The hottest music from Chicago & beyond

Month: June 2010 Page 1 of 3

Album Review: Lissie – Catching a Tiger [Columbia/Fat Possum]

The singer-songwriter simply known as Lissie is geographically challenged in more ways than one. First off, though she’s lived in Illinois for more years than she hasn’t, Lissie no longer calls the state home. Shortly after she was expelled from high school several years back, she took off for the West Coast, eventually settling in California but with a brief detour in Colorado to do some college there for a couple years. When discussing Lissie, many writers either say she’s an Illinois girl while others will call her a Californian. Where she prefers to be from officially is up to her. Secondly, despite writing songs in the tradition of great American songwriters and incorporating elements of folk, blues and country into her songs, Lissie has yet to make it big in the U.S. Instead, she’s blown up huge in Europe, in particular England, and that’s just a tad fascinating. Here in America, Lissie is just another struggling girl with a guitar, though she was one of the opening acts for Lenny Kravitz when he toured the country in 2008. Lissie’s music has also been used in a number of television shows including “House” and “Grey’s Anatomy”. Whether you know it or not, chances are you’ve heard at least one of her songs in one capacity or another. Now it just so happens that Lissie’s debut album “Catching a Tiger” was released in the UK very recently, and before the momentum catches up on this side of the pond, here’s a review for you.

Lissie’s sound is far from revolutionary. There are hundreds of other female singer-songwriters across the world doing something similar right this very second. They’ve got guitars and a bedroom and think that if they play enough coffee houses, perhaps a record label executive will walk in and they’ll get “discovered” one day. The thing about that dream and the challenge it provides is that most of these young women either don’t fully possess the talent to make it big, or the ones that do manage to find a way to screw up their big chance. Thankfully Lissie is none of these things, because you don’t rise up above your peers by being simply ordinary. What sets Lissie apart from the heaps of other ladies out there are a couple things. One of the first things you notice about her no matter what song you listen to is her voice. It’s smooth enough to be glass and has a wider range than the most unpopulated areas of Texas. There’s also a certain degree of emotion that shines through her voice, winning you over and convincing you that she truly does long for home or that some guy treated her poorly. To put it a different way, Lissie has a voice that projects and connects with the listener as much as it impresses. Because of her singing along with the occasional alt-country bent her songs can take, Lissie often evokes comparisons to Neko Case and Martha Wainright. That’s completely understandable, but on “Catching a Tiger” she displays more of a stylistic juggling act that pulls the easy references back and increases her accessibility to a mass audience. But the other big thing that separates Lissie from the pack is her songwriting. Her lyrics display a sharp maturity that certainly suggests they were written by somebody with a lot of life experience. Of course leaving high school, packing up your car and driving to California with all your possessions can get the wheels on the road to adulthood spinning pretty quickly. Really it’s admirable that Lissie moves beyond your typical female singer-songwriter cliche of failed relationships to tell stories about family, friends and the open road. And of course she does it all with smart wordplay that’s as wise as it is fascinating.

So as a debut album, “Catching a Tiger” turns out to be an excellent listening experience. Those who’ve been paying attention to Lissie in the past year or two have hopefully heard her 2009 EP “Why You Runnin'”, which served as a good precursor to what this new record is like. The three best tracks from that EP have been transplanted onto the twelve track album, and the nine brand new songs are almost all equally great. From the opening notes of the bouncy folk jaunt “Record Collector” through the country-tinged “Little Lovin'” five songs in, you get the feeling that there’s something fresh and exciting going on with this record. It’s front-loaded in the best sense of the word, and it’s both stylistically varied while cranking out memorable choruses that have a tendency to stay in your head longer than you could reasonably expect them to. The 60’s AM pop of “Stranger”, while still fun, somehow feels a little weaker than what’s come before it and it’s the start of a small string of tracks that feel relatively plain and homogenized. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that it veers into Sheryl Crow-like territory for a time and it’s a little distracting. The ballad “Everywhere I Go” recovers the album’s earlier momentum of great songs and brings a sharp emotional resonance that was missing in the couple tracks before it. “Look Away” is immensely beautiful in both the lyrical and compositional senses, adding bits of violin and piano to the guitars which really assists in conveying the dramatic nature of the words. Closing song “Oh Mississippi” feels like an old gospel song that’s been around for generations, almost in the vein of a “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”. The piano matched with Lissie’s vocals sell that idea, along with the subject matter being perhaps America’s greatest river, the mighty Mississippi. It’s the perfect way to end a record so stylistically varied and emotionally bare.

By all accounts, Lissie has set herself up to be one of the next great women to achieve success with her music not only in England where she’s breaking out, but around the world. Once “Catching a Tiger” is finally released in the U.S. on August 17th, don’t be surprised if she starts to make a sizeable impact on these shores. Between the number of potential hits on the album and that remarkable voice, Lissie has a whole lot to offer those who are willing to listen. She may not be attempting anything revolutionary or different from the great women that have come before her, but she’s using her strengths to her advantage and it seems to be working out. Though such comparisons are a little one-sided, fans of Neko Case, Cat Power, Feist and Stevie Nicks among others should find Lissie right up their alleys. And even if you don’t like them, maybe you’ll like Lissie anyways. There’s only one way to find out, and “Catching a Tiger” is a great introduction to a woman who will hopefully be on all of our radars for many more years to come.

