There is a self-congratulatory element of Stephin Merritt’s work, the kind of which is either explained by fundamental insecurity or mind-blowing self-confidence. Either way, whether it is the heavy-handed ironosincerity of his most recent album titles (69 Love Songs offers just that, while Distortion is a collection of distorted songs and I is an album filled with songs titles that begin with the titular letter of the alphabet) or the adolescent wit of the songwriting, the man behind The Magnetic Fields seems eager for his audience to get the joke and revere him for it.

Unfortunately, at least for this listener, he’ll need to look elsewhere for reverence. What seemed like an inspired and charmed mid-term renewal of a career with 69 Love Songs has devolved into a novelty act. Perhaps that’s why everything on Realism, the artist’s latest release, seems so darn mean.

In Merritt’s defense (kind of), he’s always been a bit of a deadpan jerk, somewhat like that funny yet self-loathing guy who was in your group at lunch in the high school cafeteria, but that you didn’t want to spend large chunks of time with. There are tracks on each of his releases that make you wonder who exactly stepped on his heart and how many times, and this horse beating continues in full on Realism. So, the lashing out and whining is nothing new. It is just now finally stale. The famed morosity that prompted no less a grumpy codger than Bob Mould to declare Merritt the most depressed man in rock (see interview here) comes off one way when one is in their twenties or even thirties; by one’s 44th birthday, which the artist celebrated last month, the blah blah blues, no matter how clever and droll, is tired.

Which is a shame, really, because just as Realism demonstrates Merritt’s stalled narrative progress, it also demonstrates the man’s handiness with a melody and a hook. The thirteen songs on Realism amount well enough to the band’s hipstered approach to folk music, and while it often fails to equal good folk, it is just tongue-in-cheek enough to convince you that Merritt and his album allies could do so if they really dared to put themselves out on the line in a more sincere way. Played out “irony” aside, the arrangements you’ll find on many of the album’s tracks are impressive, from the simple but mobile album opening “You Must Be Out of Your Mind” to winkingly po-mo “We Are Having A Hootenanny,” and you are left with the impression that Merritt is a serious student of numerous genres, able to move at will between them, even if such movement is primarily satirical these days. The Scandinavian pop approach of “Always Already Gone” and the renaissance fest bar croon of “Seduced and Abandoned” further cement this conclusion.

Other tracks, like “I Don’t Know What to Say” and “Walk A Lonely Road”, demonstrate Merritt’s skill set when approaching more traditional Magnetic Fields fare. The artist’s baritone has only improved with age, as has Merritt’s apparent ability to hear himself within the arrangements, the sonic equivalent of an all-pro running back seeing the holes that few others can. One hopes that, as Merritt moves on to his next project he also evolves as an artist, making peace with relational ghosts and trading in the weary reliance on self-saluting irony for a risky challenge.

Realism, the tenth album out by The Magnetic Fields, dropped January 26th via Nonesuch Records. You can purchase it here.

Nice to see Brian hit his Lazy Saturday post, even if it’s on Sunday.  In any event, as promised, I’ve got the second installment of this week’s Radio Dick primed and ready to go.  So as y’all overindulge today and watch the Colts take it to the Saints, do it with a soundtrack of new releases just warbling their initial cries to the world.  Here are five tracks to get you moving this morning.  As the hangover ensues tomorrow, stop on back.  We’ll be wide awake (sort of).

As mentioned yesterday, follow us on Twitter HERE, and on our fresh and spankin’ new Facebook page, HERE.  Thanks to all that have followed us in our various incarnations around the web.

This Week’s List (Continued from Yesterday)

A Weather – Giant Stairs – Portland’s A Weather is releasing Everday Balloons on March 2^nd, their sophomore effort.  This track has all of the charm and soft arrangement that made their debut, Cove, so entrancingly great.  As the band gears up for the release, folks are beginning to take notice.  Somewhere amidst the slam we receive of electronica and blipped out largeness, it’s refreshing to dial it back a bit and dive into the world A Weather creates.

A Weather – Giant Stairs

Joe Pug – The Sharpest Crown – We had the opportunity to see Joe Pug here in Cleveland midway through 2009, and his smooth as silk folk crooning left us in awe pretty quickly.  His newest release, Messenger is set to hit shelves on February 16^th, and “The Sharpest Crown” is the first released track.  Quiet and melodic, he moves through the track effortlessly, and for all of the Joe Pug fans, the entire album will be a heartwarming treat.

Joe Pug – The Sharpest Crown

Felix Cartal – Popular Music – As far as bouncy dance tracks go, this one’s a monster.  Felix Cartal is dropping his debut LP, Popular Music via Dim Mak on February 23^rd and this is the opening track.  Cartal has been making a name for himself in the remix, track-cutting game and this debut promises to be the rave-inspired anthem collection of the month.

Felix Cartal – Popular Music

Frog Eyes – A Flower in a Glove – Dead Oceans will release Paul’s Tomb:  A Triumph on April 27^th from Canadian rockers Frog Eyes, and this is presumably the opener to the album.  Carey Mercer, bombastic and energy-charged frontman, collaborated in Swan Lake’s killer 2009 album, Enemy Mine, and his own outfit hasn’t put out an album in three years.  I can usually put my money on Dead Oceans to put out quality material, and this track is really doing the trick for me.  At once, the vocals are standoffish with listeners,  possibly over-emotive.  However, they settle in about two minutes in and the track soars to amazing highs.

Frog Eyes – A Flower in a Glove

Erykah Badu – Window Seat – Badu tweeted out this song yesterday via twitter and ever since, the blogosphere’s lit up.  It’s probably at least in the mode of efficiency and homage that we hit this track today.  James, another writer, has been a part of the Badu fan club for years, as I remember him spinning her albums way back in college.  Look forward to her newest release, New Amerykah Part II:  The Return of the Ankh, which drops toward the end of March.  “Window Seat” includes Questlove settling down behind the drums and finds Erykah in familiar territory.  Smooth as silk, this track promises more from the release.  Get in line.  It’ll be on everyone’s April playlist.

Erykah Badu – Window Seat

Kevin mentioned yesterday that I recently had a kid.  He’s the bee’s knees (my baby, not Kevin), but he certainly has thrown a ratchet in the old sleep cycle.  For those of you yet to embark on the journey of parenthood (which I’m imagining is the vast majority of the expensive-jean clad, indie rock blog cognoscenti), it’s the greatest thing in the world.  I look at the little dude and I feel about as happy as I ever have.  But there is no sleeping.  You know that feeling you get on the third day of Bonnaroo (or its equivalent)?  It’s hot, you’ve seen twenty bands in the last two days, your body is coursing with chemicals, you’re equal parts stoked to see the headliner and completely ready to pass out?  Being a dad is like that, but without the booze.  I feel this constant sense of excitement for what the little dude will do next, paired with an uncertainty about my physical capacity to stay up one more minute.  Mrs. Citizen popped the dude out on Wednesday.  It is now late Saturday night.  In that span, we might have slept four hours aggregate.  I can taste colors at this point.

All that to say that I really haven’t had a second to sit down and write.  I have discovered, however, that the littlest Citizen loves Megafaun.  Since he’s been born, we’ve listened to Gather, Form and Fly straight through once or twice.  It might be a coincidence, some sort of circadian alignment, but he seems to be the coolest cucumber when Megafaun is on the hi-fi.  (That’s kind of a fib.  He’s pretty mellow most of the time.  He more fond of chilling out in Mrs. Citizen’s arms than he is of  listening to records.  All things considered, that is definitely a good thing.)   I stumbled across a great show recording from January the other day, which nicely captures what the band is about live.  My baby is particularly fond of “Drains,” which is probably genetic.

