I'll Eat Your iPod!

Old Hannah

2010-07-06T10:46:00.007-04:00

Old Hannah is a folk band hailing from the hills of Connecticut. They play unassuming folk songs with a distinct Appalachian/New England flavor. While the duo may not be breaking any new ground, they do what they do well. The instrumentation is subtle and simple, the songwriting is poetically narrative and image-heavy, and the vocals (both female and male) are top notch.

Old Hannah have a four-song EP titled Bright World, released on Willimantic-based One Hundred Year Media, available as a purchasable CD or as a free download.

The music on the EP falls somewhere between Sam Amidon and Fionn Regan; male vocalist Tyler has a voice that is highly reminiscent of Sam Amidon, with a bit or The Tallest Man on Earth's Kristian Matsson. The female vocals sound a lot like Marissa Nadler or Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond.

Old Hannah's Myspace.

PW Elverum & Sun Sells Cool as Shit T-Shirts

2010-07-05T13:07:00.002-04:00

This is somewhat of a poor-as-shite post, but bear with me if you could. PW Elverum & Sun, the label/printer/vendor run by Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum, is printing and selling a series of t-shirts featuring the artwork of Norwegian illustrator Theodor Kittelsen. Kittelsen lived and worked in the late 1800's and early 1900's; his paintings, mostly of natural scenes and Norwegian fairy tales, have become immensely popular.

If you've ever seen a black metal album cover, you know what to expect.

Regardless, these shirts are really neat.

You can buy then here at the PW Elverum & Sun website, or at The Business if you live in Anacortes.

Mallory's Strange Homes

2010-05-10T21:52:00.003-04:00

True to the DIY aesthetic to their core, Northampton folk-punk trio Mallory emblazoned their Myspace page with a message informing us that every time their page is visited Fox News Corp. and Rubert Murdoch make a little bit of ad revenue, and that we should avoid visiting their page as much as possible. While acknowledging that electronic correspondence is faster and easier, the band suggests and endorses a different way to contact them.

Send them letters.

Mallory's latest acoustic/punk endeavor, “Strange Homes,” was released digitally in late March. The band's sophmore effort, “Strange Homes” follows 2007's “Lights in the Quarry” LP. Despite being tracked professionally at Sand Hill Recordings, “Strange Homes” is just as comfortably lo-fi as the live-recorded “Lights in the Quarry.”

If there's one major difference between “Lights” and “Homes,” it is the absence of any severe politi-punk core. Never shy about their DIY and anarchist beliefs, Mallory's first album featured politically motivated rallying cries bearing titles such as “This Song Kills Cops,” and “The Red, White, and Blues.”

“Strange Homes” is a different creature. The attitude is there, as are the throaty yelps and jangling banjos, but the theme of the album is something more human and introspective. This is the story of being confused and dazed when one finds themselves slowly sliding into modernity and mundanity. Summed well in “Someone Else's Eden,” the band sings: “I woke up in someone else's dream/of concrete streets and lined up men in tailored suits/ shaking hands under the sunset of an eroded landscape.”

While Mallory's lyrics and philosophy has always been congruent with DIY punk culture, their music does more to embrace the “folk” in folk-punk. Acoustic guitars, banjos, and tambourines are plentiful; there isn't a single drum line to be found on the album. The vocals and rough and earthy, blending and harmonizing in a charmingly dissonant way with one another.

The two live-recorded tracks on the album, “These Bones are on Loan” and the surprising cover of Animal Collective's “Fireworks” present to us the disorienting and frantic Mallory that was prevalent on “Lights in the Quarry.” The first of the two is one of the album's best tracks, laying wistful and harmonious vocals over a strummed tune reminiscent of traditional Irish folk pieces.

Much of the album is Americana inspired with a gypsy-like tint. Standout track “This Tide,” penned by folk singer and band friend Mogli, begins with a slow cadence and builds to a desperate and fast-paced chorus. The theme of self-questioning runs throughout, when the chorus sings “I'm not as idealistic as I used to be/and I'm not sure anymore how I feel about anarchy.”

A satisfying follow-up to their outstanding first album, “Strange Homes” follows along the same path as it's predecessor while being careful not to tread too heavily in the same territory. While Mallory's musical style has not changed much (a blessing), their lyrical themes have moved on to explore new areas.

The band's webpage boldly states “No copyright! Music should be as free as us.” They are true to their word. Both “Lights in the Quarry” and “Strange Homes” are available as free digital downloads at malloryband.org, with a Paypal donation accessible for those who feel moved to contribute.

Refilling the Jug

2010-05-07T18:03:00.003-04:00

The early 2000's can certainly be seen as the golden age of Omaha-based independent record label Saddle Creek, fostered on by the label's early hand in the emerging indie-folk/emo spectacle. Spurred on by Conor Oberst's Bright Eyes recordings and other similar acoustic waifs with warbling voices, Saddle Creek pressed the best of what was coming out of the American North and Midwest.

I remember walking into my hometown's one independent record store, stationed on the middle of Main Street, to buy a copy of “One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels” when it was released in 2004. Oberst had just released an ambitious dual-album, the dichotomous folk/electronic “I'm Wide Awake It's Morning/Digital Ash in a Digital Urn.”

Combined with 2002's “Lifted,” Bright Eyes had just finished a trio of highly acclaimed LP's. Combining with label-mates Neva Dinova, the two Omaha bands collaborated on a new six song EP, “One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels.”

Less of a traditional split and more of a mixed collaborative effort, “One Jug” featured a new band lineup fronted by Conor Oberst and Neva Dinova's Jake Bellows, along with members of other Saddle Creek notables such as Tilly and the Wall and Cursive.

Without much in the way of explanation, this rather overlooked EP was rereleased as a digital download in March, featuring four new tracks – two from each contributing band.

In a surprising move, Oberst has resurrected the Bright Eyes name for this project, after changing the name and configuration to his band to reflect his newfound artistic ambitions.

If the name is the same, the Conor Oberstof the rerelease is not the Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes' more bombastic days. The warbling and liquor-soaked “heart-on-sleeve” appeal is gone. The fact remains: Conor Oberst grew up, as did we, and in our wish for a nostalgic return to emo's golden days, he simply cannot provide in the same way he could five years ago.

The two Bright Eyes tracks on the EP are strong. “Happy Accident” stands on its merit as a mediocre pop-rock song. “I Know You” is far more on target, a poisonous song aimed at what could be an unfit, unwed mother. Decent as these songs may be, when placed next to original track “Black Comedy,” they come off as a somewhat hollow attempt at recapturing a fleeing feeling.