Lissie – Everywhere I Go

Preorder “Catching a Tiger” from Fat Possum

Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 6-30-10

Great stuff as a part of today’s Pick Your Poison. You’re going to want to pay special attention to the Twin Sister remix of the How to Dress Well song “Ready for the World”, which is getting a fair amount of hype at the moment. Also good is a track from the upcoming new Jukebox the Ghost album, and Matthew Young is an artist you’re going to want to keep an eye on as well. But plenty of good songs from plenty of good bands available, download and have a listen for yourself.

BAMBARA – Stay Gray

Don Diablo vs. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Daddy

Dylan Gilbert – Isabella

Harvey Girls – Smile Like Gwynplaine

How to Dress Well – Ready for the World (Twin Sister Remix)

Jukebox the Ghost – Empire

Matthew Young – Dummy Line

Nick Butcher – Minutes Overlap

Postdata – Tobias Grey

Rivulets – Four Weeks

Spur – Mr. Creep

Album Review: Wolf Parade – Expo 86 [Sub Pop]

Wolf Parade should be the toast of the indie world right now. Not only did they arrive on the scene with 2005’s “Apologies to the Queen Mary” and introduce us all to two of music’s most formidable songwriting talents in Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner, but that singular album also brought forth their two main projects separate from one another – Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs. Given the way both of those bands subsequently broke out as a result, it wouldn’t be that much of a surprise if Wolf Parade never made another album. Still, 2008 brought Wolf Parade’s sophmore record “At Mount Zoomer”, and while it failed to reach the dizzying heights of its predecessor, the general praise for this band and the two main talents behind it remained largely intact. Now with one more Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs album apiece released last year, Krug and Boeckner apparently haven’t nearly run out of material as evidenced by the third Wolf Parade record “Expo 86” being released this week.

The most interesting thing about how Wolf Parade works is the way these two great artists work with one another. Both Krug and Boeckner have their own individual songwriting styles, and they tend to split the albums down the middle when it comes to who writes what. Boeckner was clearly the weaker link on “Apologies to the Queen Mary”, but of course he was also the one with less experience. Krug played the moody and wordy poet while Boeckner evoked the punk rock ethos and came up with quicker and sharper melodies as a smart contrast. There was a remarkable cohesion between the two guys anyways, and that’s what made the album so special. “At Mount Zoomer” lost a little bit of that intermingling perhaps mostly because everyone was keeping a close eye on exactly who was writing and singing what. The dynamic was still there, but it felt like both guys had retreated to their own corners and didn’t quite meet in the middle for their sophmore effort. Where “Expo 86” comes in is somewhere right in between those first two albums.

One of the biggest pluses “Expo 86” has to offer is the exceptionally improved songwriting by Dan Boeckner. He sounds as inspired as he did on “Face Control”, the Handsome Furs record released last year that showed remarkable progression from a guy who seemingly always favored energy over words. This new Wolf Parade album has him competing toe to toe with Krug, and that brings the cohesion back which made them such an exceptional band in the first place. Unless you’re looking at the songwriting credits, there are moments when it is challenging to determine exactly who wrote what, and with an increased reliance on vocal interplay between Krug and Boeckner, at times you can’t even fully be clear who’s got the lead vocal. And so for the first time it really sounds less like Wolf Parade are a collection of great talents and more like a fully formed and functional band. Also beneficial is the return of the nervous energy that dominated their first album in a really good way. The material here may be a little darker in general, but the synths play it off well to add warmth and avoid turning this into an all-out depressing affair.

The worst part about “Expo 86” is that many of its biggest strengths are also its biggest weaknesses. What with Boeckner’s much stronger presence on the album and the songs all coming off on equal footing more or less, there’s little to nothing that truly stands out. Everything sounds pretty great, and it is for the most part, but in terms of hard-hitters like “I’ll Believe In Anything” or “Shine A Light”, there’s a lack of distinction on the new album. “What Did My Lover Say (It Always Had to Go This Way)” is probably the closest thing to a legitimate hit on the record despite it being nearly 6 minutes long. But in this case Wolf Parade leave the absolute best for last, as “Cave-O-Sapien” is a slice of energetic and fun brilliance that’s one of their finest moments not only on this album but across the band’s entire catalogue. Once those 6+ minutes have finally expired along with the album itself, you come away with the feeling that everything was just left on the table and this band has nothing left to give. It’s just a shame that there aren’t more of those sorts of songs on “Expo 86”. Instead much of the record takes a middle of the road approach and satisfies in that regard. It partly begs the question of whether or not Krug and Boeckner are really delivering their best material on this album, or if they’re purposely saving most of it for their individual projects Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs. However things are working out, Wolf Parade remains a band to keep a very close eye on. “Expo 86” may lack the sharp step forwards this band needs to place them at the top of the indie cred pile again, but it does earn them back a bit of the mojo they lost on their last record.