I’m not sure when you’ll hear from me again in this space; I’ll pop my head out of the cave sporadically, hopefully on Saturdays, hopefully on other days with some choice reviews.  I’ll miss some days doing the dad thing, but I’m not ditching the internet completely.  Until we chat again, this should tide you over.  Enjoy.

Megafaun – Drains – Live, 2010

Megafaun – Guns – Live, 2010

Those dudes up there attended Yale.  They’re ambitious and reliable.  If I were forced to hop in a boat with 9 other dudes for my own safety, I’d be pleased to have these young lads at the helm.  We’re not as reliable at Citizen Dick, or at least we haven’t been over the last three days.  As such, our usual Sunday Radio Dick is being hit a bit early this week.  We’ll hit you five tracks today and five tracks tomorrow.  Big things have been going on around our Eastern Campus this week that have forced to go idle for a bit.  Our apologies!  Our writer, Brian, just became a proud papa.  His son, Avi, was born this week, and our sincere congratulations go out to Brian and Mrs. Citizen.  He usually hits you with his weekly Lazy Saturday posts, but he’s a bit busy at the moment introducing little Avi to the world of Megafaun and Phish.  Look out world.  At age 12, we’ll have another writer on the site.

Additionally, with tomorrow being the Super Bowl, we’re guessing that everyone’s going to slow down a bit musically and roll to the party circuit.  As we hang back a bit and look at the last seven days, quite a bit of tracks have been flying through our emails.  This week’s list is divided into two days and includes some just-leaked tracks from upcoming releases.  Check out Radio Dick Part Deux tomorrow morning for five more.

Follow us on Twitter HERE

Follow us on Facebook HERE

This Week’s List

Ariana Delawari – San Francisco – The situationally unique issues surrounding the recording of Delawari’s Lion of Panjshir are cool enough to hang your hat on.  The album was recorded partially in Delawari’s homeland in Afghanistan while armed guards stood outside the door of the family home.  It’s produced by David Lynch, as well.  “San Francisco” was a track just cleared for blogger-posting so it’s a no brainer to get it on the site.  Delawari sprinkles this album with a myriad of styles but this track is the one I continually go to on the album.  It’s bluesy and emits a heavy dose of warbly southern growling.  Repeat value written all over it.  Certainly snag the entire album and read our late 2009 review HERE.  Let this track give you a taste if you’ve not gotten the chance.

Ariana Delawari – San Francisco

Yeasayer – O.N.E. (XXXChange Remix) – This week, Yeasayer’s all set to drop Oddblood to the universe with as much fanfare as tomorrow’s Super Bowl.  As bloggers, we’ve received the heavy onslaught of PR emails, tweets, and have run the hype gamut.  The positive thing is that Oddblood holds up to the media frenzy with an incredibly consistent and sonorous collection of 12 tracks.  “O.N.E” was recently shelled out as a download to folks signing up at the band’s website.  This remix wanders into interesting blipped out controlled-chaos territory, and since we’ve got a full abum review on tap for this week, the remix should hold you over.  If you’ve not pre-ordered the album, you can do so HERE and get some cool goodies, to boot.

Yeasayer – O.N.E. (XXXChange Remix)

Esben and The Witch – Marching Song – We snagged this from Pitchfork on their daily Forkcast section, and we’re glad we tooled around over there this week.  This English band has leaked out two tracks recently, including this one.  They’re soon to be releasing a limited pressing 7” that includes the other track, “Lucia” which can be streamed at Pitchfork right now.  We’re digging “Marching Song” for several reasons.  First, it’s got all the brooding spirit of a hollow dirge, and the strikingly varietal percussion drops this somewhere into the realm of ethereal gloom. Super wicked double crooning erupts about midway through, leaving listeners both creeped out and oddly inspired. Sign us up for releases in the future.  This isn’t primed to wake you up this morning, but may do an excellent job scaring the shit out of you.

Esben and The Witch – Marching Song

Cloud Nothings – Old Street – Our very own Cloud Nothings has a blossoming interest in the blogosphere of late and we’re absolutely stoked over here.  The band’s got quite a heavy following here in the rust belt, and it’s always promising to see our home team get some notice.  The band’s SXSW shows are all lined up and we’re giving our ringing endorsement to check them out in Austin.  The vinyl release of Turning On hits shelves on February 23^rd, and this track, “Old Street,” is a slice of a stylistically slippery (yet all fabulous) sound you’ll get with the album’s purchase.  The fuzzy undertones slides back a few decades into harmonious hook-driven rock n’ roll.  Big bass lines and addictive distortion make this a track I’ve been blasting in my car for days, attempting to add a jolt of color into this grey Cleveland Winter.  For those of you reading in the Cleveland area, you can check out the vinyl release party at Believeland on 2/13.  Catch that show, because it’ll be the last time they hit Cleveland, presumably, before the SXSW madness wraps up.  Cleveland Rocks, yo.  So does Cloud Nothings.

Cloud Nothings – Old Street

Twin Shadow – Castles in the Snow – Brooklyn-based Twin Shadow, AKA George Lewis, Jr. is set to release his debut EP later this year.  Produced by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor (which seems to be a recurring news story of late) via his own Terrible Records, the EP promises excellently produced sound.  The taste here in “Castles in The Snow” launches listeners through plenty of the aforementioned sound.  Driving synthesizers and a killer chillwave aura, for some reason, seems louder than some of the other bands dropping this sort of thing recently.  Neon Indian has been touring of late, and I’d think this would be an excellent pairing.  Lewis’ vocals are better.   Catchy in all the right ways and epic in scope, Twin Shadow is certainly an outfit to keep an eye on as 2010 rambles onward.  If you’re not hitting repeat on this track, check your pulse.

Twin Shadow – Castles in The Snow

A first major boon to The Album Leaf’s sound is its consistency and fully pulsing motion.  It’s difficult to separate one track from the next and this is entirely by design.  Soundscapes roll from one track to the next, drum machines softly keeping time for the fullness of tracks like “Within Dreams,” where metallic synthesizer flourishes recollect the more mystifying moments of Kid-A.  Most tracks leave the vocals in the dust, focusing on the rich sounding musicianship.  “Blank Pages” begins the album bereft of any hefty emotion with more ambient synths and drum machines guiding listeners into serenity.  Early on, LaValle sets the tone that the album entirely revolves around an ethos that toes the line between pristine beauty and electronic bombast.  Celtic strings soar through the background of the aforementioned track.  As each of these songs sort of blend together, they crunch the boundaries between chillwave and all out symphonic orchestration.

The Album Leaf works best without vocals hindering the sound.  Several tracks move into the vocal arena and while they don’t inherently take away from the album, listeners are pleased when the arrangements go completely instrumental.  “There is a Wind” is the best of the loot vocally.  Piano tuned synthesizers roll through the track while double sung vocals move into cascading and spiraling choruses.  At times, the organization builds into near jam band chill out mode.  Arching intensity builds at the tracks close, moving listeners into a pardoxical world where sound is loud despite the unshakable smoothness of its delivery.  We’ve included “Falling From the Sun” which is another vocal heavy track dropped into the middle of the album.  A more straightlaced guitar sound is embellished by the mellow crooning.  Intensity picks up, xylophone pings and harmonies serve to splatter the canvas of rolling synthesizers.  To me, the vocals could stay or go.  My money’s on the sound and arrangements alone with this record.

The chillwave genre has erupted on the indie scene like a bad case of the clap, but it’s probably important to understand that the movement is nothing without its inspiring predecessors.  With LaValle’s The Album Leaf, all of these smooth and brilliant arrangements do everything these emerging chillwave artists do for me.  There’s something more authentic here, however, taking in the idea that LaValle has been doing this sort of things for years.  Of course, this isn’t even close to chillwave because it’s more orchestral.  But the subdued listening experience is equally as mesmerizing.  Sub Pop is once again showcasing some of the best in indie music, and A Chorus of Storytellers will hold water this year.  It dropped yesterday so you have no reason to be sitting around listening to old music.  This may be The Album Leaf’s most mature and dynamic effort yet.