The two new Neva Dinova tracks on the rerelease are remarkably solid, considering the relative weakness of their 2008 LP “You May Already Be Dreaming.” The EP's introductory track, “Rollerskating,” is upbeat in a way that differs intensely from the usual barstool soliloquies penned by Bellows. “Someone's Love” treads on that more familiar territory, but does so in a way that outshines the material presented on “You May Already be Dreaming.”

The older, existing tracks on “One Jug” hold up well six-years after their initial release. Songs like “Poison” and “Spring Cleaning,” both crooned by Bellows with the latter being penned by Oberst, are undeniable highlights on the EP. Stepped in slide guitar reverb, Bellows is the voice of lonely night contemplation. Oberst's songs, “Black Comedy” and “I'll Be Your Friend” showcase the desperation and crooked social awkwardness that made the mid-career Bright Eyes albums so accessible and embracing.

Both Bellows and Oberst were some of the most innovative and skillful songwriters on Saddle Creek during the label's explosion in underground popularity, and while “One Jug” passed by without much notice, the split EP is an excellent testament to the early days of midwestern emo's successful flirtation with folk and alt-country.

New Paul Baribeau Songs

2010-02-11T17:20:00.013-05:00

I'm not sure when this was released exactly, but it was some time during the later part of 2009; somewhere between June/July and the end of the year. Regardless, this six-song demo tape is the newest recorded material from Michigan's Paul Baribeau.

Signed to Chris Johnston's (Ghost Mice) Plan-It-X Records, Paul writes and sings honest, acoustic anti-folk/folk punk songs. Sounding like diary entries put set to the strum of a beaten guitar, the lyrical content rums the gambit from old girlfriends and lost love, to nostalgic reminiscence of days previous. It's all very neat, very DIY, and often saccharine and near-cutesy in their delivery. It's easy to think of Baribeau as a male Kimya Dawson equivalent, with an excellent beard.

Covering Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2":

Paul has two full length albums released (self-titled debut and its follow-up, entitled Grand Ledge) and a handful of other recorded material, including a split with Ghost Mice and an album of Bruce Springsteen covers recorded with Good Luck's Ginger Alford, aptly named The Darkness on the Edge of Your Town.

The six new songs on the demo display an admirable progression from the material on his self-titled debut LP; the songwriting is more mature, and the playing is tighter. I'm hoping that the appearance of the 2009 demo tape means another album is en route to us soon.

2009 Demo
Myspace
Plan-It-X

Mirah

2009-11-24T13:46:00.004-05:00

Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn is a singer-songwriter from Portland, Oregon; she's released many albums on K Records, the anti-corporate home of the Pacific Northwest's most influential independent and uncerground acts. Mirah has collaborated extensively with The Black Cat Orchestra as well as The Microphones/Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum, who also produced many of her recordings.

Mirah's music tends to run toward fuzzy lo-fi bedroom folk, an aesthetic mirrored by many of her label fellows.

Advisory Committee is her second album, released on K in 2001. It was the first album introduced to me via a friend's mixtape that featured the song "Monument."

Mirah - Advisory Committee

I Hate Myself

2009-11-19T21:16:00.007-05:00

One of my favorite skramz bands, I Hate Myself, was a mid-late 90's hardcore emo band hailing from Gainesville, Florida. Their style was fairly indicative of other No Idea bands at the time; their vocals have a sort of post-hardcore tilt in their soft-loud dynamic, as opposed to other well-known early screamo acts from the time, like grind/powerviolence predecessors Orchid.

10 Songs, the band's second LP, is their most recognizable work. It was released by No Idea in 1997, and rereleased in September of 2000.

I Hate Myself - 10 Songs

Snowing & Street Smart Cyclist

2009-11-12T09:58:00.004-05:00

Snowing is a four-piece mathy emo/hardcore band from Lehigh Valley, PA, made up of ex-members of Boy Problems and Street Smart Cyclist. Anyone familiar with these precursor bands has a good idea what to expect from snowing; this is fast, aggressive music. The vocals move from wavery to harsh flawlessly, and the mathy instrumentation is full of noodly guitar lines, much in the vein of a Kinsella band.

To provide a more contemporary comparison, Snowing sounds a lot like their Pennsylvania fellows Algernon Cadwallader.

They've released a four-song demo, ironically titled Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit. This has been kicking around my iPod for a long time.

Snowing - Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit

Street Smart Cyclist - 7" Demo

Morrissey's Swords Still Sharp

2009-11-11T20:22:00.004-05:00

The Moz is aging. While his on-stage collapse and subsequent hospitalization last month in Swindon may not be indicative of the singer's rising age, it does make one question just where the Morrissey saga is headed.

Swords collects 18 b-sides from Morrissey's “comeback years”, spanning the last three studio albums: You Are the Quarry (2004), Ringleader of the Tormentors (2006), and Years of Refusal (2009). The material presented on Swords carries much the same presentation as the albums they were cut from – Morrissey's latest releases have been universally heralded as records of exceptional quality, and the “throwaways” released on Swords are good enough to stand on their own, almost as well as an album unto themselves.

Tracks like “If You Don't Like Me, Don't Look at Me” or “Ganglord” - undoubtedly the album's finest offering – present to us the more rocking side of The Moz, a style very similar to the material from You are the Quarry. Morrissey's cynical, sometimes venomous outlook on the world shines through here, underlining the same themes that he's been crooning about since The Smiths – crime, corruption, the failing education system, and the self-questioning of the lost and lovelorn.

20 years on from Strangeways, Here We Come and the end of The Smiths, Morrissey has gone through a veritable musical monomyth, from group success, to solo glory, to dissolution, and finally to triumphant return. The lad from Manchester may not be as young as he once was, but he undoubtedly still has enough fire in him to take us on a few more enjoyable drags through his sullen, sardonic world.

Suis La Lune (Follow the Moon)

2009-10-30T13:42:00.003-04:00

Suis La Lune is a screamo band from Stockholm, Sweden, and may well be my favorite band in the current scene. I find their music to be especially melodic, with noodling guitar lines and ambient sections that mirror the best of the Mid-Western American late 90's indie/emo trends. They remind me of a more progressive version of The Saddest Landscape.

"The Light Matters Always Matters" from their LP Quiet, Pull the Strings!

"With Wings of Feather and Glue" from their Heir 10"

Myspace

Distros

Hi How Are You?

2009-10-19T21:43:00.007-04:00

Daniel Johnston's music is unlike anything you will ever hear. A man of a tortured mind, Johnston was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and has subsequently spent periods of his life hospitalized during the more severe breakdowns. Johnston has a very prolific career with a vast discography. He made his major label debut in 1994, with the album Fun being released on Atlantic; prior to that album, Johnston's work consisted largely of self-recorded cassettes.