Wolf Parade – Ghost Pressure
Wolf Parade – What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way)

Buy “Expo 86” from Sub Pop Records

Pick Your Poison: Tuesday 6-29-10

We’re quickly reaching the end of June, and it seems like only weeks ago this month was starting (yes, I’m aware of the sheer idiocy of this sentence, but I’m amused by it). As the days get hotter and so do the grills, another edition of Pick Your Poison might serve as a nice cool down. Today’s highlights include a brand new song from Frankie Rose and the Outs. For those who don’t know, Frankie Rose has been in about 4 different bands in the last couple years, from Vivian Girls to Crystal Stilts to Dum Dum Girls among others, and now she’s striking out on her own. Also worth paying attention to are mp3s from Hot Hot Heat and Toro y Moi. Check out that Woodsman song too, among others. These are all pretty good, so as usual use your own discretion when downloading.

Dax Riggs – No One Will Be A Stranger

Electric Tickle Machine – Honest Injun
Buy Electric Tickle Machine’s “Blew It Again” from iTunes

Eux Autres – You’re Alright

everyBoy – Another Love (Tanqueray)

Frankie Rose and the Outs – Little Brown Haired Girls

Freddie Gibbs – National Anthem (Fuck the World)

Halsted – Walking Shoes

Hot Hot Heat – Goddess on the Prairie

Lydia Burrell – Ring

Steel Train – Bullet
Steel Train – Turnpike Ghost

Toro y Moi – Leave Everywhere

Wake Up Lucid – Black Hair Woman

Woodsman – I Can’t Move

Album Review: Maps & Atlases – Perch Patchwork [Barsuk]

The boys in Maps & Atlases may officially call Chicago home, but they consider themselves more of a regionally located band rather than a city specific one. The four of them met in Chicago while attending art school, but hail from such far-off places as Texas, Pennsylvania and Hawaii. School is over for all of them, but they’re continuing their musical education by sticking together as a band. To date they’ve released two EPs in 2007 and 2008 via Sargent House, and are now signed to Barsuk just in time for the release of their debut full length, “Perch Patchwork”.

The early Maps & Atlases material focused largely on guitar work, specifically in playing a form of math rock. They seemed to be the heirs apparent to Minus the Bear’s speedy guitar-picking sound matched with dynamite hooks, but there comes a time when every band needs to grow, and in the past couple years, Maps & Atlases have done just that. “Perch Patchwork” sees the band moving away from that sound and more towards a layered and complex indie pop that’s easy on the ears but far from conventional. While a band with such an instrumentally sound background could very well have used their first album to show off their chops, Maps & Atlases instead chose to focus on songcraft in general, creating strong and vivid overall structures that intrigue as much as they delight. Yes. there’s still a little bit of intricate guitar, particularly on the second half of the record, but there’s also so much else to focus on. Percussion is one of the many things to pay close attention to on “Perch Patchwork”, and there’s a handful of moments where the beats go from simply keeping background rhythm to booming tribal punches. “The Charm” is a great example of that, along with being a great showcase for Dave Davison’s unique singing voice. He’s got an almost frog-like warble that could hypothetically be annoying for some, but carries a tune well and proves as much on the occasions when melody goes away and he’s left to his own devices. The stark reality that Maps & Atlases do bring to the table however is that while each band member might have their own individual moments to shine, this is at its core a wholly collaborative effort. The majority of the time, and this may be in part thanks to the production work, all the instruments and pieces of the musical puzzle hold equal footing, so that one element isn’t taking precedence and you get enraptured by the song itself and not just a singluar piece of it. That’s one of the biggest things that helps this record to distinguish itself from the bands with a similar sound.

While folk or layered indie pop might be the easy way to place “Perch Patchwork” into a category, it’s clear that Maps & Atlases also like the idea of diversity in their sound. This is why they’ve taken only small bits from their earlier EPs and pieced them in amongst bigger drums and violins and a host of other elements. They’re experimenting outside of their comfort zone just a little bit and it’s refreshing, while never getting to the point where there’s too much diversity to make for a cohesive record. It’s like the elemental differences between bands like Yeasayer, Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective – Maps & Atlases have elements of each in their music, and you come to realize that at their core there’s not an ocean of separation between them. But where “Perch Patchwork” fails to deliver is on originality and hooks. This is far more lighthearted and easily digestible music than what many critically acclaimed bands have been releasing recently, and in some senses Maps & Atlases are playing it safe. They take chances, but not nearly enough to make a big name for themselves. Additionally, while avoiding risk, they fail to strike hard by leaving their lightest and most predictable songs without strong hooks. A highly memorable chorus would have taken away the sting of relative blandness a couple of the tracks exude. Otherwise though, “Perch Patchwork” is a relative delight, and serving as strong evidence that Maps & Atlases will be a band to keep a close eye on for years to come. They seem to have all the right parts towards becoming indie superstars, they just need to find the right combination of things to make that happen. As time continues to give us wisdom, hopefully this band takes it in stride and makes another significantly strong leap on their sophmore effort.

