for Roberts, who grew up in rural Scotland and now, even living in Glasgow, remains considerably closer to the ancient and enchanted moors and mountains of his ancestral landscapes. Yet while a primer on Scottish Christian lore and geography might help us stateside xenophobes keep up, the music, the sentiment, and the familiar words between references are more than enough to engage, if not fully ensnare, the listener, sweeping us right “up the shale and down the scree” along with it.
The olden sound and spirit of the album runs reliably throughout, although it’s by no means a purist affair; there are a couple artfully executed seconds of background guitar noise and a bit of synthesizer tucked into the mix, all with great and subtle effect. Though the proof was unnecessary, these higher-tech details do offer some proof of the album’s “grounded-ness” in the midst of such highfalutin additions as 19th century and baroque guitars, dulcimer, and hurdy gurdy (an antiquated sort of mechanical violin with strings “bowed” from underneath by a built-in rotating wheel controlled by a crank). “The Book of Doves” sports the latter three of these instruments for a gorgeously mysterious recounting of the passage through time of a certain medieval manuscript—probably fictional, but with Roberts and his depth of historical fascination, one never knows. Only Roberts, after all, would rhyme “mammon” (a medieval personification of greed) with “Slamannan” (a rural Scottish village roughly 30 miles away from the equally remote one in which the songwriter grew up) with apparent natural ease. The lyrics do also start with a sort of Q&A with the Irish St. Columba, who, in the mid-6th century, waged the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne over a copy he made of a psalter (a volume of Psalms, hymns from which are traditionally played on a harp called a psaltery, which Roberts actually plays in the following song on the album), then as penance, exiled himself to Scotland as a missionary to convert as many people as were killed in the battle. In but four-and-a-half minutes, “The Book of Doves” culminates twice; first in lush, hurdy-gurdied swells like a storm at sea, and again a moment later through the powerful plucked intricacy of classical acoustic guitar interplay. Either one of these moments is easily enough to make any listener feel beckoned toward some ancestral horizon; both make for a brilliant high water mark of the album.
Following “Doves” is another intense passage, “Ned Ludd’s Rant (For a World Rebarbarised)”, a profound and surprisingly disquieting addition that deftly emphasizes the indelible musical bridge between the Old World and its migratory cultural outcroppings in Appalachia and the American West. Featuring Roberts on psaltery and backed by 19th century guitar and viol, it underscores Roberts’ place among current folk peers such as Oldham and fellow high-brow lyricist Joanna Newsom, while the lyrics possibly set him aside, articulating a seriousness of purpose in his use of classical instruments and language. The reference to Ned Ludd signifies an animosity towards modern technology, or industry, and in this case, perhaps also the modern culture that embraces it all so fully. Ludd was the symbolic figurehead of the Luddites, who, during the Industrial Revolution, comprised a social movement against the mechanization that was replacing human labor, costing jobs and other cultural and socioeconomic problems. In the song, the singer seems to take issue with an affliction not necessarily labor-related but more grandiose, lamenting cosmos “desacralized,” observing how “we’ve seen the death of wonder; now we rob grave robbers’ graves and redisplay the plunder…” Its anger builds, culminating in a finger pointed squarely at “you haters, you whores and fornicators: Prepare to be undone.” A stern warning, a startling premonition, an in-character out-lashing of typical Christian doom and guilt (with atypical musical beauty); whatever the case, it rattles the otherwise placid basket of Spoils.
Studious though it helps to be to get to the root of Roberts’ lyric poetry, no OED is necessary for the album’s most immediate beguiler, “You Muses Assist”, with its casually charming flutes and jubilant tune, or to enjoy the jangly, electric rock guitar solo about halfway through “Hazel Forks”—a Palace Records-worthy moment if ever there was one, with a more Scottish-style bridge at the other end. Altogether, Spoils is an album of multifaceted rewards; a beautiful and instantly gratifying listen, at once sparse and full, challenging to the intellect and easy on the ear.
by Howard Wyman crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault
Murcof – La Sangre Iluminada (ost) [2009]
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tracklist:
01 – Sangre
02 – Mateo
03 – Hugo I
04 – Hugo II
05 – Eugenio I
06 – Eugenio II
07 – Eugenio III
08 – Eugenio IV
09 – Paloma I
10 – Paloma II
11 – Paloma III
12 – Paloma IV
13 – Paloma V
14 – Soriano I
15 – Soriano II
16 – Soriano III
17 – Isaías I
18 – Isaías II
19 – Isaías III
20 – Isaías IV
21 – Cómo Quisiera Decirte (Murcof Mix) (Los Ángeles Negros)
With just a handful of releases under his belt, Mexican electronic musician Fernando Corona, AKA Murcof, has established a very unique sound and is already named as a major influence by some. Five years after his seminal debut album, Martes, was released, he is back with his magnificent third album, Cosmos, on Leaf. For this latest effort, Corona pretty much ditches the micro beats and samples that have informed previous releases to work from recordings of real classical instruments. The result is a superb tapestry of sounds, drones and melodies which Corona will take on the road for a planetarium tour in the autumn. Here, Fernando Corona talks to the themilkman from his home in Barcelona, where he currently resides, about the new album, his soundtrack work and the rise of the Mexican electronic scene. MURCOF INTERVIEW here
Lightning Dust – Infinite Light [jagjaguwar, 2009]
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tracklist:
1. Antonia Jane
2. I Knew
3. Dreamer
4. Times, The
5. Never Seen
6. History
7. Honest Man
8. Waiting On the Sun To Rise
9. Wondering What Everyone Knows
10. Take It Home
We are extremely pleased to present the first glimpse of Lightning Dust’s sophomore album for Jagjaguwar, Infinite Light (Released Aug. 4 in the US and Aug. 3 in the UK), an album that ups the ante of the band’s minimalist, self-titled debut and lays to waste any “side project” chatter. There is a light on the other side of the black mountain, and it glows in the hearts of Vancouver duo Amber Webber and Joshua Wells. As Lightning Dust, the pair harness a gentler sound than as founding members of Black Mountain, though this sound is no less loaded with tension and an enviable fluency in the most classic of psych-rock.