When you listen to Daniel Johnston's music, you hear a voice that is stripped completely of pretense - this is some of the most true, honest music you can hear. The composition is average, and the vocal delivery ranges from warbling to off-key, but the heart of the songs are intensely personal and emotional. Hidden behind these Beatles-inspired lo-fi pop ballads is the mind of a man struggling with heavy mental issues.

"True Love Will Find You in the End" off of the album 1990 (Shimmy Disc, 1990):

In 2006 Jeff Feuerzeig released a documentary about Johnston's life and career, titled The Devil and Daniel Johnston:

Johnston's latest album, Is and Always Was, was released on October 6, 2009, on his own Eternal Yip Eye label.

Official Website

Caspian

2009-10-12T21:19:00.006-04:00

In July of 2008, I had the opportunity to see Yndi Halda play an in-store at Metropolis Records in Torrington. I remember that the store, a tiny one-room affair, was packed to bursting with about twenty people. It was an exceptionally hot summer day. Inside the un-airconditioned store we squirmed and sweat, struggling to breathe the thick air, shirts adhering to our backs with persperation.

I also remember there was one young couple there who, in their effort to look exceptionally twee, were decked out in sweaters, knit caps, and scarves.

Yndi Halda's performance was face-melting. They played three songs from their 4-track LP, Enjoy Eternal Bliss. Each song clocked in between fifteen and twenty minutes in length. When I left the store after their performance, my ears were ringing with temporary tinnitus.

There was another band on that evening's bill, some group from Boston that I'd never heard of. There name was Caspian, which pulled up all sorts of Narnia-esque images in my mind's eye (and drew an unbased comparison to hardcore/screamo band Dawn Treader). I was sweaty and half-deaf, so I decided to check out merch and head home, opting to skip Caspian's closing set.

Later when I looked into the band, I was fully regretful of my decision. Caspian play their own brand of cinematic post-rock; their music is highly emotional and atmospheric. The songs are largely formulaic, following the same "soft-loud-soft-loud" dynamic as acts like Mogwai or Explosions in the sky. Their music is smoothly textures, producing sweeping soundscapes akin to more ambient-leaning groups like Sigur Ros.

Caspian best describes their music in their own words. Simply put, "Nobody sings. Most of the time, we play very loud. Sometimes quite soft. We always try to play with heart."

This footage taken from a two-month European tour in Fall of 2009 (set to the song "Of Foam and Wave" from Tertia) displays their enthusiastic live performance:

The first time I played through Caspian's second full-length, The Four Trees, I was driving home through a late summer rainstorm. The sky had a strange dark/light dichotomy to it. I was driving on a winding rural road when the song "Asa" came on. The rest of the album had been good, but this song affected me in unspeakable ways. It made me hopeful. It choked me up. It was powerful.

"Asa" is certainly one of the band's finest offerings. This is one of the most beautiful songs that has ever graced my ears. Check out the video, especially the rising guitar at 5:11 - it gets me every time.

Caspian's latest album, Tertia, was released on September 15th, 2009, by The Mylene Sheath.

Caspian's Myspace

The New & Very Welcome

2009-10-11T11:09:00.005-04:00

The New & Very Welcome is my friend Jess' musical moniker. She plays fuzz-folk acoustic music that is very much in the vein of The Microphones/Mount Eerie, or The Mountain Goats' early material. She's released a huge amount of material, all of which is available for free download.

She's currently on tour with a few other bands; dates can be found on the Myspace page.

Free Albums!

Old Canes

2009-10-11T10:28:00.007-04:00

Old Canes is the Lawrence, Kansas-based indie folk side-project headed by Chris Crisci, who also fronts The Appleseed Cast, and featuring members of Minus Story and The Casket Lottery. The band, which usually performs as a trio, is joined by a rotating cast of musicians that varies depending on who is available to take time away from their main projects.

Old Canes formed in 2001, after Crisci played a handful of acoustic shows on a European tour. These songs, acoustic material that was never fully pursued given the nature of The Appleseed Cast's musical aesthetic, would eventually become part of Old Canes' first LP, Early Morning Hymns.

The songs on Early Morning Hymns are simple, genuine, and nostalgic. Crisci sings out joy and melancholy in the same honest voice - a quality that has lent creedence to The Appleseed Cast's work in the same way that it has to the mid-90's Midwestern emo resurgence. The composition is multi-layered - songs are built off of a 3-5 chord progression, strummed on guitar, then added onto with percussion, banjoy, harmonica, and some less traditional instruments.

Old Canes have signed to Saddle Creek. Their second full-length, Feral Harmonic, is set for release on October 20, 2009. The band is currently touring, and will be playing at Hamden's The Space on Wednesday October 14th, courtesy of Manic Productions.

Old Canes Official
Myspace
Pre-order @ Saddle Creek

Brand New - Daisy

2009-10-05T19:55:00.011-04:00

Long Island's Brand New turns ten this year, which I suppose has them rounding the corner into venerable territory. Along with the aging of the band and the individual members of the collective comes heavy maturation of their sound - the decade old Brand New sounds nothing like the complaint-punk adolescents of yesteryear.

Even if kitschy heartbroken pop punk was never your niche, Brand New can't be faulted - what they do they have always done well. Cleverly written and hook-driven, Your Favorite Weapon and it's critically acclaimed follow-up Deja Entendu delivered on what they promised - clean, smart, and catchy punk-flavored alt-pop.

Sure enough. The darlings were still fresh-faced innocent youths back in the distant past.

The nine-track demo that was leaked in 2006, as well as The Devil and God Are Raging Inside of Me, the album that followed soon after, were a big departure from the band's more formulaic offerings. The album was desperate, dark, and distorted, resounding with influence from early 90's grunge and progenitor indie rock.

Brand New's latest LP, the mysteriously titled Daisy (released 9/22/09 on Interscope), moves even further away from the band's past poppy excursions, going so far at to perhaps obliterate that memory completely.

The album is thick with sound, dense to the point of seeming to be infinitely layered. The opening track, "Vices", begins with an archaic sound sample that is promptly destroyed by pounding double bass and ringing guitar feedback. The grunge instrumentation is met by Jesse Lacey's wailing vocals, sounding like something that would be comfortable on a conventional post-hardcore album (read Glassjaw). The other songs bring similar qualities to the album; the sound is riff-driven and distorted. It's dirty in ways that mimic notable influences such as The Pixies or Nirvana.