Maps & Atlases – Solid Ground

Buy “Perch Patchwork” from Amazon

Pick Your Poison: Monday 6-28-10

Welcome to what we music lovers tend to call a “holiday week”. You could say that next week probably applies that label better, but I’ve been getting the indication that a number of people are a little too eager for their 4th of July celebrations to begin. Not only were my neighbors shooting off fireworks earlier tonight, but the list of people I know on vacation is pretty huge. That being said, expect Pick Your Poison to be on the lighter side until we’re clear of the 4th, with the obligatory July 5th off as well (in observance of course). Highlights today include songs from Carl Broemel, who is a member of My Morning Jacket, and the oft-experimental Serena Maneesh.

Ariel Aparicio – People Who Died (Jim Carroll cover)

Carl Broemel – Heaven Knows

Electric Sunset – Soda

Frances – Between Us
Frances – Lawn Party (Demo)

Jay Trainer – Miss You Well

LexiconDon – December Sunset

The Lucky Dip Escapade – Camp Fire Song

Serena Maneesh – I Just Want To See Your Face

Them Youth – Lost n Lonely (Castaway remix)

Thinking Machines – Nothing Feels the Same

Trances Arc – Boom City

Pick Your Poison: Friday 6-25-10

Well, it looks like we used up all the good mp3 mojo earlier in the week, because as far as Pick Your Poison days go, this one is virtually bone dry. All five of the artists below are excellent though, I can personally attest to having heard not only these songs but previous work by all of them, and you can’t really go wrong no matter what you might pick. If I had to point out some strict highlights though, Califone and These Are Powers might be my two big picks of the day.

Califone – Ro

Canby – Rat

David Dondero – Wherever You Go

These Are Powers – Anything Above Nothing  (follow link; mediafire)

These United States – The Great Rivers

As the selection is so sparse today, I thought I might take a moment to share some more songs with you from a number of fresh artists all making music on the same small record label. Call it what you like, but let’s say that Stress Carrier Records is my featured record label of the week. They’re based out of Scranton, PA, and are made up of various musicians and bands that create and release their stuff on their own terms. Of course there’s also some other bands not related to label management signed to Stress Carrier as well. So in the hopes of giving this label and their artists more exposure, spend some time with some of these artists and songs and see if there’s something you like in this bunch. As Pick Your Poison is all about discovering new artists, this is as good of a ground as any to investigate some of the stuff that’s below oh so many radars these days. Find out more about these artists and purchase their music via http://www.stresscarrier.net.

Das Black Milk – Glass

Dice Island – untitled

feelingextrovert – Keyboards On Teh Floor

Fulmarine Petrels – Gold In the Yard

Girls Galore – Sunny Hands

Jeff Gilotti – Arctic Roll

My Dad Is A Dinosaur – Sticks and Stones

Obvious Dolphin – Fashion Boredom

Live Friday: 6-25-10

While their latest album isn’t exactly my favorite, I still like the Shout Out Louds quite a bit. To drive home that point, I’m happily featuring them and their new songs as part of this week’s Live Friday. Even when their songs aren’t the greatest, there’s never been a problem with the band’s live show, which is nothing short of dynamite. They bring a new life to the recorded versions of their songs, and that’s what a great band is supposed to do. This session, recorded last month when the band was touring the U.S., pretty much proves that adage true, though they did choose to play the three best tracks from their current record “Work”. As usual, there’s also an interview to go along with these songs, and the band talks about how they first got together and whether or not their home country of Sweden is on the forefront of all things indie pop. It’s not the most impressive or exciting thing in the world, but it is relatively interesting, especially if you happen to care a lot about this band and where they come from. Otherwise just download the songs, they’re delightful.

Shout Out Louds, Live on MPR 5-17-10:
Shout Out Louds – 1999 (Live on MPR)
Shout Out Louds – Play the Game (Live on MPR)
Shout Out Louds – Walls (Live on MPR)

Stream the entire interview/session

Buy “Work” from Amazon
For a very limited time, buy “Work” from Amazon MP3 for only $3.99

Pick Your Poison: Thursday 6-24-10

Things are getting a little lighter mp3-wise as we quickly near the end of the week. That’s typical, but the quality of course remains high. Some of the songs you’ll want to check out in today’s Pick Your Poison include a pair of new cuts from Deastro, some fresh mp3s from the latest releases by The Depreciation Guild, First Aid Kit and Yellow Fever, along with a cool Joy Division cover from I’m Not A Band.

