The Features
Contrast EP
Independent Release
originally published February 28, 2007
Discovered, signed, dropped and continuing to make music nonetheless, The Features are less a phoenix story than a Sisyphus one. See, comparing a band to a phoenix implies reinvention post-immolation, whereas Sisyphus keeps doing the same thing despite discouragement. The comparison only works if, like Camus, we imagine Sisyphus happy, and persistence of this Tennessee band does seem to work in that paradigm.
The production quality is more garage-like on the lower-budget Contrast EP than it was on their major-label record, but the fuzziness works a bit better with this type of music than crisp outlines did. Five short songs with Franz Ferdinand-esque directness and simplicity (but less poutiness and more rock) whiz through your ears, and any one of them could easily put the band back on top commercially.
Catchy and fueled by both attitude and Matt Pelham’s edgy vibrato vocals, every track is pleasurable in an iPod commercial way; they’re the sort of tunes with just the right mix of interest and blandness not to become annoying after the millionth listen, and they have a controlled freak-out vibe - “We love to rock! (But we’re also professionals)” - that’s perfect for the yindie crowd. Even if some of it sounds as though you’ve already heard it a ton of times, it’s surprisingly hard to do this genre well, and besides, the race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.
The Victrolas
Drop the Needle
Independent Release
originally published February 28, 2007
American roots music is constantly being resuscitated, and another kiss of life is coming from Nashville-based band The Victrolas, which you may remember from its stint in Athens circa 2004. Drop the Needle , the band's self-produced first album, is an impressive blend of alternative country, bluesy folk and straight-up rock and roll. The members of The Victrolas make music about what they know, and what they know best are the trials, tribulations and triumphs of everyday living. Drop the Needle is packed full of heartache, beer guzzling, good times, good friends, bad decisions, and, of course, a little bit of Southern pride.
The last track on the album, "Here's to You (Nashville, TN)," is one of the most rollicking songs on the disc and should be worthy of "official state song" recognition. However, the song that really pulls at the heartstrings is the somber ballad "Forgiveness in a Song," which contains one of the warmest and most soothing endings recently put on a record.
Musically, The Victrolas sound like a mix between Cross Canadian Ragweed and Whiskeytown. But lyrically, these guys add a little more hijinx to their sound, for example the song "Dry County" focuses on a problem anyone living in the South can relate to, "There's a pretty little girl in the corner of the bar, as I broke another string on my old guitar. Now I wanna get drunk and forget her name, but they don't sell beer in this town on Sunday." They sure don't, but that's a little slice of Americana for you.
Exploding Star Orchestra
We Are All From Somewhere Else
Thrill Jockey
originally published February 28, 2007
Exploding Star Orchestra finds Chicago Jazz staple, Rob Mazurek, leading a larger ensemble than his usual Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, etc. We Are All From Somewhere Else weaves tales of the collapsing cosmos, the afterlife of a sting ray and the clash of man and nature…
At least that’s what Mazurek’s corresponding poem/ liner notes would have you believe. Concepts aside, Somewhere Else is a snapshot of Windy City jazz in the year 2007. Mazurek is credited as the album’s composer. But with 14 of Chicago’s finest improvisers, including several key members of Tortoise and Ken Vandermark’s mafias, such as John McIntyre, Jeb Bishop and Jim Baker, improv plays an obvious role here.
“Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time Pt. 1” is the first step into Somewhere Else ’s multi-layered expedition of swirling horns, vibes, descending rhythms and tonal majesty. “Pt. 3” sputters in noise and resonance, while “Black Sun” is a sparse round of avant-garde piano shivers.
“Cosmic Tomes For Sleep Walking Lovers” erupts into five episodes of horn and drum clusters, evoking the less structured moments of Tortoise’s TNT consumed by a jumble of hard bop. Later parts drift through moments of noir, mystery and noise, not unlike Disney’s Fantasia mixed with the magic of Eric Satie and all of the reverence he felt toward nature, stripped of melancholy and replaced with the world-class presence of Chicago jazz in all of its revolutionary glory.