Tracks such as "You Stole" ring of Modest Mouse; Lacey's singing carries the same slipping twang as Isaac Brock in places. Brand New's charming qualities are as prevalent as ever, and there is nothing about the album that doesn't feel whole or solid. Daisy is solid and original. It's only stumbling point comes in its lyrical content.

Jesse Lacey's songwriting as always been top-notch, penning the witty and introspective with equal grace. Guitarist Vincent Accardi is credited with most of the lyrics on the album; he was also responsible for "Handcuffs" from The Devil and God Are Raging Inside of Me, which many fans cite as the only weak track on the album.

Accardi's writing is not as tight or as clever as Lacey's. The songs seem to repeat one another often, albeit unclearly, as if Accardi has a good grasp of the concept he's trying to convey, but is simply finding it difficult to deliver it with the sharp precision that Brand New has come to by synonymous with. The lyrical themes meander, and often retread territory from The Devil and God... but with less substance.

Even in form, Accardi often runs himself over. "I'd drive my car off of a bridge/if I knew that you weren't inside" (from "Handcuffs") and "I'd sell you drugs on a silver plate/if I thought it could help you get away." (from "At the Bottom") are nearly identical.

Overall, Daisy is an album that represents surprising progression from a band that would have long ago been extinct if they hadn't been bent on transcendence of sound. Even with the surprisingly new territory that is brought to light with each successive album, the change in musical direction never feels forced.

Age Sixteen - Open Up Finders, Please

2009-09-03T10:03:00.002-04:00

Over the last two or three years there has been a resurgence in modern emo/post-hardcore/screamo that pulls back influence from the progenitor acts of the genre, culling together an early-mid 90's style and sensibility run through a contemporary strainer. Things look good for the state of modern emo/hardcore; I know that in itself is unfortunately a sort of buzzword, but for the time being let us imagine that those mallgoth shitcakes and the lieblous media that spreads their corrupted gospel doesn't exist, and let's focus on the good stuff.

While Philadelphia's Algernon Cadwallader has been spearheading a resurgence in twinkly, Kinsella-esque, Midwestern indie/emo, other notables have been emerging. Loma Prieta has been releasing riff-driven screamo with a clear Honeywell influence, as European screamo acts bring us a more melodic style of hardcore, one which is deeply indebted to post-rock and it's loud-soft dynamic.

Baltimore's Age Sixteen takes a cue from European contemporaries such as Sweden's Suis La Lune and Italy's La Quiete. The album is beautifally melodic, yet deeply chaotic. All things considered, Age Sixteen's Open Up Finders, Please is absolutely a punk album. It's short and sweet, abrasive at moments - the entire album, nine tracks long, clocks in at about twenty minutes. Ultimately, it meets somewhere between traditional screamo/hardcore and the noodly guitars of Midwestern emo, influence which shines through in tracks like "Empty Nest", "Seasick", and "Peter Pan Complex."

My Heart to Joy

2009-06-20T17:19:00.002-04:00

I don't have much to say about this one, except that it's quite good. My Heart to Joy is a hardcore/emo band from Kensington, CT, my home state. They sound like the best parts of the early-mid 90's scene. They sound a lot like Braid or The Promise Ring. The recording is somewhat lo-fi, and there's a lot of distorted, fuzzy guitar work - it all lends to the appeal.

Their newest LP, Seasons in Verse, came out a few months ago. Check it out.

Also, dig their Myspace.

Codes in the Clouds - Paper Canyon

2009-06-20T16:52:00.002-04:00

When it comes to epic, cinematic post-rock, I feel there is none better than Explosions in the Sky. Their particular brand of instrumental rock is sweeping and melodramatic, and easily accessible (as opposed to others deep in the genre, where the music breaks down into buzz and drone, or negative space).

With so many acts aiming their bows at this target, it all ends up becoming very hit-or-miss. What will draw listeners to something new, if the sound being offered does not necessarily bring anything exceptionally ground-breaking to the table? Innovative post-rock bands have been making their own noise niche as of recent, especially those that blend traditional rise-and-fall, quiet-loud dynamics with electronic elements (see This Will Destroy You, or The American Dollar).

Yet still, sometimes the tried-and-true simply works. Another post-rock band? Why the fuck not, if they can do it well. Hailing from Kent, UK, Codes in the Clouds brings us Paper Canyon. It sounds a lot like an Explosions in the Sky album, at least upon first listen. The songs work, they do what they should, and are satisfying. None run too long, barely breaking the five-minute mark save for the final two tracks, which are the best on the album.

Dig their Myspace.

Castevet - Summer Fences

2009-06-20T16:13:00.002-04:00

Chicago has been the breeding ground for early 90's post-hardcore/emocore notables in the past, citing progenitor acts such as Braid, The Promise Ring, and Kinsella-blooded projects Cap'n Jazz, and American Football.

A decade and a half after the fact, Castevet have given us an exceptional debut LP, Summer Fences, following a three-song demo titled I Know What a Lion Is. They're good. Quite good. Listening to the new album, one can almost hear the beard...the vocals sound very similar to Bear vs. Shark's Marc Paffi - harsh, throaty, rough, and desperate. Musically, they remind me a good deal of Cap'n Jazz, and even early Appleseed Cast during the album's more melodic instrumental moments.

The first track off the LP, "Between Berwyn and Bryn Mawr" live; the sound quality is terrible, but you get the idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_wH9HecRv0&feature=related

Also, dig their Myspace.

New Music From Kevin Devine and Cursive

2009-03-07T15:28:00.002-05:00

For those who were not aware, Kevin Devine's new album Brother's Blood was leaked a few weeks ago, well ahead of it's scheduled release date (which is not until early April). While this is certainly not much of a surprise, it did lead to a thought-provoking Myspace blog posted by the man himself; on March 2nd, Kevin posted this statement on the leak. It's not a scathing angry rant by any means, though it does reveal his somewhat disappointed outlook on the album trickling out into the public sector pre-release. There are some good points to look at here, and they're presented fairly by a man that I find quite amiable to the whole situation.

My personal attitude on this tends to lean toward "Sure, download the album! But you'd best get your ass to the fucking shows and support your freebie music." I think that's as straight forward as one can be. I download a lot of music, but I also do my damn best (as well as a poor student can do) to support acts I like the most.

The album itself is, as expected, very good. I'm not sure what else to say about it; I've been waiting for this album for a very long time, since Kevin Devine first started introducting the new songs into his formidable live repertoire. They do, of course, sound very different with the backing of The Goddamn Band, as opposed to the (usually) solo performance. The album's intro, "All of Everything Erased", sounds like it could have come off a late Elliott Smith release. Devine and Smith have been compared often, and the influence is quite evident here. Other excellent highlights include the relentless nihilistic anthem "Time to Burn (Another Bag of Bones)", and the disassociative and jarring "It's Only Your Life".