Apollo Ghosts – Coka Cola Admen

The Beets – What Did I Do

Dark Dark Dark – Daydreaming
Dark Dark Dark – Bright Bright Bright

Deastro – Get Frostied
Deastro – Mowgli the Lynx

The Depreciation Guild – My Chariot

First Aid Kit – I Met Up With the King

Hooray for Earth – Surrounded By Your Friends
Hooray for Earth – Surrounded By Your Friends (Twin Shadow Remix)

How to Dress Well – Ready for the World

I’m Not A Band – She’s Lost Control (Joy Division cover)

Yellow Fever – Hell Fire

Album Review: The Roots – How I Got Over [Def Jam]

The Roots are without a doubt the best band to ever work in late night television. That, after 20 years as a band they chose to sign a contract to become the house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon is just a little bit surprising. Their star has been on the proverbial rise in the past several years, and given their ever-increasing popularity, it’d make sense if they just kept at it and continued the recording and touring cycle they’ve done for so long already. Of course given the challenges of working in the music industry these days, and that most everyone in the band has families they should be spending time with, agreeing to a job that has decent hours, a steady paycheck and doesn’t require travel must seem like a good idea. When they did agree to work in late night, they also said that they were done writing and recording new albums as their entire focus would be on the TV show. It turns out they lied to some degree, and in their spare time were able to piece together a new record that due to a number of different issues was delayed multiple times in the last year. At long last, “How I Got Over” is finally out this week, and if you know The Roots, chances are you know what you’re in for.

The surprises on “How I Got Over” come in the form of guest artists playing with The Roots this time around. While they are very much a band (or more of a collective, given their large numbers) that plays their own instruments, The Roots have rarely worked with other actual bands on their albums. Instead, because their songs are largely hip hop in nature, you get a number of rappers and R&B stars making guest appearances. This time around, perhaps informed by some of the groups they’ve seen perform on “Late Night”, they’re diversifying a bit more than usual and incorporating some notable indie artists into their songs. Opening track “A Peace of Light” features guest vocals by Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle of Dirty Projectors. The Roots collaborate a little with Monsters of Folk (or more likely just Yim Yames) to give the song “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)” a little hip hop edge in what becomes “Dear God 2.0”. They also do a track with Joanna Newsom, which samples her song “Book of Right-On” along with new vocals to become simply “Right On”. Aside from those rather interesting guests, there’s also some more familiar faces for Roots fans in the form of Dice Raw, Phonte, P.O.R.N. and the great John Legend.

In terms of pure musical interest, long-time fans of The Roots will feel pretty comfortable with how this record sounds. It’s very much in line stylistically with their last couple albums “Game Theory” and “Rising Down”, though with a couple notable exceptions. First and foremost, “How I Got Over” is very much the sort of record that you want to sit down with and listen to from start to finish. The track sequencing is incredibly important in this case, though if you happen to stumble upon a song from the album while on shuffle it probably won’t feel too out of place. Really what might bother some people is how long it takes for things to really get going and settle into a groove. The first few tracks may be slow, but they’re also dark and immensely intriguing. Listened to in order, they blend into one another effortlessly and from the “do do do” harmonies provided by the ladies of Dirty Projectors through the piano-and-drums over hip hop of “Radio Daze” there’s some intensely deep and smartly composed moments along the way. The second half of the album also boasts some serious highlights as well, and the string of tracks from Joanna Newsom’s “Right On” through the seriously hard-hitting hip hop of “Web 20/20” feels particularly brilliant. Sandwiched in between those are two songs in a row with John Legend which are exactly as great as they need to be. Really there’s not a weak track on the album, and special credit goes to the two main players in The Roots, Questlove and Black Thought (Tariq) for their work both performing and producing the record. Tariq’s extremely smart, if occasionally politically motivated rhymes and Questlove’s rock-solid drumming make for the absolute best things about this album, whether guests are involved or not. The Roots refuse to be outshined on their own record.

Whatever the actual reason(s) for the multiple delays might have been, “How I Got Over” almost seems worth the wait. It may not be the band’s best album, nor their easiest to like, but it’s still highly interesting and holds firm their reputation of being one of the best hip hop acts out there today. Whether or not there will be another record beyond this one is still a huge question mark given their late night duties, but if this is the last original material we’ll hear from The Roots, they’re going out on a great note. Those completely averse to hip hop probably won’t find much if anything to like here, but for the indie kids who haven’t heard a Roots album before, this is as good of a place as any to get started. Virtually all the collaborations turn out well, and it’s particularly nice to hear a Joanna Newsom or a Yim Yames popping up between the smartly written rhymes. Hopefully there will be more of that in the future. For the time being, it’d be a good idea to buy a copy of “How I Got Over”, and to witness the incredible skills of The Roots, watch them weeknights on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Not only do they have the right entrance song for every guest (they had Heidi Klum on the other day and did a play on The Go Go’s “Our Lips Are Sealed”, renaming it “Her Lips Are Seal’s”), but every now and then they’ll improvise songs about audience members using various musical styles. It is nothing short of incredible, and proof positive that not only are The Roots the best band in late night, but also one of the best bands working today.

Follow link to download “Dear God 2.0” free from RCRD LBL

Buy “How I Got Over” from Amazon

Album Review: Kele – The Boxer [Polydor/Wichita/Glassnote]

Kele Okereke is the frontman for dance rock group Bloc Party. When the band bust onto the music scene in 2005 with their debut album “Silent Alarm”, many hailed them as brilliant innovators on the forefront of something incredible. Well, time passed, hype died down, and after two follow-up albums that didn’t quite capitalize on their initial record’s promise, Bloc Party decided to take a little bit of a break. It’s been during this short hiatus that Okereke has taken it upon himself to experiment with some new sounds and make a record on his own, calling the new project simply Kele. The solo debut is titled “The Boxer” and it’s out this week.