While Infinite Light is definitely more layered and lush than previous efforts, Lightning Dust’s minimal aesthetic works well in the economy of musical theater, an influence for the record, wherein each song’s movements aim to be more inspiring than the one before it. And this is suiting in that Infinite Light is a nod to “the light of inspiration” that inspires us to keep dancing, creating and loving in spite of an encroaching darkness. It’s a reminder that what makes the mountains so very, very black is a distant light somewhere on the other side.
First mp3 “I Knew” is a shining example of the fuller, charging sounds of Infinite Light. The song is absolutely shot out of a cannon, driven by the ping/thud pulse and crusty keyboards of Suicide and taken to flight by the Fleetwood Mac chorus your heart belts on the drive home after that first, anxious make-out session. It’s a blazing, triumph of a song that permanently cauterizes any notion of Lightning Dust as a side project.
And be on the lookout for upcoming Lightning Dust tours of North America and Europe in support of Infinite Light.
Karl Blau – Baby Nettles [2009]
Karl Blau – 96 [2009]
To listen to Karl Blau’s albums and make descriptions of what is heard is to walk through a farmer’s market and describe all the vegetables grown in that area. It is the love that Blau feels for music that shines through; most anyone can sense the passion this cultivator has for his trade. Every age group has been exposed to punk rock and everyone needs heartfelt music now as much as ever.
Within the last 3 years Blau has toured Japan twice, spent a winter-long residency in Queens, NY, toured the East and West coast multiple times, and played 6 weeks of shows across Europe in Spring 2009, and festivals in Europe in August, followed by tours in the Fall with Mount Eerie and LAKE.
Karl Blau constantly renews his commitment to exploring the frontiers of sound. In this world of instant access to musical cultures near and far that were once a series of thick walls of concrete – time becomes a limitless characteristic. In his latest recordings entitled Zebra [KLP205], Blau pays homage to the feedback of music from Africa and the music of African descent.
Prior to his solo recordings (2007’s Beneath Waves [KLP174] and 2008’s Nature’s Got Away [KLP192] and 2009’s Zebra), Blau played (and still plays) with Bret Lunsford (Beat Happening) and Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie) in D+. In the spirit of his hometown Anacortes, Blau flies the flag of community and, likewise, Anacortes’s humble Knw-Yr-Own Records has released D+ “What Is Doubt For” and D+ “No Mystery.”
From 2008-2009 K Record’s Dub Narcotic studio has employed Karl as a sort of “in house producer.” In this all-analog studio, Blau has recorded new albums by Arrington DeDionyso, LAKE, The Bundles (Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson), Angelo Spencer and Your Heart Breaks. Listen for Blau’s vocal and instrumental contribution on the new Laura Veirs album, Calvin Johnson’s next release and Ian Svenonious’s recording of his group Chain and the Gang.
Early spring 2010 Blau tours all over again with his dance band to get people shaking off their winter blues. Last year those who followed his various internet scribblings may have anticipated Karl Blau to stay in the Northwest and concentrate on small shows (check), but now we find him going on 3 European tours in 2009, and who knows what in 2010. WTF? What’s next Blau, Africa? Yes. Let’s practice how we dance.
Lisa Mitchell – Wonder [2009]
tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Neopolitan Dreams
3. So Jealous
4. Coin Laundry
5. Clean White Love
6. Pirouette
7. Love Letter
8. Oh Hark
9. Red Wine Lips
10. Sidekick
11. Stevie
12. Animals
13. Valium
14. Heroine
15. Time Means Nothing At All
Wonder is the debut album from Australian singer-song writer Lisa Mitchell which will be released on July 13, 2009 through Scorpio Music under Warner Music .
Writing for the album began in 2007 where she collaborated with such artists as Ben Lee, Kevin Mitchell, Clare Bowditch and Katy Steele. At the end of 2007 Lisa moved to London to continue writing for the album collaborating with Ant Whiting, Ed Harcourt, Dann Hume and Sacha Skarbek. “
LittleFuryThings presents Gamehenge 09!!!!
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As a policy, I avoid writing about things here that I’m actually involved in. But this is such an odd album, and since I was only one of 100 people to contribute some sound to this, and since you can download it for free*, I figured this was worth mentioning.
I also don’t usually have any interest in Phish, or jam bands of that ilk, but here we have some kind of rare Phish concept album, covered in its entirety. Nat Hawks, mastermind of the Little Fury Things record label, got the idea to take a recording of this Phish piece, chop it into 100 segments of about 15 seconds to a minute and a half each, and get 100 different artists to cover each chunk.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I have not heard much Phish and the chunk I heard sounded pretty indistinct. Random noodling without much of a tune to speak of, and some kind of rambling story being spoken over the top.
So it’s kind of strange to me that the final result actually seems pretty cohesive and is a really enjoyable listen. I am willing to bet it’s about a million times better than the source material. I don’t know how much it turned out this way due to the selection of artists, or if everyone really did a decent job of keeping the vibe from the source material intact. Almost everyone is doing something experimental, ranging from loose rock to free-folk to electronic to ambient to whatever, but it all turns out pretty chill and trippy and a little edgy. Which happens to be the vibe of Little Fury Things in general also.
Many of the tracks blend smoothly into each other, some have distinct breaks in-between. At times I wish they were all merged and blended together a little more completely, but it would have been difficult since some artists seem to have covered their piece of music as though it were a stand-alone song, with a beginning and an end. I’m amazed this whole thing actually got completed, and I sort of suspect that several of the credited artists might actually be Nat under different aliases, but even if so, there are a huge variety of sounds and approaches at work here. Just a few of the credited names that seemed familiar to me: Scissor Shock, Holzkopf, say no to architecture, Teeth Mountain, Video Hippos, Robe., Yellow Crystal Star, Sperm Whales.