Cursive's new album Mama, I'm Swollen was released on March 1st as a digital download on the Saddle Creek website. It premiered for download with the price of $1 which would climb by another dollar each day until March 10th, when the physical album would be released - a strange play on an unorthodox digital marketing strategy in the same vein of Radiohead's In Rainbows and The Walkmen's You & Me. At this point it would probably be best to just wait out the last few days and buy the physical thing for the standard price, as I don't think one could justify a $10 collection of MP3's.

I haven't had a chance to listen through the album, but word is that it's a return to a heavier Cursive after Happy Hollow. Their last release was excellent as a concept album, but was certainly not among my favorite Cursive releases. I'm looking forward to hearing it.

Good Things to Come

2009-02-26T10:07:00.001-05:00

I finally picked up The Decemberists' Always the Bridesmaid EP - they were released as three separate vinyl singles, all with the same shared title. "Valerie Plame" and "Raincoat Song" take my pick for best of the bunch here.Listening to these songs made me remember why it is I love The Decemberists so (and made me feel awfully guilty that they've not been coming through my speakers for far too long). I'm very excited for the forthcoming Hazards of Love; even as I sit and wait patiently, I'd really love for the album to leak soon. Come on with it!

Moving on, I had the chance to hear Julie Doiron's new album, I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day. Coming off of her appearance with Phil Elevurum on Mount Eerie's Lost Wisdom, Doiron is releasing another collection of wistful and innocent homespun songs. I've been enthralled with Doiron's songwriting and exquisite voice since I saw her play live with Mount Eerie (she did a solo set, and a set with Phil). She has a way of putting to words small-yet-important feelings that often go overlooked - in example, in "Nice to Come Home", how it feels to retreat to your room after being out in the world all day, and finally having the chance to throw off your coat and rest your weary self.

The Appleseed Cast have released their seventh full-length, titled Sagarmatha. Originally planned as an instrumental-only EP, the project evolved into a "mostly instrumental" full-length album. The Appleseed Cast is one of my favorite bands, and I've found reason to love everything they're produced, to some degree; even fan let-downs like Two Conversations and 2006's Peregrine founs their way to my heart. I'm happy to say that this new album reaches more toward the epic Low Level Owl albums than the vocal-heavy latter releases from '03 and '06. There is some strangeness toward the end of the album with some iffy guitar work that sounds out of place and clunky on an Appleseed album, but it doesn't damage the integrity of the release as a whole. I'm hoping that the direction this new album has taken is an indication that the band did not achieve their pinnacle of greatness with the Marie Vitalis to Low Level Owl: Volume 2 block.

According to their Myspace page, the band has undergone some lineup alterations - bassist Marc Young and drummer Aaron Coker have left the band, replaced by Nate Whitman and John Mornberg, respectively.

Preview: Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free

2009-02-17T08:44:00.000-05:00

If you were not aware, allow me to inform you: the new Akron/Family release, titled Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, is right around the corner. This newest album is somewhat of a directional shift for the Brooklyn naturalismo ensemble in many ways, including the most instantly obvious - this is the first release recorded by Akron/Family as a trio. Original member Ryan Vanderhoof left the collective in late 2007, spurring a raucous change in the band's touring platform, with like-minded acts such as The Dodos and Megafaun opening the show, and then later joining Akron/Family on stage for the main performance.

It looks as if the band is attempting to recreate and enhance this sort of experience with their current album tour, which will begin with San Francisco shows in early March. Each show will supposedly feature new guest musicians who will join Akron/Family on stage, resulting in a varied, unique experience each night.

Akron/Family is a band to be experienced live. Personally, I have only seen them twice, but each time it was a completely different experience than listening to their albums on record. Their on-stage madness is contagious; watching them play you get the genuine feeling that they are enjoying themselves in abundance. They communicate and coordinate so well with one another while playing, and seek to do the same to the audience by pulling them in to interact with the audial environment they're creating.

A lot of the songs on Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free have been making the live circuit during the band's last round of touring. To those who have been catching their performances, some of the album will not be so new; still, it's something interesting to see how the recorded song matches up to the wild, unhinged live version. The music is different - this album, even more so than Love Is Simple shows the progression of the band from quiet lo-fi field folk, to basing themselves in more chaotic psychadelia. The intro track, "Everyone is Guilty", sounds unlike anything else the band has yet recorded; still, the roots of the Akron/Family experience is well intact. Songs like "Sun Will Shine" and "The Alps and Their Orange Evergreen" would find a comfortable home amidst the band's older material.

And as the album ends on a strinkingly hopeful note for what has been an already turbulent 2009: "Last year was a hard year for such a long time, this year is gonna be ours."

Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free will be released on May 5th, by Dead Oceans records.

Giraffes? Giraffes!

2009-02-16T17:10:00.000-05:00

A word on these guys - they really are an amazing musical duo. I regret not hearing their music until very recently. While I can often find something enjoyable, it's not often that I am suitably moved and impressed by an album. I think that's a personal deficiency bred by years of jaded hipster-bullshit indulgence; a foul bit on my part, but something that is unavoidable, I feel. When you spend so much time listening to whatever you can get your hands on (for variety and exploration's sake) then it eventually takes more and more to stand out from among the mediocre and droll.

When I heard 2008's More Skin With the Milk-Mouth, I was impressed. Floored perhaps. I felt it necessary, and within my duties as a human being, to expose anyone who would listen to me to the wonder of the album. Even though it's pretty short at a meager 28 minutes over five tracks, the adage of quality over quantity proves true here. The sounds produced by these guys would be impressive if it were a full four or five piece band - when it's discovered that it's only two musicians, one must ask how they can do what they do?

I suppose they really are just that good. My pick for the best track on the album is the last of the five, titled "A Quick One, While She's Away". It has a cheery double-tapped guitar rhythm in the beginning that builds up into something jaw-dropping and incomprehensible. At the 6:30 mark, my world melted away and I caught a glimpse of the unfiltered light of god in seven dimensions.

Lion's Teeth @ Cousin Larry's (2-1-2009)

2009-02-02T13:17:00.000-05:00

Last night I had the opportunity to see Lion's Teeth play at Cousin Larry's Cafe in Danbury. A relatively new five-piece ensemble former in November of 2008, Lion's Teeth plays catchy and enthusiastic folk-pop. I was happy to be able to catch their second show at Larry's, and although it was a short set, the songs that the band are playing show a lot of work and polish. The band cites influences such as urban-folk juggernauts The Mountain Goats, starry-eyed harp queen Joanna Newsom, and the ultra literate The Decemberists. While Lion's Teeth currently does not have anything recorded for purchase, but according to their Myspace page, you can download their first show in MP3. It's worth it. Also, it's quite free. The song "Foreclosure" is my pick for best of the batch - it is hauntingly poignant, especially in this age of economic woe.