The Album Leaf – Falling From The Sun

The Album Leaf Official Site

Buy A Chorus of Storytellers at Insound Today!

WARNING: I’m no record label executive, so you might want to go get your salt shaker before reading the rest of this review.

You know that indie rock band that could? The one, after making increasingly brilliant and successful records starts to earn its independence from the A&R handlers and veto-wielding producers that may have shaped their work in its early stages? The one that, after convincing the label to trust both its ear and its vision gets to make the record it really wants to make?

It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does, there can be high upside. However, with high upside, there is also high risk. Maybe the band’s instincts this time around won’t be totally on target and, without someone on the inside or up top to push back, they end up dropping a record that, well, just isn’t very exciting.

It is my great fear and something more than tentative conclusion that this is what we are observing with respect to the new Spoon album, Transference.

While there is some continuity in the band’s membership, the last few years have seen them move away from being an Austin-centered band in the conventional way of thinking and toward being a loose collective cohort of musicians based in places like Portland and Dallas (and, of course, Austin) that gather together from time to time to tease out recordings of song structures designed by frontman Britt Daniel. Thanks to the band’s continuing and increasing success, from break-out records like 2001’s Girls Can Tell and 2002’s Kill the Moonlight to universally swoon-worthy full-lengths like 2005’s Gimme Fiction and 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, their long-time label, Merge Records, apparently decided to let the band do their thing with the most recent project. Effectively, this amounted to Daniel occasionally flying in to Austin, working in the studio primarily with drummer Jim Eno, and the band deciding what they wanted to put out and how.

It is an interesting strategy, being so hands-off, considering the label’s obvious aspirations for the records. Unlike most other releases coming out by bands who enthusiasts would consider Spoon’s peers, the publicity efforts made on behalf of the band seemed almost exclusively tailored to major media conglomerates, resulting in a nice New York Times profile here and some glowing NPR endorsement there, not to mention a Starbucks/iTunes pick of the week at the end of January, but very little by way of internet love, simply because there wasn’t much by way of information reaching those of us out there in the blogger-land. At all.

What is the result of all this freedom? Well, unfortunately, it is a rather tedious and uninspired record. To be sure, there are a couple of gems on Transference – “Written in Reverse” and “I Saw the Light” are both excellent, and my colleague Kevin recently opined to me via email that “Who Makes Your Money” is one of his favorite songs of the year so far. But none of these tracks really stand up to the top tracks on the band’s previous two releases, and are overshadowed with the far more mediocre selections that populate most of the rest of the album.

Writing that is really difficult for me. Not only does this kind of review go against the overall ethos of this website (i.e., write about what we love and ignore the rest), but this band has been one of my great loves for the past decade. I’ve been anxiously awaiting this record for quite a while, especially after the brilliance of Gimme Fiction and Ga ga ga ga ga, and to hear the band so off and aesthetically flat feels kind of like when a novel’s hero that you’ve come to identify with and cheer for without really realizing it is suddenly killed off. It’s a bummer that shakes you a bit, even as you realize that putting out a weak release is far from the end of the world, both for the band’s future and, you know, reality.

Transference, Spoon’s seventh full length album, dropped on January 19th via Merge Records. You can stream the record in its entirety here and purchases it here.

It seems as if the last couple of months have their built in hooks, with December harkening an annual wrap-up and January getting the rejuvenation vibe up and running again. But what about the months on the other sides? I mean, what does November get from indie rock? And until the fellas at Exit Stencil came up with their Free February brainstorm, the shortest month of the year also felt like the one with the least to offer.

Now, though, things are different, thanks to the aforementioned Cleveland label and recording studio. Exit Stencil is giving away nearly its entire catalog for free download, which amounts to about twenty records, including full lengths, 7″s, split releases, and EPs. As they put it, “No gimmicks, no asking for donations, no limit to the number of releases available to each person — just a free chance to check out a bunch of bands that we’ve been happy to have had the chance to work with over the past couple of years.”

Bands include the Courtney Love by way of Kraftwerk band Hot Cha Cha, art-punkers Mystery of Two, mellow psych-heads Dreadful Yawns, heavy (and frequently satirical) punk band This Moment in Black History, and several more artists. Check out the listing of available downloads here.

I’m sick.  Sniffling, coughing, shuffling back and forth between the bathroom and my increasingly stuffy bedroom.  There are days when I bitch about work, but I’d rather be there now, slogging through my routine instead of hacking up a lung.

I’ve resisted the glo-fi for a long time, refusing to buy into Neon Indian and their ilk, despite Kevin’s near constant urging.  It’s just not my bag.  But.  Washed Out is about the perfect soundtrack for a sick day.  I don’t listen to Ernest Greene when I feel healthy, but that bedroom psych sure hits the spot after you third dose of Immodium.  The Toro Y Moi remix of Washed Out may well be the apex of this particular sound, which makes it the greatest sick day song of all time.  Close the shades, pile on another blanket, rub in some Vicks and let the vibe carry you off.  Feel better everybody.

You Feel it All Around (Toro Y Moi remix) – Washed Out

This has been a tough week as a literature teacher.  Brian alluded to the heartfelt loss we feel as a reading community at the loss of Howard Zinn and JD Salinger this week.  Zinn was a seminal author for Brian, and understandably so.  For me, however, Salinger’s writing marked a pivotal change for me.  My initial reading of Catcher in the Rye didn’t spark much interest, and in fact, probably pushed me away.  I could identify with Holden Caulfield immensely, but didn’t essentially tie all the language and aphorisms together into something meaningful until much later in life.  Each time I flip the pages of that novel, I realize how integral it was in the shaping of my interest in literature.  I’ve never felt the prose was anything spectacular, and have often discussed with my students that writing in first person is often the easy way out for a novelist.  What’s incredibly fashionable right now is to focus on Salinger’s pegging of youth angst and the fear of growing up in a fast paced, moving culture.  I’ve read countless facebook status updates with Salinger quotes and all sorts of Twitter activity about the deep hole the loss of this icon leaves in the hearts of many Americans.  For me, undoubtedly, it isn’t the actual literary merit of Salinger that I mourn here.  Instead, it feels as though a part of me leaves with this closing chapter.  The Catcher in the Rye, ultimately, is what steered me into becoming an English teacher and working with children.  In some sort of morphed way, I suppose I happen to enjoy my situated place in the fields of rye, keeping kids from falling over the cliff of adulthood too prematurely.  The novel is, indeed, timeless and as folks come out of the woodwork and remember Caulfield as a relatable anti-hero, it’s probably important to step back and realize what Salinger was saying in all of this.  The rye is representative of pain and fear of moving forward, or at least it always has been for me.  It makes it just a little bit harder to move forward knowing that Salinger, as a protector, isn’t literally in the fields anymore.  I mourn this, but also can appreciate what his writing did for me personally.  In the vein of moving forward (and in perhaps the worst transition in history), here’s what we’ve been spinning this week.  Some have been rolling around the interwebs for awhile, and others are straight from the birth canal.  Enjoy this week’s list and stay tuned for reviews throughout the week.

Oh, and, as always, follow us on Twitter and, now, Facebook.

This week’s list:

Lali Puna – Remember – I place this track on the list, not so much for my own personal taste, but more for our electro outfit fans.  “Remember” is the newest track from long dormant Lali Puna, the Munich-based electronic group responsible for pretty heavy-hitting Faking the Books, released in 2004 as the band’s third effort.  The overseas electronic output is healthy in the early part of 2010, and in a continuing trend of musicians that have taken their time in between releases, folks should be pleased to see Our Inventions hit the shelves sometime in April.