Jdown Valmont
The End of the Beginning mixtape
Independent Release
originally published February 28, 2007
An excess of earnestness is not local rapper Jdown Valmont’s problem. In fact, The End of the Beginning shows he may not have a problem at all, with the exception of one check to the ATL as his city of origin. Lookit, you might be young, talented, ballsy and more, with a seductive flow that sells this introductory mixtape as the beginning of the rise to the top. Love for Athens would've put it over the top.
Valmont always sounds like he’s on the verge of breaking out into laughter, with a slightly pinched delivery that’s both lounging and dexterous, like he’s your new buddy putting an arm around your shoulder and successfully talking you into lending him money. Those vocals are mixed by DJ Madd really nicely over the backing tracks, which incorporate a lot of old soul samples, and mostly fall into the smack-talking category, the “I’m on my way up” genre, with an explicit appeal on the first real track, “The Truth,” to everyone out there (smokers of weed, gangstas, lovers of Talib Kweli and Outkast). Really, it seems like there’s no reason they wouldn’t listen. Valmont can spin a story, turn a phrase and move lithely from conversation to quick rhymes (e.g., on “Back in the Game,” perhaps the best song on the CD).
Mostly, Valmont proves with this set of 12 tracks (11 if you minus the intro, which is all talk) that he’s interested in making records - not in some abstract notion about the purity of the live, improvised rap show - and records are what will take you places. It's a promising attitude, especially considering Valmont has plans to release a full album called The Highlife later this spring. Like it or not, this is the age of mechanical reproduction, and that doesn’t mean the work of art can’t exist. It just means it can exist for a larger population, a more diverse audience with smaller individual resources; Valmont’s not just a wicked good emcee, he’s also a populist.
Money Mark
Brand New By Tomorrow
Brushfire
originally published February 28, 2007
Money Mark? The guy from all the best Beastie Boys records? Huh. I'm sure I'm not the only one who equates Mark Ramos-Nishita with the rejuvenation of the Beasties' renewal in the early '90s, beginning with Check Your Head . His keyboard expertise lent and inspired an entire new direction for the rap misfits. For a while thereafter, Money Mark enjoyed a renaissance himself, playing with Beck, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and many others. Then began a series of likable but forgettable solo records, most falling into funk-pop territory. Brand New By Tomorrow is his first full-length since 2001's Change is Coming , and it's strange hearing an artist so entrenched in a nostalgic context after so long. It's difficult to separate him from my past, when I can't even remember the last time I heard Ill Communication coming out of speakers rather than inside my head.
There are cheesy moments here in spades, to be certain. "Summer Blue" could fit beautifully on the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack with its bass stabs and funky keyboard fills. But elsewhere there are surprising moments, as on "Pretend to Sleep." Here Mark mines a pure Elvis Costello vein, with legitimate success. Not only did I not know he could pen an effective ballad, but he can sing fairly well, too. In fact, that's the dominant mood: a bouncier "Alison." Ballad follows ballad, so maybe I should throw Burt Bacharach into the description. Brand New By Tomorrow has allowed Money Mark to fly out of his pigeonhole, and while there's nothing much to seriously praise, there's very little to pan.
My Teenage Stride
Ears Like Golden Bats
Becalmed
originally published February 28, 2007
My Teenage Stride really, really, really likes The Smiths. And Ears Like Golden Bats sounds as though the Brooklyn band has taken one Smiths song and recorded it 14 different ways. The album strives to be a collection of melancholy indie pop/ new wave tunes, but 15 seconds after the start of each song, it recedes into an under-stylized version of the preceding song. After listening to the album, it's not certain whether you've listened to many different songs, or one song many times.
One of the main issues on Ears Like Golden Bats is the war going on between the bass and the melody. While the melody changes tempo and direction, the bass continues (in every song) to sound as though the goal were to cram as many bass notes into a measure as humanly possible. Jenny Logan's bass is such a distraction that it becomes the only thing you can clearly hear, making the rest of the instrumentation sound discordant.
The heartfelt attempt at '80s nostalgia is completely lost, being that Tris McCall's synth is so underrepresented on the album. Lastly, Jedediah Smith's vocals, while they don't sound bad per se , do sound uncomfortably similar to Morrissey. Ears Like Golden Bats probably won't win a Grammy any time soon, unless there's a new category created called "Most Derivative Band of the Year."