Lion's Teeth on MYSPACE

Moreso, you should also check out the band that played alongside Lion's Teeth, Like Trains and Taxis. This band is a three piece from New Brunswick, NJ that plays an amazingly original blend of soul, jazz, and pop. There was no guitar to be seen when they ambled on stage, and the bass rhythyms these guys play are highly infective, and highly grooveable. They have an EP for sale, that you can grab off of their Myspace page.

Currently on tour, these fellows will be in Boston at TT the Bear's, along with Arms & Legs. The combination, I will say, it delicious.

This Town Needs Guns - Animals

2009-01-24T19:08:00.000-05:00

Culled together from the foul humors of the Oxford underworld, This Town Needs Guns is a four-piece math rock outfit with an impressive debut. Their first LP, released in January by Sargent House (USA), is titled Animals - delivering on all the pretense that such a title might promise, every track on the album is named after a member of the beastly world, all of varying levels of exotic mystique or rarity.

While anything from the noble chinchilla to the proud zebra can be found gracing the album, the individual beasties have no real inflection on the content of the songs they champion; there's also a song named after the quetzal. What the fuck is quetzal, you ask? Admittedly, I had no idea what sort of alien thing it was before I sat down to write this, however, wikipedia informs me that it's some manner of tropical bird.

The more you know, hmph.

Upon first listen, it's clear that This Town has taken a page from short-lived math rock/jazz fusion band Owls. Tim Collins' guitar work is the centerpiece of the album; his complex clean lines carry the weight of each song, broken only in places with spikes of interceding tangled drumwork. When compared to last year's self-titled EP, the progression of the band onto their first full length is evident. The guitar work is much cleaner, tighter, and while the time signatures have become even more abstract, the sound as a whole is nonetheless much more crisp, clearly defined.

The melodies are even and impressively complex, and Stuart Smith's vocals ring of a certain honesty, perhaps even dissolusionment. The emotion prevalent in the songs is hard to place; it is certaily there, but it's less tangible as a definable thing, than a sort of wavering force.

Animals is impressive album from a band I hope to hear more good things from.

The video for "26 is Dancier than 4" from 2008's EP This Town Needs Guns:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhPljk5EZ0Q

A Very Belated Best-Of 2008

2009-01-23T15:26:00.001-05:00

Now that the year's passing has come and gone, and nearly a month after-the-fact, I'm finally taking the time to sit down and pen my own "best-of" hit list. I've a sort of love/hate relationship with this sort of thing; while it's exceedingly difficult, and perhaps unfair, to try to summarize an entire year's worth of releases in a neat ten point list, it's just as obnoxious to make the attempt at compiling some verbose list of epic length. Sifting through fifty plus titles is simply tiresome, and in all honestly, we only care about the top tier of the list. If you have more than twenty or thirty favorite albums of the year, then at some point the do honestly cease to be favorites. Not everyone can win the prize, and that's something we must come to grips with.

And so on. I'll try to keep it concise. One of the major hurdles I have to jump when it comes to something like this is the simply difficulty associated with faulty memory; I can barely remember every new title that was released in 2008. Release dates become disassociated with their products, I forget.

And so:

#5 Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances

I went into this one blind. Having not heard this band before, neither in music nor name, my expectations were set to "very neutral". My interest in them came, originally from the fact that they were named after one of the more obscure Shakespearean tragedies, and that they had received a healthy likening to Bright Eyes. Certainly, that analogy is correct - Titus Andronicus' frontman Patrick Stickles is set on channeling the spirit of Conor Oberst. The songs carry the same yelping, slightly off-tune warbling vibratto that is so clearly present in Oberst's more desperate pieces. Still, a Bright Eyes rip-off this is not. The album sounds more of the post-punk Desparecidos than of Conor Oberst's more well known grouping.

In the end, the album also has a song name "Albert Camus", and features a recording of the ending paragraph of The Stranger, which nets them many extra points in my eyes.

#4 Portishead - Third

I'm sure that this one has made it's way onto most folks favorites. Highly anticipated for all the best reasons, the third Portishead album, releaTsed three years after it's predecessor is the best example of trip-hop done proper. Listening to Third was one of the most immersize musical experiences of my year; the tracks are perfectly times, and hypnotic in their scope and beat. This is less of a collection of songs, and more of a swirling miasma of sound; it managed to draw me into a genre that I don't normally curry to.

#3 Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

This is another 2008 juggernaut that is sure to appear everywhere. While it can be lumped under the wide banner of the freak folk movement, the Appalachian-baroque sound of Fleet Foxes really does represent something new entirely. Each song on the album has a sort of echoing mystique to it, sounding like it has a dated, vintage sort of charm from it's very conception. The album's sounds as if it were audially printed on crackling, yellowed parchment.

#2 Mount Eerie - Dawn and Lost Wisdom

I certainly knew that one of Phil Elevurum's new offerings would end up high on my list, but in the end I had to cheat and have them share my number two slot, as I could not choose between the two. In my defense, the two are remarkably different, and really can't be judged on the same level.

Dawn offers some of Phil's best work yet (both previously released, as well as some new songs), and really brings light to the new musical direction that Mount Eerie is traveling in, as opposed to the work of The Microphones. The tracks are lyrically impressive diary-like excerpts from Phil's world, as usual, but are lain over some of the most harmonious music that Elevurum has crafted to date.

On the other hand, Lost Wisdom is featured as a sort of duet album between Phil and Julie Doiron (formerly of Eric's Trip). The addition of Doiron's strong female vocals is an entirely new element of the Microphones/Mount Eerie milieu, as her singing is much more prominent on Lost Wisdom than Mirah's work on previous releases.

#1 Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Flight

I can genuinely say, without hesitation, that Scottish indie rocker's Frightened Rabbit's 2008 offering has impressed me more than anything else this year. My bias is admitted; I have an weak point for vocals in the Scottish brogue, and this album delivers in in spades. Their music is solemn and wistful, dark at points, and heavily emotional without delving into the darker reaches of the "nu-emo" world. Scott Hutchinson yelps about the dissolution of relationships, about the tragedy of man being lost in a confusing emotive world, and about coming to terms with the indifference therein, and resolving oneself to self-preservation and spiritual survival. The songs have a great feel of true character to them; the persona of this wounded man and his villainous (even if falsely accused) attackers is something very real.