Lali Puna – Remember

Clipd Beaks – Home – Clipd Beaks’ newest release, To Realize just hit the shelves earlier this week, marking a progressive maturity in sound for the Oakland noise-rock trio.  Lovepump released the album fairly quietly, but inside the album’s liner notes is anything but softness.  This leaked track marches through a lot of territory.  It rises in intensity into cacophonous flurries.  Experimentation is the band’s forte and the two released tracks from the album paint a picture of progression.  Their 2007 debut, Hoarse Lords is similar, but this time around a more mature approach to arrangement provides a closer and noteworthy improvement.  We were not hip to Clipd Beaks before this week, but the dive into previously released material is well worth it.  Also check out their site, here.

Clipd Beaks – Home

Vivian Girls – He’s Gone (Chantels Cover) – Vivian Girls have been busy over the last couple of years, releasing their stellar debut and follow up all within a short time span.  Gorilla vs. Bear posted this cover of Chantels “He’s Gone” and with this new recorded material, it’s apparent that the female low-fi ensemble has no intention of stopping the output.  This excellent and popping track will be the b-side on their upcoming single for “My Love Will Follow Me” being released at the end of February.

Vivian Girls – He’s Gone (Chantels Cover)

Beach Fossils – Desert Sand – We keep snagging our Beach Fossil tracks from Connor and crew at I Guess I’m Floating.  They’re spot on in their assessment and excitement over the upcoming album from this band.  Big ups to the folks over there for continually bringing us new material from the Brooklyn one-man-act of Dustin Payseur.  The album Daydream is due out on Woodsist records, and as I’ve mentioned before, this is lo-fi I can work with, as opposed to so much of the lackluster gritty DIY stuff coming out.  We’re totally piggybacking on IGIF’s hype, and hope the buzz spreads outward.  “Desert Sand” is a touch different than the other two tracks we’ve posted, as there is something enlarging here, quite purging and catchy in a lose the cobwebs and push onward kind of way.  In any event, stay tuned for this release.  We’re entirely on board.

Beach Fossils – Desert Sand

Caribou – Odessa – I loved The Milk of Human Kindness and am pretty amped about the upcoming Caribou release.  “Odessa” marks the reentrance of Daniel Snaith, who has been producing tunes for the better part of the last decade as Manitoba and, at least since 2005, Caribou.  “Odessa” is a fine teaser in what projects to be one of the more lofty and buzzed electro-situated releases of the first quarter of 2010.  Merge is releasing the full length on April 20^th, and the fanfare will only continue to increase moving forward.

Caribou – Odessa

jj – And Now - The much hyped upcoming release, jj n°3 is getting the pop and rhythm and blues community aflutter.  “And Now,” which has just recently been leaked, is the first track I can consistently get behind full throttle.  I’ve allowed myself to fall into the hype buzzsaw surrounding jj and I’m happily committed at this point.  If this track is indicative of what the rest of the album entails, I’ll stamp it with approval right now.  It’s catchy and brilliantly smooth in all the right spots.  As this one picks up steam, it’ll be interesting to see where this goes as far as mainstream accessibility.

jj – And Now

Four Tet – Angel Echoes – Fluxblog kicked this one out earlier in the week, and obviously it’s been floating around the internet for awhile.  Four Tet’s newest release, There is Love in You is probably the hottest thing around lately.  While the five of us haven’t fully hopped on the hype train, this track is the best of the loot, as far as we can tell.  Even without a solid score approval from me album-wise, I can appreciate the intricate, minimalist nature of this electronically situated song.  There’s plenty at play here stylistically, and a soulful inspiration manages to attach itself to my ears each time I spin this.  If you’re not familiar with the release, consider this a taste of what the entire album blooms.   It’s getting high critical nods everywhere, and perhaps we’re remiss in only getting this out to you now.

Four Tet – Angel Echoes

Serena-Maneesh – I Just Want to See Your Face – 4AD is beginning to furnish peeks into the upcoming sophomore effort of Serena-Maneesh, and this initial leaked track proposes a unique dose of shoegaze and fuzzy overdrive.  The album, S-M2: Abyss in B Minor is hitting US shelves on March 23^rd, a welcome reprieve for fans that have been waiting patiently since their 2005 self-titled debut.  This track is sprawling guitar on glittering canvas.  We’re stoked for the album’s release.

Serena-Maneesh – I Just Want to See Your Face

Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More – We’ve been on the Mumford and Sons train since October when Rob broke out “Little Lion Man” to a relatively unknowledgeable US webspace.  Since then, we’ve been pleased to see the steam pick up a little.  Last week, we reposted “Little Lion Man” to excellent reception.  This week, I’m posting “Sigh No More” to offer another taste of the album.  I’ll be posting a full length review of their 2/16 release, Sigh No More later this week, as well.  This is an opulent album of varying styles, ranging from chamber folk country auras to cinematic orchestral intensity.  Think Avett Brothers meet La Boheme in some sort of brilliantly accessible and goosebump raising cauldron of sound.  It’s a collection of tracks that’s been slowly stirring beneath the surface for the greater part of the last two years.  It’s good to see them finally peeking out with more gusto.  Folks should hop on board before the train is full.

Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More

Phoenix – Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands (Bob Dylan) – When I received the email earlier this week that Phoenix had leaked out a Bob Dylan cover, I couldn’t figure out if I was horrified or completely interested.  The cover of the lengthy and meandering last track of Blonde on Blonde adds to a small heap of acoustic material Phoenix has released recently into the ether.  I went back and played the original after listening to the Phoenix version, and with great fear of being struck by lightning, I add that this cover is a pretty good reworking.  It’s not as long, but does a pretty good job of toeing the line.

Phoenix – Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands (Bob Dylan)

These New Puritans – Orion – I’ve had the upcoming album, Hidden, on a healthy repeat loop for the better part of the week, letting it soak in pretty deep.  The sophomore effort drops March 2^nd via Domino Records and is primed for some interesting critical acclaim. Their debut sparked a pretty intense and loyal fan base and folks are geeked for this newest foray into unique sound.  Initially attached to the post-punk arena, the new material promises largeness and a conglomeration of a host of instrumentation and variety.  You can take our word on it that “Orion” is simply a taste of the depth and pinching sound assault that’s coming in just a little over a month.

These New Puritans – Orion

Austin based quintet Balmorhea makes really good instrumental music; that’s maybe an overly simple way to start a review, but it is totally true.  More erudite reviewers would cite a slew of modern composers that the band draws influence and inspiration from. (A review of their 2008 effort, River Arms, on P4K referenced Stravinsky, Keith Jarrett and Arvo Part in the introduction.  If you didn’t have to Google at least two of those cats to confirm that they’re not made up and/or prime ministers of European nations, you are one step ahead of me.)  That approach strikes me as dangerously elitist.  When reading that aforementioned P4K review, I felt uninformed, out of the loop, unhip; it’s a critical approach that seeks to draw attention to the reviewer, not to the music, as in “Look at me!  I write on the internet!  I know things that you do not know!”  While the review was positive, (Balmorhea is the bomb; more on that in a second.) it left me feeling that I needed to brush up on 20th century avant garde composers; I’d rather leave readers with a hankering to listen to the record I’m reviewing.  So, today: no high-brow guilt trips from me, just an honest appraisal of a sweet record.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a musicology major to enjoy Constellations, Balmorhea’s third record.  It’s not difficult in the traditional sense; there’s not a lot of atonality or aggressively weird stuff happening.  Further, the record probably benefits from the post-rock folks; this is nothing like Explosions in the Sky, but bands like that have (I think) blazed a bit of a trail into the music listening conciousness, helping modern man understand that it’s okay to listen to records that don’t have words. The album appeals to the jazzier side of my brain without quite being a jazz record.  The songs (songs might be the wrong word here, in that these are probably more truly defined as compositions, but “songs” feels more natural) are generally focused on a clean and assertive piano line that gradually invites in other elements; the piano dominates much of the record, but there’s a ton of really compelling string work as well.  This propensity to share the stage is probably what gives me the jazz  vibe; there’s not as much hyperactive virtuosity on display as on  a Medeski, Martin and Wood record, but there are songs here that would fit on a record like Tonic.  The title implies a contemplation of the stars and their movements; the music works in that contemplative tone.  There’s a lot of drifting, a lot of tension with little resolution, a certain depth of sound that implies our smallness in the universe.  It’s a good record for reflective tasks; it sounds good in the headphones when reading or writing or thinking.