Anyway, this is a huge and totally weird project and I recommend checking it out. no-core
And about that asterisk next to the word “free” above: Nat suggests that if you appreciate this, you might make a 5 or 10 dollar donation to Explore Charter School’s (Brooklyn) trip fund http://www.firstgiving.com/exploretrips
Throw Me the Statue – Creaturesque [secretly canadian, 2009]
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tracklist:
1. Waving At The Shore
2. Pistols
3. Tag
4. Ancestors
5. Noises
6. Snowshoes
7. Dizzy From The Fall
8. Cannibal Rays
9. Hi-Fi Goon
10. Baby, You’re Bored
11. Shade For A Shadow
12. The Outer Folds
Paste 4 to Watch alums Throw Me The Statue have been quiet but busy since first breaking out in 2007, steadily racking up kudos and bona fides thanks to the lo-fi charm of their debut LP Moonbeams. Fortunately, they’re not prone to resting on their laurels, freaking out at shows, or any other number of fame-related occupational hazards: TMTS has just announced their sophomore album Creaturesque is finished and set for an Aug. 4 release via Secretly Canadian.
In the five years since Scott Reitherman began the solo-venture-turned-quartet, Throw Me The Statue has been garnering some lofty praise, especially in the wake of Moonbeams and some noteworthy turns at Sasquatch and SXSW. With Creaturesque, Reitherman and company are aiming to meet expectations and ratchet up their pop sensibilities by bringing iconic producer Phil Ek (Built to Spill, The Shins, Band of Horses) on board. pastemagazine
Dirt Crew – blow [mood, 2009]
tracklist:
01. Deep Cover
02. Rough Roads
03. Blow
04. Clap
05. Redux
06. Slope
07. Parade
08. Scenario
09. The Real Shit
10. Star
Dirt Crew aka Peter Gijselaers and Felix Eder have been Moodmusic favorites since their early days in 2004 when “Rock The House” emerged on the MBF label out of Cologne. Their electro influenced house productions soon found their way to Moodmusic creating numerous hits like “808 Lazerbeam” and “Domino”, and the all-time classic remix of “Soul Sounds” from label head Sasse. Dwelling a few years in more dubbed out minimal sounds, Dirt Crew are back on the block with more of their original raw as fuck love of house music as we all like it. “Blow” is showing the true roots of these pioneers of European electronic house music, with influences ranging from early Chicago warehouse traxx, sophisticated mid-90s NYC inspired house productions and pioneers of UK dub house from the likes of Warp and DIY. “Deep Cover” is the perfect start, slowly evolving with a dubbed house feel and perfectly arranged vocal samples getting the biz done. Followed by “Rough Roads”, the theme stays the same, deep bass confiscating the groove, holding no hostages with a building arpeggiated synth line making the track as comfortable at home as well as in a hazy club at 5 am. The title track “Blow” brings more dirt to the game, throwing old school samples and deep keys into the mix with stunning results. Keeping the pace mid-tempo the groove just keeps going on, building a perfect soundtrack for those special nights. “Clap” is another sure shot DC production, layering synths and snippets of vocals into a frenzy of house bliss, ending in a FM synthhorn crescendo which could be from a Jovonn production from 1992. One of the highlights of the album is surely “Redux” – an old school stomper with a 2009 production to keep it fresh. Lending a touch from early Deep Dish this has the massively hypnotizing “hands in the air” factor in true Dirt Crew style. Already tested at the last Moodmusic Night at Panorama Bar, this was the highlight of the Sunday afternoon ! “Slope” is a darker affair with that well. wordandsound
hercules and love affair – sidetracked [renaissance, 2009]
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tracklist:
CD1: Mixed
01. Westbam – And Party
02. Sax – No Pares (Don’t Stop)
03. Hercules & Love Affair – I Can’t Wait
04. In Flagranti – I Never Screwed Around Before
05. Dubwise – Hold me Real Tight
06. Fax Yourself – Sunshine
07. Todd Terry Project – Weekend
08. Daniel Wang – Zola Has Landed
09. Rhythm Masters – Oh Oh Why
10. Los Kings Del Mambo – Studio X
11. Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band – I’ll Play The Fool
12. Ray Martinez Jnr – Lady of the Night
13. Gino Soccio – Dream On
14. Rainbow Team – Dreaming
CD2: Unmixed
01. Westbam – And Party
02. In Flagranti – I Never Screwed Around Before
03. Dubwise – Hold me Real Tight
04. Fax Yourself – Sunshine
05. Todd Terry Project – Weekend
06. Daniel Wang – Zola Has Landed
07. Los Kings Del Mambo – Studio X
08. Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band – I’ll Play The Fool
09. Ray Martinez Jnr – Lady of the Night
10. Gino Soccio – Dream On
11. Rainbow Team – Dreaming
Hercules & Love Affair have been selected by Renaissance to kick off their new Sidetracked mix series.