Truly, the best album of the year.

Dark Sunn 0))) Rising

2008-12-18T14:17:00.000-05:00

Drone is a genre that I, like so many other unfortunates, have a tough time really grasping the meter of. Certainly I have the understanding that there is something there to be had, to be found and understood, but in order to see the essence of the thing, one has to peel back the thick layers of distortion and feedback, revealing the bright pulsing heart of the matter, exposed before you.

And that's the trouble. I very much want to have that innate true comprehension, like those who are similarly blessed with the ability to effortlessly see the waves of droning sound as something else entirely, and gain some real insight into what's being presented.

In order to do this, we are required to rework our interpretation of music entirely, and truly deconstruct our preconceived notion of what constitutes a song in the first place. After all, we're being presented with something that is beyond experimental in the sense that it is using sound in ways that focus on redefining the medium to begin with. Certainly there is structure, but that structure is built in a different way around a radically altered musical skeleton.

My first exposure to Sunn O))) was Black One. I was unfair to the album; the time I spent with it was wasted with marveling at how different it had sounded from anything else I'd heard until then. I really couldn't say that I enjoyed the album, or even really appreciated it for what it was, not at that time. I was intrigued by the nature of the music, the heaviness of the texture, the pervasive dark that seemed to cling to each moment of the album. The drone on that record is the sound of malaise incarnated in musical form; the throat-wrenching growls and screams that litter the tracks are something terribly fearful in themselves, highlighting intense moments through the dripping drone.

It took me some time to really comprehend what I was being exposed to with Black One. I don't know if it's really an album to be enjoyed, so much as it's an album to be felt and experienced. The fathers of the album, Sunn O))) themselves, seem much the same way. I feel as though their music could not be produced by anyone else, save for these grim drone-minstrels, clad in dark robes like a cabal of gothic necromancers from some medieval woodcut. The experience of the music extends to the image of it's creators.

Listening to 2008's Domkirke impressed me in many ways. A live album recorded at a show held in a church in Bergen, Norway, once can literally hear the drone of the guitars and the rising chant-vocals echoing off of the ancient cathedral ceiling and walls. The recording puts the listener into the physical experience flawlessly. The church's organ lends it's muscle to the performance. The result is epic in scope, theatrical in structure. The songs sound huge, as large as the cathedral, as the setting of the performance becomes just as much part of the album as the audio itself. The drone resonates fluidly through the church halls.

The drone would does not lend itself well to hasty interpretation. There is a lot to take in, even though on an initial listen there may not seem to be much real substance to the music. This is the sort of stuff that one needs to allow time to incubate.

Bright Dawn for Phil Eleverum

2008-11-18T18:15:00.000-05:00

When lo-fi hero Phil Eleverum changed his musical moniker from The Microphones to Mount Eerie (following the album of the same name, his last release under The Microphones name), the philosophy behind his hushed lyrical meandering also evolved. When the metaphorical Phil dies at the conclusion of The Microphones' Mount Eerie, he comes face to face with the Universe itself, and like Camus' existential hero from The Stranger finds acceptance and enlightenment in the gentle indifference therein.

The creature that emerged from that confrontation was Eleverum's new directive, Mount Eerie. While Eleverum's humble music has always consisted of brutally honest expositions on the entire range of human existence, Mount Eerie find's his quiet, whispery voice singing songs of self-reflection and internal questioning, rather than simply wallowing in the unavoidable tumult of the human condition. While the post-Microphones Phil has not risen above avid self-examination and questioning, he has come to do so with himself as the subject of his quandaries, looking for answers in his proverbial “I” rather than “you”.

While Eleverum has seemingly been playing the same songs again and again over the course of his discography, Dawn represents one of his most accessible and fresh offerings thus far. The album's nineteen tracks were all written by Eleverum in the winter of 2002-03 during a trip to a remote area of Norway, where he spent the time alone in a woodland cabin. The songs on Dawn certainly reflect that sense of solitude and isolation; the minimalist compositions evoke a sense of loneliness that is not all together uncomfortable.

While Dawn carries with it Eleverum's traditional off-tune sound, the album does present some surprisingly harmonious moments, notably “The Moon Sequel”, “Wooly Mammoth's Mighty Absence”, and “Great Ghosts”. Most of the songs on Dawn are nothing new to fans, who have heard them played in various incarnations already; Eleverum is notorious for the recycling of lyrics and music. Not surprisingly, “The Moon Sequel” reuses a cleaner, quicker and darker version of the melody from “The Moon”, and “Voice in Headphones” was recorded released on Mount Eerie's previous 2008 album, Lost Wisdom, and used the chorus from Bjork's “Undo”.

Like the rest of his releases, Dawn is an album where the stitching is very visible. The music is not tight or concise, and is often off-tune, ringing with the awkward charm that is a consistent component of The Microphones/Mount Eerie. The tracks on Dawn focus less on music, and more on words themselves. The stripped-bare diary-like lyrics are lain over hushed, precarious compositions. The album plays less like a series of songs, and more like an audible series of one man's private moments of acceptance and revelation while adrift in a vast, confusing universe.

While the Phil Eleverum school of music has always favored lyrics over the sonics, it has been no more apparent than in the releases of his Mount Eerie incarnation, beginning with No Flashlight. Still, there are moments of absolute musical beauty on Dawn that are unrivaled in any previous release. After the death of The Microphones, Eleverum's music has lost some of the buzz around it, emerging as something clear and stripped bare. In these exposed pieces there is something far more delicate than we have been exposed to previously. Mount Eerie's musical evolution is headed in a new direction, as noted by Dawn's spectacular nineteen tracks. One can hope that the trend continues with the “colossal sounding new album”, titled Wind's Poem, due out in the spring of 2009.

BATTLES!

2008-11-04T14:21:00.000-05:00

Battles is a name that I've heard often. As inundated by recommendations to their album as I have been, I must admit that it was not until very recent that I sat down and gave their debut LP, Mirrored, a listen. After giving the album's eleven tracks a thorough play-through, I repent and lament my indecisive laziness.

Battles are an experimental band that seems to get lumped into the broad musical brushstroke that is labeled as post-rock. To be fair to those who would attach such tags, Battles certainly seem to fit that bill, at least at face value. They're thoroughly instrumental, with the exception of Tyondai Braxton's voice sampling; there aren't any real vocals to speak of, just looping syllables, simple vowels and consonant sounds that entwine into the complex musical web woven by the more traditional instruments.