We’ve got a song from the record below; it captures the incremental sound of the album well.  There’s a slow integration of a bunch of moving parts that Balmorhea uses to great effect throughout.  That piano from the second paragraph doesn’t make a significant appearance on “Bowsprit,” but the banjo is killer.  You can snag the rest of the record on February 23 from the folks at Western Vinyl.  If “Bowsprit” is up your street, Constellations will not disappoint.  (I made it through the whole thing without mentioning Erik Satie.  That wasn’t that hard.)

Balmorhea – Bowsprit

Balmorhea put me in the mood for “Echoes.”  There’s not an obvious linear connection between Pink Floyd and Balmorhea, but they share an ear for the adventurous and a yearning for the skies.  You almost certainly know that “Echoes” syncs up nearly perfectly with the final stretch of Kubrick’s 2001 and that that syncronization is mind-numbing.  You might not know, however, that Roger Waters believes that Andrew Lloyd Webber stole a bit of “Echoes” for The Phantom of the Opera.  More importantly, Waters hates Lloyd-Weber passionately for that alleged transgression.  If either Mr. Waters of Mr. Lloyd-Webber would like to settle their beef in the comments today, I’d welcome it.  If Citizen Dick can help heal the rift between prog rock and bad musical theater, we’d be proud to do so.

Pink Floyd – Echoes – Live, 1970

John Donne told me that the bell tolls for me (or us, I guess) and, this week, it tolled twice.  As a people, we’re worse off because of the loss of Howard Zinn and J.D. Salinger.  It’s odd (and, obviously, tragic) to lose two writers who worked in such radically different idioms in the span of a few days; Salinger was the flame too intense to sustain itself (dude last published in the sixties), while Zinn was the ember that kept a million fires ablaze (my man walked the walk, jamming his finger in the eye of the man for as long as it (his finger) would straighten into a point).  Kevin is more of a Salinger devotee than I am (I’ve read it all, but I actually like phonies, so that’s puts me in kind of an awkward situation), but Zinn spoke to my iconoclastic soul.    Zinn told me to aggressively work against things that I knew to be wrong; he told me to be an active participant in the world around me.  In short, “you can’t be neutral on a moving train.”  Fuck yeah.  I’ll miss his voice, but will swaddle myself in his writing.  I’ll hand my children A People’s History of the United States and warn them to be wary of authority in all its forms (even mine), as it is rarely  purely benevolent.  I’ll try to think for myself, even though there are scores of forces that will encourage me not to.  I’ll try to do right by my fellow man, even when it seems disadvantageous to do so.  Essentially, to honor Mr. Zinn, I’ll make sure that The Man knows I’m watching, that  I am pissed and that I am not afraid to tell the world about it.  Flights of angels and all that.  To close today, we’ve got the best elegy ever written by a hippie (or, possibly, anybody).  Cheers.

Grateful Dead – Ripple – Live, 1981

The incendiary live act is what I most wish to see.  Some bands are primed for the stage, and The Soft Pack is that band.  Equal parts early punk sneer and laced with just the right amount of pop hook, the translation of this recorded material must be spectacular in a live setting. Throughout most of the tracks this simple formula of pummeling bass, sleek, bluesy rolling guitar riffs, and vocal nonchalance from singer, Matt Lamkin – all create intensified rhythms with a serrated edge.  On an initial spin, the darkly political “Pull Out” jumps out as representative of what is meritorious about this effort.  As with last year’s EP, the band manages to harness accessible music into a slimy enough package to keep it unique and interesting.  The relentless riff of the track is paired with traditional punk vocal delivery.  The dichotomy of the track brings both candy to the ears and an urge to hit something.  This isn’t an easy thing to pull off, as bands like Wavves have sustained it for one release, if that.

Essentially, what leaves The Soft Pack as the newly fashioned kings of raucous blues-punk is the enormous talent and maturity of the band itself.  I wrote about The Muslims EP on several occasions last year, each time discussing ironically how the initial visage is obviously frivolous and simplistic.  Behind the proverbial curtain is incredible talent.  The tandem guitar assault of Matty McLoughlin and Lamkin whips through each track with poised fills and attitude-laced soloing.  The garage sound is only the outward appearance here.  Screeching guitar play in tracks like “Flammable” and “Parasites” are frenetically spastic and bruising.  Subtle guitar fills sit behind the hollow fuzz beautifully in the latter, relentlessly riffing out to the track’s close.   This is an album to play at the loudest possible volume and with a neck brace close at hand.  From track one to ten, the quartet slinks in and out of mature arrangement and arrogant aggression, never once falling out of sync or control.  Of its ilk, there’s none better.

Some tracks steer outward on this newest release into more mature arrangements.  “Mexico” is a straight-laced narrative track that rolls backward a few decades into more heartwarming sprawl.  Piano arpeggios move in unison with Lamkin’s signature delivery.  Holding the fort down, however, are off-kilter and grating guitar fills that remind us that The Soft Pack isn’t in the building to make folks weep and think about the good old days.  Tracks like this, along with “C’mon” and “Answer To Yourself” are the band’s attempt to explore listeners’ comfort zones a bit more.  This is entirely expected as the band garners a larger following.  Isn’t that what it’s all about, in a sense?  Build upon the successes of the first release.  Grow.  Expand.  The Soft Pack is doing just that.  One foot’s in the roots-based punk DIY ethos that permeates their sound, and another is moving toward stardom.  Nobody can fault that.  As a result, we’re left with an incredibly catchy and effective long playing debut.  You’re going to want it in your collection this year.  The band is currently playing full-blown house parties this weekend in LA.  If anyone in the band reads this, I’ve got a full rooftop terrace in sunny Cleveland.  Brews are on ice, and we’ll be waiting with bells on for the bus to arrive.

The Soft Pack – Official Site

The Soft Pack – Answer To Yourself

The Soft Pack – C’mon

Whoever said there are no second acts in America apparently never met Owen Pallett. The versatile artist who once performed under the moniker Final Fantasy has not only survived since shedding the JRPG-inspired name, he has positively thrived between touring with The Mountain Goats, lending a hand on recent releases by Gentleman Reg and Gigi, and continuing to burnish his credentials as the reigning indie rock orchestral composer and, thanks to Wayne Coyne’s love for the sound of his own voice, a twitterific advocate for social justice, pitchfork-style. Add to this the fact that his latest record (also the first to be released under his new eponymous approach) has been garnering wholly merited oohs and ahhs from the bloggerati and you have a pretty strung hunch that the decade we’ve all just entered is going to be a good one for the Toronto-based violinist.