The new series will see Renaissance widen their remit more than ever before, with head honcho Geoff Oakes explaining that “Sidetracked has been developed to show the other side of bands from the electronic genre who can, and do, DJ. It’s an opportunity to offer a diverse, unique series, which makes Hercules & Love Affair the more than perfect choice to kick-start matters.” Even though band member Kim Ann Foxman also DJs, it’s down to H&LA main man Andy Butler to construct the mix solo, but Foxman does however make a cheeky vocal inclusion, inciting Butler to “play some old disco.” Butler doesn’t play many new tracks in the mix, which focuses on classic house and disco, but there is room for one new Hercules & Love Affair track (“I Can’t Wait”) to make the cut. As well as the single disc mix, the package will also come with an unmixed CD featuring remastered versions of eleven of Butler’s selections, which should come in handy for digital DJs looking for some classic ’90s house. residentadvisor
Wye Oak – The Knot [Merge, 2009]
tracklist:
1.Milk And Honey
2.For Prayer
3.Take It In
4.Siamese
5.Talking About Money
6.Mary Is Mary
7.Tattoo
8.I Want For Nothing
9.That I Do
10.Sight, Flight
If Wye Oak have accomplished nothing else with The Knot, they’ve succeeded in getting out from under the shadow of Yo La Tengo. Between the fact that the Baltimore duo comprises a married couple that fluidly swaps out the singing, writing and playing chores, and their penchant for spiking the pensive tunes on their vigorously feted but middling debut If Children with big blasts of guitar noise, it seemed like every other review compared the record to Hoboken’s finest.
Jen Wasner does plenty with her guitar on The Knot, but obstreperous six-string explosions are in short supply. Her cranked-up contributions are mixed well down, adding a bit of necessary grit beneath “Tattoo’s” airy harmonies and sparkly piano, or quite momentary, like the power chords that punctuate “Talking About Money’s” martial progression. Elsewhere her playing is more textural or chugs along in Crazy Horse rhythm mode. The instrumental leads are mainly given to pedal steel and violin, which might have their share of genre associations, but in Wasner and Andy Stack’s hands tend not to have the sonic specificity that earned those YLT comparisons. One of the impressive things about Wye Oak is their ability to sound convincing playing these and other instruments; they aren’t particularly flashy, but they never sound like dabblers either.
But the real growth is in Wasner’s singing. She and Stack harmonize to lackluster effect on the opener “Milk and Honey,” but on the next song she takes over and never really lets go. Which isn’t to say that she’s showboating; part of her power comes from the impression she conveys that she’s holding something back. Tinged with hope and regret, Wasner’s voice is an instrument well suited to the album’s lyrics, which track various relationship dynamics and the singer’s affective response to them. It’s well-mapped territory to be sure, but the trek doesn’t get tiring. If anything, The Knot turns the cliché about sophomore slumps on its head by being much stronger than If Children.
By Bill Meyer dustedmagazine
Robin Guthrie – Angel Falls EP [darla, 2009]
tracklist:
1. Camera Lucida
2. Love Never Dies a Natural Death
3. Red Moon Rising
4. Delicate
The most glib and simplistic (yet extremely accurate) way to describe Angel Falls is “this sounds exactly like some of the better Cocteau Twins songs, but with Liz Fraser’s vocals replaced with guitars.” Of course, I was never a particularly huge Fraser fan, so that is perfectly fine with me. However, the absence of a vocalist does have some negative consequences: pop instrumentals are kind of a hard sell. I suppose perhaps a vocalist humanizes music and creates a stronger connection with the listener, or maybe the presence of lyrics just adds more information and variation to the melody (which makes multiple listens more rewarding), or maybe there is some intangible third possibility that has not even occurred to me yet. I suspect it is a riddle that I will never truly solve. Regardless, I hope this EP finds a suitably receptive audience somehow, as this is some great summer music. It would also be great music to soundtrack a shoegazer barbeque, an alternative prom, a montage of bittersweet romantic memories, or an epic heroin binge. To his credit, Guthrie has presciently and decisively filled those niches before most of the world was even aware that they existed.
Angel Falls consists of four short songs, all of which are quite enjoyable and adhere very closely to the sound that Guthrie is known for: layers of chiming arpeggios and hazy heavily chorused chords, melodic bass lines, and an atmosphere of blissful melancholy. “Camera Lucida” kicks off the EP with all of these elements in maximum abundance and gradually builds from a gentle ringing melody into something that approaches a rock song, while the following track (“Love Never Dies a Natural Death”) is a sleepy gem of slow-motion, quavering beauty. The somewhat darker closing track (“Delicate”) is probably the best piece on the album, as it shimmers, glistens, quivers, and chimes with an elegant, spidery beauty and spacey bliss that one can only get from the guitar of Robin Guthrie. The whole thing is over in less than twenty minutes, which makes this EP a very effective teaser for Guthrie’s upcoming new album: rather than overstaying its welcome, Angel Falls left me wishing it hadn’t ended so soon.
While I certainly enjoyed Angel Falls quite a bit, it is nevertheless a clear example of why Guthrie has always been a bit of a puzzle to me: it has been over twenty-five years since the Cocteau Twins’ debut album was released and there has been very little deviation from that original formula since. It seems strange to me that someone who heavily influenced My Bloody Valentine and played such an integral role in defining the whole shoegazer genre would be so reluctant to expand his very narrow sonic palette. I wonder if Guthrie is in a creative rut or if he just a victim of his own prolific output: it is hard to imagine Kevin Shields being as revered as he is if Loveless had been followed by half a dozen more albums in roughly the same vein. Then again, perhaps Guthrie just has a very specific vision of how he wants to sound and has spent his entire adult life trying to perfect it. Or maybe his more adventurous impulses are vented in his filmmaking and soundtrack work. Or maybe he has been saving up all of his wild and brilliant ideas for next Violet Indiana album (if it ever comes out). Yet another possibility is that I need to stop overanalyzing his creative arc and just be happy that he is sitting in France quietly amassing a large body of great songs- it’s hard to say. Regardless, a new release from Guthrie is always welcome and 2009 is packed full of them: he has a new full-length (Carousel) dropping in August and another EP (Songs to Help My Children Sleep) slated for October. brainwashed
Matt Joe Gow and the Dead Leaves – The Messenger [liberation, 2009]
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tracklist:
01. Come To Mama She Say
02. Come What May
03. At The Bar
04. The Light
05. Steady Life
06. Land Is Burning
07. Things Fall Apart
08. At The Seams
09. I Let You Be
10. It’s Not Hard
11. Up On The Hill
There are a few key qualities that the discerning music lover scrutinises when appraising a new artist. It goes without saying that hair and wardrobe are crucial. However, some might argue that integrity is just as important. Can you trust the artist? Does that artist deliver with the conviction to make you believe?