This is what makes Battles...well Battles. They're sound is different from other instrumental rock bands in that is doesn't focus on creating a flowing cinematic music-scape. Mirrored sounds like the inner workings of some intensely complex machine. The sounds woven here by these musical tailors creates a mechanical audial texture; repetitive sounds and buzzing drones drives home a feeling of being lost inside some hideously fascinating clockwork. The repetitive nature of the rhythms do not diminish the music's effect, nor does it make for a boring, predictable listen. The sound is complex and interesting to begin with.

The drumming of ex-Helmet member John Stanier is certainly the highlight of the album Mirrored is a drum album; I can't see the songs being as definitive as they are if they were lacking the pulsing beat of Stanier's drumming. Supplemented by the maddening string work of ex-Don Caballero guitarist Ian Williams, Battles effectively create something new that blends the raw, sweeping emotion of post-rock with the experimental instrumentation of math-rock.

Not Exactly Like Drinking From the Holy Grails

2008-10-31T13:22:00.000-04:00

Every element on the new Grails album, Doomsayer's Holiday, carries with it a pervasive atmosphere of gloom. The title, the album art, and most obviously the tracks themselves all have a palpably heavy, oppressive feel to them. Establishing the atmosphere is not a problem for Doomsayer's Holiday; the issue is that while the feeling is there, nothing ever seems to come of it.

The seven tracks well cover the standard post-rock territory. In comparison, they sound reminiscent of pieces from Godspeed You! Black Emperor tracks. However, Grails seem to lack the epic orchestral movement structure of that Canadian collective, nor do they craft the cinematic music-scape of some of their genre-mates.

The songs on Doomsayer's Holiday are short in terms of a genre that builds itself on lengthy build-ups; this would be a blessing, if the music wasn't so meandering. The songs establish themselves, but don't seem to go anywhere, or tread over new territory during their length. Instead, they seem to wander over the same few elements for five minutes, and provide no clear sense of beginning or end. At times the music degenerates into some sort of noisy “wall of sound”. While it adds a sense of audial texture, it generally feels confusing and out-of-place.
What Grails do well on Doomsayer's Holiday is introduce new elements to their music, much of which is completely foreign to the post-rock or avant-metal world. “Reincarnation Blues” and “Predestination Blues” have an overt Eastern sound to them, and feature sitar-heavy instrumentation along with a wavering psychedelic tone. “The Natural Man”, a harpsichord based piece, represents clearest track on the album, and the most easily accessible. Conversely, the closing track “Acid Rain” sums up all the maundering confusion of Doomsayer's Holiday, as it slowly wanders over eight long minutes.

Grails are veterans, and that garners them some respect. Doomsayer's Holiday is an album that certainly does what it seems to want to do- it establishes an atmosphere early, and does not let up. By the time the album is over, it feels as if there should be more coming, something to summarize or finalize the experience to a degree that the rest of the tracks do not. It is as if Grails bring you to the gloomy landscape of Doomsayer's Holiday, but they simply drop you off on your own, and drive off leaving you quietly confused.

Marnie Stern's Guitar Can Shatter Worlds, Cure Cancer, Devour Souls...

2008-10-29T15:00:00.000-04:00

And they say that women can't play the guitar. Every mythological belief you've heard about the X-chromosome, the guitar, and rock music is shattered by Marnie Stern's vengeful string-tapping assault on the pre-conceived sexual standards of the music industry.

Stern's self-taught playing is manic, explosively anarchic, and dizzying. Her frenzied finger-tapping play style isn't anything immediately groundbreaking; certainly it has deep seated roots in the ancient glam rock past. Where the Eddie Van Halen's of the world decided to stop their ascent, Stern has pressed forward. The results are incendiary.

Stern's debut album, In Advance of the Broken Arm, adds the drumming of Hella's Zach Hill to form the core of the album's frenetic sound. All else aside, the album showcase's Stern's mastery of the guitar, and her ability to transcend traditional use of the instrument to create a web of noise that evokes something reminiscent of tinkling bells and shattering glass. At times Stern uses the guitar almost as a sort of “omni-instrument”, creating the feel of harmony and percussion simultaneously.

The album would have been satisfying even as a set of shredding instrumental songs, but the addition of Stern's windy siren-like vocals increase the surreal maelstrom feel of the music. Her voice is deeply imbedded in the wailing guitar, but they don't feel drowned. Her high-pitched shouts seem to entwine with her playing; they accentuate one another, and at times it's difficult to tell where her yelp ends and the guitar begins.

Titled after a work by Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp, In Advance of the Broken Arm is an excellent spiritual successor to such surrealist movements. While it's easy to be awed by her protean technical skill with the guitar, the best summarization is this: Marnie Stern sounds unlike anything else being released today. This is refreshingly original music from one of the best new musicians to emerge.

Mountain Goats Fans Welcome the Coming of the Satanic Messiah

2008-10-29T14:53:00.000-04:00

Nobody can say that The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle isn't being prolific with his music, given the impressive back catalogue of albums, EP's, and compilations that these urban-folkies have accrued since the early 1990's. While Darnielle and his persistent, nasally vocals do not comprise the whole of The Mountain Goats, they certainly are the core. Darnielle's highly literate vocals has always brought with it a sense of panic and tumult; it evoked the feel of urgent moments, and racing thought.

Until 2002's Get Lonely, Darnielle's hurried voice has always strained against crackling lo-fi recordings. Despite the clearer, more polished recordings, the voice of The Mountain Goats remained the same. 2008's Heretic Pride saw an entirely different sound emerge from the band, with slower paced songs full of reflection and more graceful, refined vocals.

The Satanic Messiah EP follows up Heretic Pride's new musical direction with a piano-heavy set of songs. While the hasty intensity of Goat's albums past may not be present, one should no assume that this means they lack an emotional core; on the contrary, the lack of the rush allows the songs to be more clearly emotionally defined.

Even so, the songs clearly separate the EP into two halves. The first two songs, “Sarcofago Live” and “Wizard Buys A Hat”, sound much like what came off of Heretic Pride. The other two songs, title track “Satanic Messiah” and “Gojam Province 1968”, feature Darnielle in an entirely new way – solo, and with a piano. The vocals sound just as appropriate entwined with slow-paced, mournful piano as they do alongside vivid, chopping guitar work.

Satanic Messiah is only available in super-limited release; there were 666 vinyl pressings to be sold during The Mountain Goat's tour, the last of which (coveted number 666) was claimed by Darnielle himself. Any damned souls not lucky enough to acquire one of these records, take heart – the EP can be downloaded as an electronic “pay-what-you-want” release at www.satanicmessiah.com