That record, Heartland, is a doozy, a concept album in the finest way that deserves dialogical communion with Van Occupanther and last year’s Edward Sharpe album (and, hopefully, foreshadows equally excellent conceptual efforts by The Besnard Lakes and Titus Andronicus later this year). Pallett shows off both his skills as an arranger and his affection for well-executed theatrical camp on Heartland, scoring his other-worldly tale of a young, ultra-violent farmer named Lewis and a supreme deity named Owen in a manner that recalls Andrew Lloyd Webber as much as it does Arcade Fire.

Once you know the initial premise, the album proceeds in a narrative way that manages poetry without being cryptic. Early into the album, a careful listener becomes aware of Pallett’s clever awareness, as he notes in the album opener “Midnight Directives” that men can be bought and sold and that “the price of a hundred thousand unwatered souls/ is a bit of meat and a bit of coal”  and when, on “Keep the Dog Quiet” he describes a union as a “cage about a cage about a cage” and  a remove as  “a narrative mess.” Later in the record, Pallett links a “concatenation” of locusts with farmers losing their focus, and never slicks a step. At other moments, the lyrics are incredibly visual, to the point that “Red Sun No. 5″ has the listener wishing for an accompanying coffee-table photo book  or well-illustrated graphic novel, while “Mt. Alpentine” and “Flare Gun” deserve the kind of map Tolkein enthusiasts get so much joy from.

While one couldn’t say Pallett exactly dabbles in brevity, his arrangements are efficient, avoiding sonic detours and sidesteps, instead getting the most out of every second. Bursts of intensity like “Mount Alpentine” cram an incredible amount of drama into its small frame, and when Pallett does stretch out a little, it comes perfectly, as on the youthfully Sousan “Lewis Takes Action,” which contrasts starkly with the medieval Kubrickosity of the narrative and, particulary, the incipient Ronettes back-beat that introduces the song. Such contrast is rife throughout Heartland, particularly on the album’s next track, “The Great Elsewhere,” which combines a jagged and technological desolation with a sea-based religious reverie.

Click here to view the embedded video.

While at times the narrative of a different world in a different era slips – see, for example, references to Earth-bound phenomena such as Disney, ketamine, and Bulgaria – Heartland features enough great songs to forgive a little continuity glitches. Among these stand-outs are, in addition to the aforementioned “Lewis Takes Action,” are the impassioned and perfectly titled “Oh Heartland, Up Yours!” and the upbeat swirl of “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt.” Elsewhere, modern western influences make their mark – from the Warner Bros vibe of “Flare Gun” and the Phantom of the Opera meets The Chronicles of Narnia and “Cats in the Cradle” geist of “E is for Estranged” – providing a welcome aesthetic hook on which to hang your listening references.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Heartland, Owen Pallett’s third full-length, was released January 18th via Domino Records. You can purchase it here.

Owen Pallett – Lewis Takes Action

We are always excited when we have the opportunity to be the first to debut a new track from a band that we love, and this new single from the Athens quartet, Twin Tigers, is no exception. If you are hip to the band and have read anything about them previously, you are probably aware of the obvious comparisons to groups like My Bloody Valentine, JAMC, and Sonic Youth. There is definitely a good deal of weight behind those parallels, but they fall far short of providing an all-encompassing assessment of what these guys are all about. That said, one spin of their latest single, “Passive Idol,” should help you fill in some of the holes left by those generalizations. While the influence of the 90’s garage sound is definitely present, there is a lot more at play here. The opening explosion of guitars and distortion is like Jane’s Addiction on Valium (which probably isn’t much of a stretch to imagine), but as it eases in I am almost immediately taken to Mercury Rev by the lush and lazy orchestral arrangements. Rhythmically my mind wanders to shades of earlier Radiohead tracks, perhaps some that may have fallen somewhere between The Bends and OK Computer. At times I am even reminded a bit of The Shins by the effortlessly cool vibe of the track. Moments of dark industrialism are brightened sporadically by crisp guitars that wane nonchalantly from sharp to dull. Overall the track sinks and soars with ease, both sonically and emotionally. Obviously there is a lot going over the course of five minutes, but at no time does any of it feel forced or contrived.

As a bit of an aside, the lyrics-junkie in me sticks on the line “I gotta be in your movie,” which reminds me of a quote that I heard a while ago and have always felt to be somewhat true. I forget the exact words, but the gist of it is that, as humans, we are all characters in each others’ movies yet we are all stars of completely different films. When you listen to the words you will see how that relates, so if you miss it on your first time through be sure to give it another spin.

The record, titled Gray Waves, is out March 2nd via Old Flame Records. If that release wasn’t already on your radar, I imagine that it will be after you hear “Passive Idol” a few times.

Twin Tigers – Passive Idol

Something is pretty awesome in the state of Denmark. This ham-fisted MacBeth reference is doubly pertinent for the city of Aalborg, the nation’s fourth largest city (after Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) and, according to Professor Wikipedia, the one designated as “The Paris of the North.” There are a lot of other facts I could include about the city of more than 120,000, which has settlements dating back to around 700 AD and is currently in the midst of a transition from a working class industrial city to a knowledge-based one, but I’ll stick with the most important characteristic these days: it is home to pop quintet Oh No Ono.

The band, which has been steadily building critical and popular support in ever larger concentric zones emanating out from their homebase, has only recently started to take the American market by storm, but boy is the storm now brewing epic. Although the band’s new record, Eggs, just hit shelves (virtual and otherwise) this week, tracks and accompanying videos have been bouncing around ye olde internets for a while now, garnering the kind of healthy buzz that precedes mega-stardom (or at least an invitation to a timely and well-curated ATP stage somewhere in the developed world). Listeners and snooty bloggers alike are going ape over this record, and for good reason: it’s killer. The record is just familiar enough, harkening as much to fellow Scandinavian imports I’m From Barcelona and (especially) Peter, Bjorn, and John as it does to sprawling indie orchestras like Danielson and The Polyphonic Spree to generational debts paid to The Beatles and Aaron Copland, but doing so in a way that is arguably more experimental and psychedelic than any of the obvious influences one hears. Except, perhaps, the Rubber Soul/Sgt. Pepper era Fab Four.

The band’s sound shifts throughout the new record, and if one didn’t know better or wasn’t listening carefully, they might be likely to double down on the losing side of a wager concerning whether this is a Danish indie rock sampler, rather than the complex and genre-vexing contribution of a single group. Putting out a record where every song sounds so distinct is not only a difficult exercise, but a risky decision, as well. So often, similarly diverse albums by less inspired bands fall on their face, leaving listeners unsure of what a given band’s “real” sound is or leaving them inclined to relegate favorite tracks to the randomness of the iTunes shuffle (such as the hardly random algorithm that dominates that sequence is … don’t get me started) rather than dig – or even think seriously about – the album as a whole. Eggs avoids that trap, and does so because the ethos of joyful experimentation persists from track to track, linking the songs philosophically even as they differ on the sonics and aesthetics.

The record opens auspiciously, a few seconds of barely audible thunder before the choral melody hammer drops, followed by some quasi-Chinese orchestral strains before proto-Scandinavian vocals drop. In many ways, the track (“Eleanor Speaks”) reminds me of the last Taken By Trees album in its marriage of the region’s general pop sensibilities with a particular global impluse, though unlike that album, where Victoria Bergsman immersed herself in Pakistani culture, the boys in this band holed up on the little known Danish island of Mon for nine months in order to get deep within themselves.