A very few artists wield so much charisma that they can sell you just about anything before you’ve realised what’s happened. Matt Joe Gow has the charisma to be one of those artists – but he isn’t. Matt prefers to concentrate on the conviction. On writing and delivering songs that look you straight in the eye. You don’t have to listen to more than thirty seconds of Matt’s debut LP The Messenger to appreciate that. The deep quaver in his voice leaps out of opening track Come To Mama like an arrow, both graceful and inexorable.
And when Matt hollers, “I’m crawling on my knees”, on the grinding Land Is Burning (topical, eh?), you know he’s been down there. He might even be dredging that very holler you hear from the floor on all fours.
Oddly enough, it’s becoming fashionable to claim influences like Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons. Even in Australia! If you ever get the chance to sit down and chat with Matt, you’ll discover that such influences run deep and true. He’ll talk your ear off about Steve Young – the author of Seven Bridges Road that The Eagles rode to fame and one of the world’s most underrated singer-songwriters – and what a profound influence the Rock, Salt, Nails album continues to be.
Like most of us, Matt’s formative musical epiphanies came early. Whilst labouring away at classical piano lessons, he began to wonder why what he was being taught to play in no way resembled the Stones, Dylan and Cash records that his parents were listening to at home. It wasn’t long before Matt was singing such songs in a band, and then picking up a guitar in order to write his own.
Like most New Zealanders with any imagination, Matt soon found himself compelled to stray beyond the boundaries of his wonderful country. Though he grew up in Dunedin, a town of impeccable musical pedigree (surely you’ve heard of the Flying Nun Label and Artists Straitjacket Fits and The Chills?); Matt followed the example of his well-travelled parents and sought further edification abroad – Asia, Europe, and, of course, America, home to his musical heroes – Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Jeff Tweedy… A band, Tearlighter, was formed in Canada, and an EP released. A solo EP was recorded in England.
And then along came something called alt country. “It wasn’t until, I guess, some of the late ‘90s alt country bands like The Jayhawks and Ryan Adams / Whiskeytown, stuff like that, that I realised that you could play music like the music I’d grown up listening to, you could actually still do that, and that was okay.”
A move to Melbourne, a place where independent spirits and western shirts live together in harmony, reinforced Matt’s faith in the music he’d always loved. Matt heeded the many recommendations he’d received to “take music more seriously” (and realised that he wasn’t much good at anything else), and went about assembling a band, The Dead Leaves – in Matt’s own words, a bunch of “like-minded guys who are into playing music that’s really honest, raw music that’s kind of like the stuff we grew up on. Timeless music. Stuff that’s not really influenced by what’s going on now.”
As the band – drummer Adam Coad, guitarist Andrew Pollock and bassist Kain Borlase – began playing weekly, Matt noticed that the songs that he and the audiences were most embracing melded his contemplative lyrical musings with more upbeat country-rock instrumentation. More fans began turning up, and the Liberation label came on board and offered Matt and the boys an opportunity to record with Nash Chambers, brother of Kasey and producer of some of the greatest albums recorded in this wide brown land.
Nash Chambers excels at tearing the heart out of a great live band and pinning it proudly on their record sleeve – where it should be. And he has an uncanny ability to tap into the very soul of country music, the same one that inspired so many of Matt’s heroes.
“I thought it would be interesting working with someone who has sold a lot of records,” Matt recalls his preconceptions of Nash. “I just thought ‘oh shit, how’s this going to go?’ Because I know how I want my music to sound and he obviously has a lot of experience. I had no real idea. He’d told me before that he doesn’t really do any preproduction so I knew we’d be making a pretty raw record.”
Summoning additional instrumental input from the likes of the legendary Bill Chambers and Midnight Oil’s, Nash set the tape rolling and thrust The Dead Leaves into the spotlight. Which suited them just fine.
“You have to let go and realise that’s how some of the best stuff happens,” Matt says of the experience. “And also being true to what you listen to. My influences, I mean like The Stones’ Exile On Main Street, things like that, half of it’s a shambles. It’s just a bunch of guys going for it, and if you’ve got some good ideas and you trust the musicians you’re working with then you can come up with something pretty special. I think if we treated the record any other way then it just wouldn’t be true to the ideas and influences it comes from.”
As a result, The Mesengere is the sound of a unique young artist realising his vision. And I don’t need to tell you what a rare and precious thing that is these days. pbsfm
Silk Flowers – Silk Flowers [Post Present Medium, 2009]
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tracklist:
1. Flash of Light
2. Night Shades
3. Sand
4. Cheap Shot
5. Fragmented Minor
6. In This Place
7. Birds of Passion
8. Costume
9. Running Out of Rope
10. Shadows in Daylight
Name: Silk Flowers
From: New York, New York
Story: No Age bros know weird
Sound: Fuzzy, muffled, proto-electro gloom
When Dean Spunt from No Age says, of Silk Flowers, “they’re probably the weirdest band I know,” it’s not hyperbole out to hype a record he’s putting out on his own Post Present Medium label. Because Silk Flowers are a weird band.
It starts with Aviram Cohen’s weird singing; an affected, self-parodying baritone moan that sounds like a stand-up comedian doing a mocking impersonation of Scott Walker. Drawing from the proto-electro dissonance of ’70s pioneers Suicide or nasty early-’80s provocateurs Throbbing Gristle, the music matching Cohen’s comic crooning is full of clunky, lumpen drum-machine thunk and eerie synthesizer sound.
Recorded by Fred Thomas —the longtime frontman of indie-pop outfit Saturday Looks Good to Me who, this year, reinvented himself as experimentalist with his City Center project— the album has a fuzzy, muffled, no-fidelity sound. In fact, it sounds a lot like Ariel Pink’s warped, wobbly take on archaic analogue sound.