Given Bloc Party’s propensity for making dance music that’s driven by guitars and strong beats, you had to figure that Kele would dive in one direction or the other when it came time to going solo. It would seem a little odd though if he chose the rock direction instead of the dance one, which is why he smartly made a beeline towards electronica. Bloc Party’s last album “Intimacy” all but spelled that out for you anyways. The beats on “The Boxer” tend to come fast and furious, seemingly setting you up for a really fun dance party, all backed by that familiar voice of his. Guitars are almost entirely absent across the album, though they do make appearances here and there, perhaps most notably on “The Other Side”. That and “Unholy Thoughts” are probably the tracks that sound the most like the Bloc Party stuff you’re familiar with – the latter so much so that you’ve got to wonder if it was a leftover from the “Intimacy” sessions. But primarily you get a whole lot of swirling electronica that, while great for the clubs, has to make you wonder exactly how different it is from the thousands of other electro artists out there. Kele is no innovator, at least not in the sense that somebody like Flying Lotus or Aphex Twin have been. Though he may be relatively new at trying to do all this on his own, for somebody with a decent track record as part of Bloc Party, you’d expect him to stumble less than most others might. Well, throw out those expectations, because Kele has stumbled out of the starting gate.

When it comes to experimenting with sounds and trying things outside of his own comfort zone, Kele seems to do okay. You get a song like “On the Lam”, wherein he turns up the helium pitch on his vocals to the point where if you didn’t know any better, you might suspect that a woman has taken over singing duties. That combined with some solid beats draws your attention to what might have been a relatively pedestrian song otherwise. Similarly, a song like “Rise” starts off pensively with some xylophone work that sticks around just long enough to get boring, but then transforms into a massive build-up and release that’s one of the most cathartic and exhilarating moments on the entire record. It’s just too bad those kinds of moments are so few and far between on “The Boxer”. What also comes too few and far between? How about the hooks. There’s barely any to be found, as Kele apparently thinks he can skate by on some decent beats sustained through much of a song. Either that, or he was so busy crafting these songs that he just plain forgot that sometimes you need an oft-repeated chorus to stick in peoples’ heads. So because of the lack of hooks, there aren’t any singular tracks you’ll remember easily and want to go back to. Sure, you may come away from the album thinking it was a good time, but beyond that there’s little to keep you invested in repeat plays. Add that to the gloomy lyrics on this record that most Bloc Party songs have as well, and there’s something else to not waste your time on. But if you really want to hear sad, turn on the pair of ballads the album has to offer in the form of “New Rules” and “All the Things I Could Never Say”. Kele gets super emotional and wears his heart on his sleeve for those songs, and the results are more whiny than they are elegantly sad poetry. Yes, he’s upset, but we could do without the self-aggrandizing platitudes, most of which don’t help us identify with the turmoil he’s going through.

Since we’re talking about “The Boxer”, let’s spar with some wordplay for a minute in an attempt to wrap this whole thing up. With the martial stomp of “Walk Tall”, Kele comes charging out of his corner seemingly ready for a fight to knock our senses off balance. While he does land a few good punches initially, especially heading into “On the Lam”, we quickly come to realize that though this is a horse of a different color, we’ve faced this opponent in some capacity before as part of Bloc Party. In that respect, we’re able to get a better grasp as to where he’s coming from and what moves he might make. The words he’s throwing at us are the same as they’ve always been, so we can defend against that pretty easily. And then after the first round the coach in our corner tells us that Kele is having some severe problems with his hooks. He can jab just fine, but seems mechanically unable to bring a strong punch around any other way. The times he tries to force a hook on us, it’s something we can easily dodge and counter with brute force. That’s his main weakness, and we can exploit it for the rest of the match. After a couple rounds he’s in much worse shape than us, despite having the occasional trick or engaging melody up his sleeve. Kele then takes his love of the dramatic to new heights, looking to give the crowd more of a spectacle than an actual victory. He slows down the tempo and wears disappointment on his face in an effort to convince us to take it easy on him. It’s not that we’re heartless, it’s just that his display sounds and feels manipulative, which it most likely is. So we don’t let up. Kele goes down, and the match is quickly over. Our moral victory, in this case, is that we don’t have to listen to “The Boxer” again if we don’t want to. Will Kele fair better when/if he returns to Bloc Party? There’s only one way to answer that question: probably.

Kele – Tenderoni (Punches Bring the Horns Remix)

Buy “The Boxer” from Amazon

Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 6-23-10

Plenty more treats for you today within the Pick Your Poison ranks. Personal favorites include a new songs from Salem, Perfume Genius and Sia, among others. There’s also a great Television cover that Local Natives did as part of Aquarium Drunkard’s all-star indie tribute to Television’s album “L’Aventure”, the entirety of which is available as a free download with a suggested donation to charity. Good stuff, and I advise you to download the whole thing and donate.