The album continues in a different direction on “Swim,” arguably the record’s strongest track, with its combination of twee lyrics and a heavy chamber sound. Although the video for this song has received loads of much-deserved attention, I encourage readers to dig into the track itself a few times before watching the video. It’ll create two different and equally brilliant experiences if you do so.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Notable tracks populate the rest of the album, including “Icicles,” with its deranged male glee club tenor vocals over pompy instrumentals, the new-school, Rush-inspired cantata “The Wave Ballet,” the mermaidesque dynamics of the vocals on “The Tea Party,” and the Rentals meets 8-bit maestro vibe of “Internet Warrior.” The album’s first proper single, “Helplessly Young,” features an ascendant chorus and an odd Salt n Pepa instrumental underbelly pairing so irrefutable in its charm it isn’t surprising that the band released not one but three separate videos for the song. My favorite is posted below, but you can check out the other two here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The trio of tracks that conclude Eggs are a particular riot. “Miss Miss Moss” alone could’ve gotten the band a contract with Sounds Familyre. As much as it channels latter-day Daniel Smith work, the sincerity of the guitar work calls to mind something more like jangly 60s radio rock with just a bit of Jimi in it. On “Miss Miss Moss” and the final two tracks, “Eve” and “Beelitz,” the band stretches things out a bit, with an average run time of about 7 minutes per. The changed pacing is particularly evident in “Eve,” with its languid tenor vocals caressing the narrative as if Vivien Leigh descending an antebellum staircase. There is no hurry here, ironic for a song concerned with time running out, and the deliberate clip is worth the extra couple of minutes, particularly with its hasty mid-track transition into something both more opulent and somehow more simple and its American folk symphonic culmination that begged my earlier Aaron Copland reference.

The album closes with the nearly ten minute “Beelitz,” a song as sprawling as its duration might suggest. Beginning with some speed-tracking tomfoolery, the jibberish soon gives way to church organs and a half-Enya, half-Duran Duran sequence that eventually shows off the percussive skill set of the team. By the 6th minute, however the atmospherics dissipate and the song becomes decidedly prettier and more melancholy.

With “Beelitz,”, Oh No Ono shows that even as its “hidden track” of slow-distorted human speech, following about 140 seconds of increasingly white noise, with the occasional solitary bow pull across a cello strings, is a throwback to bygone times and technology, the band is poised to bring America’s flag-swaddled shores something new, but with Eggs and beyond.

Eggs, the U.S. debut for Danish rockers Oh No Ono, dropped stateside yesterday via Friendly Fire Recordings. The top-notch Brooklyn label – which is also home to favorites like Asobi Seksu, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, and Windmill – released the record in North and South America; The Leaf Label is handling the release everywhere else (except the band’s home country). Although the rest of the country is currently out of luck, the band is in New York this week to play shows at Mercury Lounge tonight (with another Citizen Dick-approved band, Bear in Heaven) and Union Hall tomorrow, before returning to Europe to tour the old country.

Oh No Ono – Helplessly Young

Oh No Ono – Internet Warrior

Recently, French Kissing sent us an mp3 of their new single “Oh Suzanne”. At first, French Kissing seemed like a provocative name for a grade-school band. A few moments later, I came across the above photo being used as their avatar on Myspace.  Since I’m part of a generation jaded by internet porn (where do you think I’ve been the last month?), I found enjoyment in this unexpected interpretation. It’s the little things that keep me happy.  I may be alone on that one, which I can fully understand. I hadn’t heard of French Kissing before, but when I caught the garage/surf in their description, they had my full attention. “Oh Suzanne” did not disappoint. It’s got that 60’s vibe and the heart-pumping drum beat that pulled me in from the jump off. Those aspects are complimented by catchy lyrics musing on the complexities of ill-fated romance and a guitar jam that could split the icy surface of the lake I plan to fish this weekend. The band declares this song is “Summer vibes for winter chills,” and I wholeheartedly agree. You can get your hands on the London based band’s very limited 7″ release here.

French Kissing – Oh Suzanne

I’m supposed to be doing work (grading papers, reading textbooks, sending emails, sifting through academic databases for nuggets of pertinent literature and so on).  Instead, I’m just listening to The Tallest Man on Earth’s “King of Spain” over and over.  Making comments on my students’ work?  Nope, just grooving on Kristian Matsson’s oddly unsettling vocals.  (Is there some sort of intentional distortion going on there?  Some sort of super special vintage microphone or something?  Or does this cat smoke three packs of Kools a day?  How does he maintain tunefulness with all of that gravelliness?  How sweet is it when he reaches for the high note in the last bar?)  Reading up on the material I’ll have to lecture on next week?  Nope, just marvelling at the intricate guitar work on the track.  Dude is doing some serious folk shit there.  Crafting a writing prompt for my students to sweat over?  Nope, just turning the lyrics over and over.  “I will settle in Pamplona and I’ll provoke the bulls with words.”  Yes!  Senoritas sighing, floating in siestas, the overarchingly wistful yearning.  Yes!  More of that!

In short, The Tallest Man on Earth is preventing me from doing my job.  Any chance I can sue him?  Any lawyers in the house?  His Dead Oceans’ debut hits the planet on April 13th.  I’m already reschduling my office hours to work around the release.

The Tallest Man on Earth – “The King of Spain”

Citizen Dick pals Kevin & Melanie at Music Saves coined this little phrase/mock holiday a few years back in recognition of the glut of new albums that always drop at the end of January, the first serious release day usually since the end of November. As the years have passed, they’ve turned it in to a bit of a party, as they are wont to do, and this year is no exception. If you are in Cleveland, hit this up today. If you aren’t, print out the ad and ask your own local record store why they aren’t celebrating.

Live music is important.  Records are great (obviously) because they allow for the mass distribution of art.  But.  There’s no perfect substitute for a really good live show.  At their best, records are (often) just pale imitations of live music.  There are artists who subvert that notion and are still wildly successful (Grizzly Bear comes to mind.  They’re not known as a crack live act, perhaps because of the high level of production and attention to fine detail the records.), but I most often gravitate to bands that shine in both forums.  Give me a band that works the interplay of live and recorded music and songs that can exist as both recorded artifacts and as live organisms .  Megafaun’s “Columns” sounds killer on the album, but it’s at least 20% better live.  You could live with only hearing the album version of MMJ’s “Run Thru,” but you’d prefer the live version of it every single time.  “Dark Star” was originally a two minute single, but that’s largely irrelevant right?  When we were compiling our 2009 year end list, I found myself consistently gravitating towards acts that both made records I loved and backed those records up with excellent live shows.  Those kinds of bands make the most sense for me.

All this to introduce the second album and recent live show from Retribution Gospel Choir.  The trio, fronted by Alan Spearhawk of Low fame, release their sophmore effort, 2, January 26 on Sub Pop.  They’re also touring and were in Cleveland on Friday.  The songs on 2 vacillate between an airy, traditional rock vibe (most notably on “Hide it Away” and “Workin’ Hard,” both of which almost sound like Kansas b-sides (which is intended as a compliment)) and much hairier, distortion-laden crunchy jams (most notably, “Poor Man’s Daughter” and “Electric Guitar”).  Listening through the record, I incorrectly focused on the “Workin’ Hard” facet; I thought I’d be seeing a band that was toeing the mainstream, working in mostly traditional idioms.  I should have been listening to the epic “Poor Man’s Daughter,” which, if the live show is accurate, is more indicative of what Retribution Gospel Choir is about.  I did not really understand the record until I saw the band live; I couldn’t decide what components were critical and which were decorative.  I though that the feedback workouts were the supporting concepts, serving to highlight the hooks.  The live show was an inversion of that calculation; the songs served as platforms for the band to explode outward from.