Since forming in New York last year, Silk Flowers have opened up shows for Animal Collective, Crystal Stilts, Blank Dogs, Grouper and High Places, and have toured with their label-bosses, No Age, themselves. Post Present Medium has just released Silk Flowers’ debut, self-titled LP, and the band will be taking their weird music onto the road in support of such. Dates, and single “Flash of Light,” below. altmusic
Homunculus – Words
What a glorious album this is. This has to be one of the best pop albums of the last 10 years, no joke. The album opens with the masterful “Here and There,” chock-full of harmonies; a melody that meanders high and low, hither and thither; splendidly crafted piano, bass, and drums; and a late bridge that’s as enrapturing as the chorus. This song leads into the awesome power-pop tune “Kitten’s Got Claws” and from there into the bouncy, tongue-twisting “Your Own Design.” Next is the tropical, laid-back “Deep South Beach.”
On “Time In A Can,” Homunculus turn out a song that in every respect but one is a perfect imitation of Steely Dan. The only point of variance—and I think it is a notable one—is that, in contrast to Steely Dan, this song does not induce vomiting. In fact, this song is very enjoyable and pleasant. It is very curious.
The only misstep is the mid-album jazz-turd, “Walking Home.” Fortunately, the stench is confined entirely to this track, and Homunculus saunter right along with the immaculate pop of “When Sheila Dances,” pretending not to notice that they just flung aural feces directly into our ears. But let us not linger on the atrocity of “Walking Home,” for whatever lingering ill-feeling I had been harboring immediately disappeared when the last track, “Okay,” arrives. Technically, this song is a bonus track. Let’s not kid ourselves. “Okay” is a grand finale, a brilliant starburst of splendor, an audio orgasm, an explosion of laughter and happiness and feeling. “Okay” is the reason you listen to music. The entire album is a masterpiece and deserves to be listened to by everyone, but if, for whatever reason, you neglect the rest of the album, do not fail to hear “Okay.” It’s a must-hear.
Sadly, the band is defunct, but the primary singer/songwriter of the band is apparently involved in a band called Fokushima, who have released an self-titled EP an album called Worried Well. I only just found this out. I’ve linked to their MySpace page below.
http://www.mediafire.com/?duy1lwummoz
Joe Henry – Blood from Stars [anti, 2009]
tracklist:
Prelude: Light No Lamp When The Sun Comes Down
The Man I Keep Hid
Channel
This Is My Favorite Cage
Death To The Storm
All Blues Hail Mary
Bellwether
Progress of Love (Dark Ground)
Over Her Shoulder
Suit On A Frame
Truce
Stars
Coda: Light No Lamp When The Sun Comes Down
Press Release from JoeHenryLovesYouMadly.com :
Joe Henry to Release Blood From Stars August 18
Renaissance Man Eschews Decorum to Reveal More Vital, Raw and Dark 11th Album
Joe Henry’s new record Blood From Stars begins with a poignant and haunting piano prelude before launching into “The Man I Keep Hid,” a raw, bluesy track undercut with a ghostly voice of a man rambling on before Henry comes in with the first line “nobody knows the man that I keep hid.” An apt beginning for Henry’s eleventh full-length record, for Blood From Stars reveals a side of Henry rarely glimpsed in his recent work, which has been notable in its suave urbanity, poetic lyricism and literary sensibility. Rather, the new work is a passionate and direct breakthrough from one of today’s most acclaimed singer songwriters.
“It’s more emotionally available, certainly less mannered,” says Henry, speaking of the difference between Blood From Stars and his 2007 release Civilians. “It’s much more electric, in the literal and also the emotional sense of the word. It is raw, with many loose threads hanging.”
Backed by a handpicked collection of players, including Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello) who worked with Henry on his 2001 release Scar and acclaimed jazz pianist Jason Moran, Henry crafted Blood From Stars with a clear idea of structure, but also with a refreshingly open and fluid approach to the outcome of the songs, creating a loose, swinging, vital sound.
“Partly, I just loved what happened when this particular group of musicians heard a song and had to respond to it in a very immediate way,” Henry explained. “I can always go back to what I thought [the song should sound like], but if you limit them to your own imagination, then you’re just cutting yourself off from the richest resource you have.”
Henry has spent the better part of the last decade in a recording studio, lending his considerable talents and tastes to producing records from the likes of Solomon Burke (who’s Henry-produced Don’t Give Up on Me won a Grammy for the Best Contemporary Blues album of 2002), Bettye LaVette, and many others.
“When I find the production work to be satisfying, it really does fuel more work. I tell my wife, ‘the more I work, the more I work.’ It keeps the engine idling all the time. I used to see producing and my work as an artist to be separate enterprises but the more I’ve continued, I start to see less and less distinction between what I do for myself and what I do for other people. In both cases my job is to make something meaningful come out of a pair of speakers.”
Two recent releases Henry produced, Allen Toussaint’s the Bright Mississippi and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s A Stranger Here, find the venerable artists exploring classic blues songs. With his work as a producer and a songwriter overlapping and informing one another, it is only natural that the blues found their way onto Henry’s Blood From Stars.
“I was playing with a writing form…a blues structure, in the same way that you might sit down and try to write a sonnet or a haiku. I was intrigued by how structured and how simple those ideas of, say, a pair of repeating lines answered by a refrain can be,” Henry says and continues, “I’ve been reading a lot of poets lately, and lot of diverse poetry very consciously references a blues tonality, whether its Langston Hughes or Allen Ginsberg or e.e. cummings. Poets are very aware of the power of that structure.”
Ultimately, Blood From Stars is a departure from the expected sound of a Joe Henry record, and its author seems perfectly at ease with his new persona. “If it’s standing up, declaring itself as living thing, I’m completely enthralled by it. My ego has no problem with not controlling the process,” he paused, then continued with a laugh, “as long as it makes me look good in the end.”