David Karsten Daniels
Sharp Teeth
Fat Cat
originally published February 28, 2007
Another Southern songwriter with schizophrenic folk tendencies backed by a haggard jamboree orchestra has endeared himself to me. Is there a support group in town for the similarly afflicted? Probably not. But addiction to drunken mariachi horn arrangements and emotionally distraught vocals examining the darkest corners of human condition is probably healthier than most vices. So I’ll probably spend a while ingesting mass quantities of David Karsten Daniels’ Sharp Teeth in the shadows.
The steady tension of album opener “The Dream Before the Ring that Woke Me” builds to something resembling complete brainwash using delightfully tolerable repetition of the lyrics “There is a joy that you can’t contain / There is a feeling you just can’t explain.” At first sparse and sophomoric, the acoustic guitar and solo vocals are joined by a soaring string arrangement and layered chorus leaving an impression that can’t help but elicit comparison to both the Polyphonic Spree and Phosphorescent; as the album progresses, the positively cheeky vibe of the former disintegrates and an ethereal, melancholy mood perfected by the latter emerges.
Daniels opines on the religious tip during the campfire dirge “Jesus and the Devil” and his uncertainty borders on hopelessness while the bending notes of the slide guitar are buried in the mix. When he attempts to filter the issue again during “Beast,” the gritty dregs of a cynical perspective and genuine sadness emerge. “You’re gonna have to look the beast in the face,” he chants over and again. Ain’t that the truth.
Rob Crow
Living Well
Temporary Residence Limited
originally published February 28, 2007
The first time I heard Pinback, I immediately dismissed it as typical emo. Not that it reeked overwhelmingly of that genre's many trappings, but the tag seemed to fit somehow. A couple of years later, I heard the same Pinback record again, and, although I hated emo even more at this point, I didn't hear it in the band's sound anymore. So I forgave the group and myself and was soon a fan. The last album, 2004's Summer in Abaddon , is thus far the band's peak, solidifying the solid indie-pop greatness it had flirted with previously.
Main Pinbacker Rob Crow is quite prolific (except when compared to Bob Pollard), and since Summer in Abaddon came out, he's formed a number of side bands, most notably faux-metal-pop group Goblin Cock. Now he has resurfaced yet again with the strongest non-Pinback project of his career, Living Well (by regular ol' Rob Crow). The obvious cliché would be: the best Pinback album Pinback never made. But it's true, for the most part. Living Well tweaks the well-worn formula merely as you'd expect. It's a solo album and is perfect as such. First single "I Hate You Rob Crow" is a minute-and-a-half of pure simple goodness, insanely catchy. Crow's vocals are as light as ever, and his songs are so basic it's hard to pin down what makes them work so well. This is perhaps the definition of solid pop songwriting. "Up," however, is the album's highlight, and the first truly awesome song I've heard this year.
And there's Crow on the cover, taking it all in with a giant pentagram on his shirt and a metalhead beard. Don't judge this one by the awesome cover; what's inside rules more than most metal.
Dynamite Club
Are Your Hairs Real?
Funhole
originally published February 28, 2007
Dynamite Club has an arsenal of weapons and the band's not afraid to use them against you. Whether it's assaulting you with brutal math-rock-laced punk or ambushing you with an experimental jazz hook in the middle of a serious grindcore jam, these kids aren't playing around. Or, actually, they are. With a live performance that includes actual kung fu, underwear and wrestling, Dynamite Club should be considered a musical avant-garde performance group rather than just a band. Are Your Hairs Real? is the third full-length album from Dynamite Club. From start to finish, this album bursts with chaos, witticism, fun and a level of weirdness that goes miles beyond its predecessor It's Deeper Than Most People Actually Think . It's a little hard to distinguish the vocals, not due to any production failure, but because they jump so sporadically from English to Japanese, ranging from a hoarse whisper to an exasperated screech. However, one thing remains clear: all three members of the Dynamite Club are profoundly talented, especially considering the spectrum of styles and sounds they can generate from a guitar, bass and drums.
The raw energy prevalent on Are Your Hairs Real? never falters, not even on "slower" songs. And though the dissonant riffs and complex rhythmic structures may throw you off, every song is keenly aware of where it's going, giving the impression of smooth transitions, where in actuality, it may just be as random as how you choose your undies today.
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