Coin Under Tongue – Dogma Sheen

Donny Hue and the Colors – Wild Again
Donny Hue and the Colors – A Bit Tickled  

Donovan Quinn and the 13th Month – Mom’s House

Human Life – In It Together (Jaymo & Andy George Moda Remix)  (follow link; mediafire)

Julius C – Don’t Want Anybody

Lille – Tall Shoulders (Todd Buchler Remix)

Local Natives – Careful (Television cover)
Go here to download Aquarium Drunkard’s “L’Aventure” tribute to Television, and make a charitable donation

not An Airplane – Trains

Perfume Genius – Learning

Pete Lawne – All That We Keep (Don Diablo Remix)

Salem – King Night

Samuel – I Heart NY  

Sia – You’ve Changed

Wartime Blues – Robert Ford and Jesse James

Woods – I Was Gone

Album Review: Stars – The Five Ghosts [Vagrant/Soft Revolution]

For anyone who hasn’t heard of Stars before, they’re the main band of Amy Millan, who is both a former full-time member of Broken Social Scene as well as a solo artist herself. In Stars, Millan has the added benefit of Torquil Campbell, a guy who more shares the spotlight than tries to steal it. This allows for plenty of back-and-forth singing and harmonizing, all while backed by friendly and often beautiful indie pop instrumentation. What escalated Stars’ popularity amongst the indie community was their 2005 album “Set Yourself on Fire”, a sharp and gorgeous record that featured smartly written songs and just the right degree of production to make the album sound small when it was anything but. Quietly anthemic is a great way to describe tracks like “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” and “Ageless Beauty”, two highlights on an album packed with them. A couple years later Stars would return again with “In Our Bedroom After the War”, which attempted to push their sound to the “next level” mostly by going big or going home. The compositions swelled in size, and suddenly this small band was playing second fiddle to huge orchestral movements and choruses as wide as Canada itself. For a band that had earned their reputation on the idea that big things come in small packages, many long-time fans had adverse reactions to that last album. After yet another sojourn into solo album territory, Millan returned to Stars a few months ago and they officially return this week with their fifth album, “The Five Ghosts”.

The good thing about Stars is that they seem to know that they screwed up with their last record. Whether that was a function of fans telling them so or simply poorer album sales, somewhere along the line they must have realized “In Our Bedroom After the War” wasn’t their best work. To try and get back the magic of “Set Yourself on Fire”, the band brought Tom McFall, who produced that album, back for “The Five Ghosts”. In a similar fashion to your average movie sequel, McFall’s efforts this time aren’t as effective this time around, and in some ways it’s almost like he forgot how to properly produce this band. Much of the new album sounds muddy and clumsily put together, with the vocals shoved to the forefront above all else. It takes away the power that many of these songs might have had otherwise, when you can barely tell there are strings in the background on a track like “Winter Bones” or the synths on “Fixed” get relegated to wallpaper rather than allowing them to shimmer and shake. You listen to these new songs and then go back to “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” to hear the swells of horns and strings and wonder exactly what happened to that band.

Of course some of the problems with “The Five Ghosts” rest on the band too, not just their producer. To their credit, Stars smartly pulled back on the bombastic anthems of their last album, but did they pull back too far? Even compared to the densely layered indie pop of “Set Yourself on Fire”, “The Five Ghosts” feels small. Perhaps that has a lot to do with the somber melodies that populate this new record. This is by far the darkest and most depressing Stars album to date, and the lack of peppy pop songs isn’t helping anyone. But in addition to the dark clouds overhead, many of the songs are similar to one another and relatively pedestrian as far as melodies are concerned. “Coffee house bland” seems to be the name of the game here, where the idea is to keep the sound broad and avoiding risk wherever possible. In other words, Stars aren’t taking any chances towards furthering their sound, and instead they’ve regressed worse than a former alcoholic picking up the bottle again. It’s tragic to hear a band that was once so fascinating and full of life come off as bland and practically neutered.

Believe it or not, there are some good things about “The Five Ghosts”. First off, none of the songs are terrible. There may not be any surprisingly great moments, but there aren’t any abhorrently bad ones either. And secondly, the Amy Millan-centered songs turn out the best in this case mostly due to her vocal performance. Her breathy vocal style lends itself well to the balladry many of these songs contain. Not only that, but she lends a fair deal of weight and emotion to these songs through her voice, something that hasn’t always come across in anything she’s done previously. So really though many of the songs may not be the best Stars have to offer, Millan’s star does particularly shine in this instance, while Torquil Campbell takes a little more of a backseat and lackadaisical approach to his singing than he normally does. Like the tone of the album though, your general impression of it might come off as somewhat gray. To put it another way, a good review quote for the album cover might be, “Eh, it’s alright.” So Stars won’t be making any new friends with this spirit-themed album. A couple highlights do come in the form of tracks like “Changes” and “I Died So I Could Haunt You”, but for the most part results are sketchy at best. Here’s to hoping that yet again Stars can keep their ears to the ground and find a fresher, more adventurous path to take next time around. If not, their visibility as a good Canadian indie pop band might just disappear like the spirits in their album title.