Jackie-O Motherfucker – Ballads of the Revolution [Fire Records, 2009]
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tracklist:
01. Nightingale
02. Dark Falcons
03. Skylight
04. The Corner
05. The Cryin’ Sea
06. A Mania
Anyone who attends performances of improvised or otherwise ‘experimental’ music with any sort of regularity will probably be familiar with that sinking feeling of self-doubt that comes when watching an ensemble misfire badly, live on stage. Why give over so much time to listening to awkward nitwits make a dismal, focus-free racket in the name of ‘art’? This writer’s definitive moment of this type arrived, about five years ago, at the hands of Portland’s Jackie-O Motherfucker: a set of pointless scrabbling, painful like watching a tramp try and thread a needle, and ending with the sort of ‘turntable manipulation’ that would get a toddler told off by its DJ dad. You felt that your friends from school might turn up, just to point and laugh at you for what you, an adult, choose to do for entertainment.
It was all very frustrating because JOMF were/are a band whose critical acclaim had some justification. Their prodigious output, and the limited nature of much of it, makes picking out their best work a bit of a game of chance, but ATP’s double-CD reissue of early LPs The Magick Fire Music and Wow! is pretty friggin’ essential if you wish to sample the cream of what gets called, seemingly to no-one’s satisfaction, New Weird America or the free folk movement. Now 15 years old as a band, their more readily available albums have become less obtuse and abrasive with each release, the members – Tom Greenwood being the only constant in the lineup – seemingly getting a taste for Americana and the more structured notion of psychedelia. Ballads Of The Revolution, their second album for UK indie Fire Records, is probably their most accessible release to date. It will only freak out the squarest of squares, but its six tracks contain golden sparks within sheets of leaden drone.
In an unusual move, Ballads Of The Revolution’s first two songs were both written by other people. ‘Nightingale’, flagged here as a traditional ballad, appears to be a version of Friedrich Schiller’s poem ‘The Maiden’s Lament’, which comes with the rather grand pedigree of having been set to music by Schubert in the early 19th century. Carried along on a frame of opiated country-rock guitar, it’s also Ballads…’ first instance of JOMF getting their spacerock suits on and slavedriving their flange and delay pedals under a hot sun. The low-gravity droning of Spacemen 3, early Spiritualized and Bardo Pond is recalled not only here, but on ‘Skylight’ and ‘The Corner’, the latter of these drifting off into a very heady ether that sounds a bit like Amp or some other largely forgotten ‘bedroom ambient’ band from the Nineties. (It also features that infernal turntablism, allegedly, but it’s unlikely anyone other than Greenwood would recognise it as such.)
Track two, ‘Dark Falcon’ – it would have been good if the theme of avian titles continued throughout the album, but sadly no – is a remix of sorts, of a track by LA tapeloop architects Lucky Dragons. The degree of commonality between the two bands, that being a shared desire to build ornate and beautiful structures from semi-formed clatter, crash and fuzz, is made flesh here with some success. It says here that Honey Owens is singing the liner notes from an old album by The Mamas & The Papas, which is an amusing riff on the hoary crit cliché about great singers being able to intone the phone book, or a shopping list, and give it emotional impact; still Owens is hardly the definition of a great singer, and you can’t really make out the words. You may well think it sounds a bit like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, mind you.
Closing number ‘A Mania’ sings of “the deep blue sea” over smears of wah-wah guitar and plaintive electric folk, a testament to America’s musical freak flag fliers of the last 40 years. Sonic Youth have been dubbed a sort of Grateful Dead for the modern era by more than a few people; while JOMF are unlikely to make that title their own, enjoying a fraction of SY’s fanbase, ‘A Mania’ – and, ultimately, Ballads Of The Revolution as a whole – indicates that the reference point can serve as a compliment. Their brilliance might only flash up sporadically but as long as it’s present at all, it’s worth knowing Jackie-O Motherfucker are around. drownedinsound
Blindfold – Faking Dreams [Cinepop, 2009]
tracklist:
1. Falleg Depuro 3:40
2. Sad Face 4:35
3. Faking Dreams 3:55
4. Fit You 4:07
5. Wait 3:49
6. Don’t Think It’s A Sin 2:59
7. Hungry Heat 4:21
8. Caffeine & Sleeping Pills 5:14
09. Confused 5:50
10. Reverse 9:57
Biggi – Vocals, Guitars & Rhodes
Svenni – Guitars
Teitur – Bass
Jón Mar – Drums
Maddalena – Cello
BLINDFOLD are four guys from Iceland. They live in London and forge a heady mixture of stunning ambience, spiky intricate punch, electronics and guitar. One minute they bathe the listener in waves of melancholic, drifting ambient soundscape with haunting lyrics from the sparkling tonsils of front man Biggi. The next minute the powerhouse drums, punchy bass, and crashing clever guitars spiral to create a rather large leftfield progressive noise indeed.
Influences abound, but none quite nail BLINDFOLD to the mast. You may hear elements of Radiohead / Sigur Rós and Ulrich Schnauss topped with a pinch of Emo / Electronica and Film Score Sonics. BLINDFOLD’s new album ‘Faking Dreams’ feels like a solid release, which has taken time and craft to create. Live they are punchy, vast, rocky and from the first note played you know these guys would blow any festival on the globe away with one giant flick of a lighter held high.