Stars – We Don’t Want Your Body

Buy “The Five Ghosts” from Amazon

Pick Your Poison: Tuesday 6-22-10

It’s only Tuesday and the music keeps coming. Yes, there’s plenty of songs for you to amuse yourself with today. The clear highlight of all these songs is the brand new Blonde Redhead track. If you’ve not yet heard it or downloaded it, it comes highly recommended. You might also want to check out songs from Steve Mason and Procedure Club. Trust me when I say though that there might not be a whole lot of songs familiar to you in this bunch, but many of them are worthwhile whether you know it or not. That’s kind of the point of Pick Your Poison.

Blonde Redhead – Here Sometimes

Chilly Gonzales – Never Stop (Rap Mix)

The Emotron – Drink A Beer For Me

Focus – Hocus Pocus (Buffetlibre Remix)

Landing On the Moon – She Wants

Luna Is Honey – Claws

Neighbors – Hooligans

Procedure Club – Feel Sorry For Me

Random Patterns – Psychic Luau

Sad Day for Puppets – Monster & the Beast

Son of the Sun – The Other Side

Steve Mason – Am I Just A Man

The Stone Foxes – I Killed Robert Johnson

Unicycle Loves You – Mirror, Mirror

Album Review: Foals – Total Life Forever [Sub Pop/Warner Bros/Transgressive]

For those living in Europe, the new Foals album “Total Life Forever” has been out for at least a month now. On U.S. shores, it arrived last week with surprisingly little attention paid to it. This after Foals built up a small storm of hype before the release of their 2008 debut album “Antidotes” and didn’t quite make good on the initial promise their couple singles seemed to display. When they did get it right, they did so with sheer energy and math rock-infused guitar work, punching up more hooks than you knew what to do with. Songs like “Mathletics”, “Balloons” and “Hummer” all hit as hard as they needed to and got people’s attention, but as with so many bands these days, that attention was quickly diverted. As suddenly as they had appeared, Foals again disappeared.

Though it should be, “Total Life Forever” is not the kick in the crotch that Foals so richly deserve. In this metaphor, “kick in the crotch” is intended to imply a good thing, insomuch that your full and undivided attention is given to anyone who does so (despite the pain it might cause). The root cause of this apparent lack of hype surrounding Foals these days might have something to do with the adjustment they’ve made to their sound compared to two years ago. Whether or not the public’s own tastes have changed (in two years? probably.) is up for debate as well. The highly energetic, almost danceable approach that the band took on their first album, complete with vocals that were more yelps than actual singing, have been all but eliminated on “Total Life Forever”. Instead of that, the record has primarily mid-tempo, occasionally spacey songs with tuneful singing. It’s a legitimate step forwards for a band that initially came off as fun and simplistic rather than smart and complicated. To put it another way, Foals have come a long way in two years to prove that they’re able-bodied and up to the challenge of holding down a long and hopefully lucrative career making music.

You notice things are different right from the very start of the album’s opening track “Blue Blood”. The tempo is slower than the quick speed punches that peppered the band’s debut, and frontman Yannis Philippakis proves he can do more with a vocal track than just shout random phrases. By the time the song crosses the 5 minute mark there’s an even fuller sense of surprise given that much of the first album featured songs that rarely ventured longer than 4 minutes. In fact, nearly half of the 11 songs on “Total Life Forever” actually make it beyond 5 minutes, and 3 of those songs even go 6 minutes or longer. Despite these surprisingly exorbitant track lengths, very little of the album feels stretched or boring. Plus, there’s a fair share of songs that maintain a normal length, and many of them could function as singles. “The Orient” and “Miami” are already two tracks that have been released as individual singles in Europe, but so has the brilliant “Spanish Sahara”, the longest song on the album which clocks in at around 7 minutes long. In all, these songs have a much looser and relaxed feel compared to the almost vacuum-packed tightness that dominated their earlier stuff. Whereas the “Antidotes” material attempted to ensure that not a second of music was wasted, by allowing the new songs to breathe a little bit more, we get a new side of the band and everything feels much more organic and natural. There are moments, in particular on the second half of the record, where some of the songs get a little too spaced out or lack a wholly compelling hook. If you are looking for hooks though, there are plenty to be found, though none grab you quite as firmly as they did on the last album. Considering the trade-off is a more mature album with legitimate singing and a strong emotional core, the end justifies the means.

Without a doubt, Foals could have made another energized math rock record in their sleep. It probably would have been enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable, similar to how their debut “Antidotes” failed to keep the spotlight focused on the band for more than a few months after its release. “Total Life Forever”, by contrast, is the smart move they needed to make to survive. Of course that’s likely to turn off fans of that first album who might be upset by the more languid pacing and decreased use of the staccato guitars that math rock is typically defined by. Hopefully you stick with Foals though, because the new record is the best thing they’ve done to date. It’s just a shame this album isn’t getting more attention, at least from what I’ve seen and heard these last couple months. While it doesn’t quite rank among the absolute best things 2010 has had to offer so far, it’s definitely close. Where Foals will head next with their sound is anybody’s guess, but for the moment they’re right where they need to be.

Foals – Spanish Sahara (Deadboy Remix)

Buy “Total Life Forever” from Amazon

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