The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin [Nonesuch, 2009]
tracklist:
01. Charlie Darwin
02. To Ohio
03. Ticket Taker
04. The Horizon is a Beltway
05. Home I’ll Never Be
06. Cage The Song Bird
07. (Don’t) Tremble
08. Music Box
09. Champion Angel
10. To the Ghosts Who Write History Books
11. OMGCD
12. To Ohio (reprise)
Taking cues from the founding father of evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin, an isolated Block Island house-turned-recording studio is The Low Anthem’s Galapagos. The Providence folk trio’s debut, Oh My God Charlie Darwin—a major label re-release after finding its success on a local level—swaps finches for folk instruments, looking to the English naturalist as not only lyrical inspiration, but as a model for their own reconnaissance of uncharted sonic terrains. The group took a grassroots approach to every step of the musical process with Darwin—together playing 27 different instruments, lyrically contemplating social Darwinism, and even hand silk-screening the album’s covers—resulting in a record that embodies the DIY Americana aesthetic.
“[On Darwin] there’s this real love of the natural, but it’s also kind of futile because the world is moving away from that old-school simplicity and the humanity of older kinds of recording towards recording that’s done more by computers, and where the players are less significant,” explains Knox-Miller. “I definitely see our record as sort of a dying art form, that sort of naturalism in recording.”
The group’s re-release of Oh My God Charlie Darwin on Nonesuch Records after a limited independent release late last year, coupled with critically-acclaimed performances at SxSW and Bonnaroo, have led fans and critics to hail The Low Anthem as the next big thing in folk music. Over Jameson and dumplings, a discussion of Darwin, Dylan, and the new album with Prystowsky and lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Ben Knox-Miller before their headlining show at the Bowery Ballroom went down.
“What does love mean if survival of the fittest is actually the way that everything came to be?” questions bassist Jeff Prystowsky, explaining the album’s Darwinian symbolism. “We’re playing these songs, we’re artists, and it’s such a cutting theory to think that maybe our feelings of love and connection to our fellow man are somehow in our own interest, that they’re selfish… That has a significant impact on the art that you make and the way you live your life.” Created in 2006 during their freshman year at Brown University, The Low Anthem was the brainchild of Knox-Miller and Prystowsky’s red-eyed musings while working the late shift at a campus alternative radio station. “We worked together at the radio station doing late-night DJing. We’d do two to 5:30 A.M. when you can play anything you want, so we had a lot of time to talk about music and things like that,” says Knox-Miller.
Knox-Miller and Prystowsky painstakingly recorded their first tracks by themselves in an apartment without proper equipment or a sound engineer, and their homemade debut album subsequently became a local success in Rhode Island. Clarinetist Jocie Adams joined the band soon after for Darwin, an album which meanders fluently from hushed, hymnal folk ballads to rowdier, Tom Waits-esque rock tunes.
“This next record has a bigger sound because it’s the three of us playing live. All the arrangements are written by Jocie and very deliberate and very beautiful. The result is a record that really has a lot more surprises on it, a lot more variation from song to song,” says Knox-Miller.
Having completed the bulk of the recording for Darwin in an isolated house on Block Island during the bleak winter months, Knox-Miller and Prystowsky now roll their eyes at being casually lumped into the category of “cabin bands.”
“I’m getting a bit tired of everyone talking about the cabin. The last four reviews that I’ve read started out as ‘Another band records in a cabin’… Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, The Low Anthem: cabin folk,” laughs Knox-Miller. “But yes, we recorded in a remote location in silence, which is a good way to record. It’s the natural version of what a studio is meant to be, which is a place that’s closed off acoustically from the rest of the world.”
Their love of isolated islands isn’t the only affinity between The Low Anthem and their album’s namesake. Darwinian references are embedded throughout the lyrics of the poetic album, most notably in the title track “Charlie Darwin”—“And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin/ Fighting for a system built to fail.”
“Darwin and this idea of survival of the fittest is an illuminating way of thinking about almost any question … The record takes on a complicated stance towards religion and Christian values, which are at the core of American values. It’s definitely not a record that’s pro or con towards Christianity, but it’s amazing to think of Christianity as more of a circumstantial thing that society has evolved with,” says Knox-Miller. “Also, the guy is in love with every little detail of the world. He’s fascinated with studying things that were taken for granted for so long and willing to rewrite the foundation of how we look at the natural world around us. It’s a beautiful, inspiring story.” In love with the musical world, the three band members play 27 various instruments on the album, from zither to Tibetan prayer bowl to cell phones, and are constantly searching for new instruments to incorporate into their unique sound.
“We’ll stop at tag sales while we’re on tour, old vintage stores, trying to find older instruments. We’re looking for a hurdy-gurdy right now, for instance. There are lots of world instruments that I’d like to explore,” says Prystowsky. Songwriters Bob Dylan (who both Knox-Miller and Prystowsky laud as the greatest songwriter ever) and Tom Waits area pervasive influence on the album, which seems to acknowledge this inspiration with their cover of “Home I’ll Never Be,” a Tom Waits song with lyrics adopted from the eponymous Jack Kerouac poem.
Clearly, it’s a winning formula. The Low Anthem have moved on from sports bars to performances at SxSW and Bonnaroo and opening gigs for Ray Lamontagne, Josh Ritter, and Elvis Perkins, and headlining major venues like the Bowery Ballroom.
“The best thing about [our new success] is that we don’ have to play in sports bars anymore because we can play in a club and people will still come out. We worked for so long—first as a duo and then with Jocie—playing these shitty, shitty clubs and trying to get real shows,” says Knox-Miller.
Prystowsky and Knox-Miller agree that the melancholy “Ticket Taker” is their favorite song to perform live because it holds most meaning for all members of the group. The moving, hymnal melody—“ And I will be your arc/ We will float above the storm”—transfixed the crowd during their Monday night performance at the Bowery Ballroom.
“We give our best every night to get to the psychic place where that song came from, to do it as best we can,” says Knox-Miller. “We’re not jaded yet enough to just go out there every night and play a safe set… Every night we still have the ambition to do something magical. Probably more times than not it doesn’t happen, but at least we’re trying. And even when that trying fails, there’s a sort of beautiful decaying failure in that which in itself is maybe worth seeing and being a part of.” blackbookmag
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