Discussion of the live show, and the record itself, can center on the four songs mentioned above.  Retribution Gospel Choir played the more direct songs, “Hide it Away” and “Workin’ Hard” and fleshed out the sound extant on 2.  The backing vocal work of drummer Eric Pollard was particularly striking live, acting as a perfect counterpoint to Spearhawk’s more visceral growl.  Both songs sounded great live, at least in part because all three members of the band are immensely talented.  When Spearhawk solos, you pay attention.  Pollard’s work on the kit was muscular and precise and Steve Garrington both plays a mean bass and has a killer bass face.  Throw that sort of talent at what are, essentially, good radio songs and things work out.  The show’s highlights, however, were on the songs that are rougher around the edges; my mom would love “Workin’ Hard,” she might chafe a bit at “Electric Guitar.”  (For the record, that’s not intended pejoratively, just to highlight that Retribution Gospel Choir can work the catchy end of the spectrum as well as the experimental one.)  The centerpiece of the record and the show is “Poor Man’s Daughter.”  Live, this thing is a psychedelic monster, the band stretching out during the middle section and laying waste to everything in sight.  Spearhawk played a facemelting solo, hammering out huge, distorted riffs and playing for an extended period with his mouth.  (I’ve seen that work exactly one other time in my life.  Most of the time when a guitar player goes for the mouth play, it comes off as cheesy and/or contrived.  Alan Spearhawk, on the other hand, played his ax with his mouth as naturally and competently as most of us tie our shoes.  It was sweet.  The other time I saw it work was when Cleveland’s own Glen Schwartz did it, so Spearhawk is in select company.)  The same solo is impressive on the record, but live it’s life altering.  Rob and I were transfixed; if I didn’t have unalterable other plans, I would have gone to Pittsburgh on Saturday, hoping to see the solo from “Poor Man’s Daughter” again.  At the end of the song, everything drops out, leaving Spearhawk and Pollard harmonizing over the last few lines in front of a spare guitar part.  On the record, it’s startling.  Live, with the band dripping in sweat, the audience swaying in stunned amazement and everyone’s ears humming, that shift into the quiet was goosebump raising.  “Electric Guitar” was as good; for a moment, Rob and I thought we heard the beginning of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” but it never materialized.  That’s the first time that wasn’t dissapointed that a band didn’t cover Floyd.  (That’s tortured syntax, but you probably got the message.)

The band closed with “Take Your Time” from their first record.  Rob grabbed video, which should convince you to catch Retribution Gospel Choir if you’re not already sold.  The record, 2, is a solid substitute if the band isn’t coming close to your house.  If they’re in the neighborhood, make the trip.  The live show makes the record better and vice versa.  I’ll be listening to “Poor Man’s Daughter” a lot over the next several months; show or no show, you will be as well.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Retribution Gospel Choir – Hide it Away

The album’s sound is where fan polarization is set to occur.  Guitarist, Eric Pulido, said in an interview at Under the Radar (about the album’s sound differences to VO), “That’s a tough one. I would say that this one is a bit more influenced by the British folk era, so a bit darker and heavier than VO. If you’re into that, I think you’ll dig it more…if not, you won’t.”  Bingo.  The first ringing endorsement is how much larger in scope and inherently dark The Courage of Others is.  Celtic and mid-60’s British folk erupts heavily from top to bottom.  “Acts of Man” is the first leaked single, and pronounces heavily the overall tone and more earthy and mystical aura that satiates listeners. Gently fingerpicked dueling guitars hearken back to the folky elements of Yes and Jethro Tull.  Multiple part harmonies launch the vocal tilt from calming to cathartic quickly.  Soaring choruses and gorgeously brooding melodies are quite striking, to say the least.  In tracks like “Winter Dies” and “The Horn,” the omnipresent piano arrangements from Van Occupanther are completely rejected in favor of guitar-driven soloing and background fills.  In the title track, flutes and rolling synths bleed into a solo wicked and warbly enough to drive all aspects of VO out the window.  The band has matured, and this record clearly and emphatically pronounces that.

One of the brilliant aspects of Van Occupanther was that vocalist Tim Smith drew comparisons to Thom Yorke without sacrificing the unique integrity of the band’s lofty sound.  In “Roscoe,” I hear early Radiohead and have for years.  To keep the tacky analogy in play, The Courage of Others is Midlake’s OK Computer.  It marks a progression that began with the jazzy underpinnings of Bamnan and Silvercork (2004) and through the classic rock revivalist beauty of The Trials of Van Occupanter and aptly ends with a blossoming conglomeration of roots-based British styles, mature and filled to the brim with euphony.  “Bring Down” evokes similar breathtaking tension to the final three minutes of “Paranoid Android,” and, to me, situates the climactic peak sonically.  The harmonies are stuffed with depth emotionally, and the sadness is its beauty.  Perhaps the Radiohead comparisons are trite here, as this album hits me with as much vigor and wealth as any I’ve heard in years.  As a British literature teacher, I teach kids about the early Celtic tribes and the origins of lyric poetry and medieval romance.  These styles are all kind of captured here into something we’ve all heard before, but rarely done so effectively.

Thematically, Midlake once again draws from the well of the past, and in doing so, beautifully augments the earthy tones the music is emitting underneath.  Midlake moves away from the central late-nineteenth centry link that Van Occupanther weaved through, but ironically, the sound itself probably throws back more accurately to the past.  Images of man’s isolation, harvest, nature, and more pastoral oeuvres are explored throughout the album.  Moments of warmth sprinkle atop motifs of despair and barren wilderness.  The conceptual break allows each track to breath a bit more here, and the link develops naturally without force.  The moments of more instense growl, particularly in “The Horn” and “Small Mountain” juxtapose the sullen balladry at work in “Fortune,” for example.  A central organic vibe pulses through the album lyrically, but at no point does it drown into monotony.  Not even close.

So how can I possibly speak in such lofty diction about an album I’ve only spent two weeks courting?  I suppose it goes back to those pivotal moments of youth where music did more to age me than hormones ever could.  The tribal and mystical ramblin’ man sounds of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung lulled me to sleep at night for many years, and it’s almost as if Midlake has produced the album I’ve been waiting to hear for nearly a decade.  This album is sprawling, enigmatic and jarring in all of the ways it should be.  Perhaps our best classic rock revivalists are doing their best to create their own niche, one of canonical proportions.  You’re a silly person if you’re not buying the album immediately on February 2nd.  To the fans of Van Occupanther, I get it.  You can have your Midlake favorite.  To me, however, this is musical perfection, largely because it’s like they crawled into my musical wheelhouse and carbon copied everything I love.  Surely, some of you are going to find equal enjoyment.  Included below (for comparative purposes) are “Acts of Man” and Van Occupanther’s “Roscoe.”

Midlake – Acts of Man

Midlake – Roscoe

Editor’s Note:  Albums are already starting to stack up, and oddly, this week’s installment of Radio Dick offers a playlist of things to come (and probably fitting that most of these are heavy hitting acts with prolific careers already).  I’m starting to get the feel that many bands used 2009 as an off-season and this year’s going to fire off as a grand finale.  These tracks all span a variety of genres, from relatively unknown acts to the canonical David Byrne.  Everyone’s going to have their hands in the cookie jar this year.  Don’t expect consistency, and fully expect to have your ears tested.  Enjoy this week’s list, and check back often throughout this week for reviews of full albums hitting the streets this week.

Reminder Twitter Nation:  Follow us by clicking HERE.

Inlets – Bright Orange Air – Inlets is the namesake of Sebastian Krueger,  a Brooklyn-based DIY producer who’s soaring and eclectic compositions won him favorable acclaim with 2006’s The Vestibule EP.  Since that time, he’s essentially worked with the entire “who’s who” list, including artists like Angel Deradoorian, DM Stith, and Feist.   His debut LP has been a long time coming, and Inter Arbiter hits the shelves on April 20^th via Two Syllable records.  “Bright Orange Air” is essentially the second released track from the LP, as “Your Good Arm” was released in April of 2008 and is included in the mix on the new release.  I’ve hit repeat on this song six times.  Each listen uncovers a nuance I didn’t hear originally.   Sit back and enjoy.

Inlets – Bright Orange Air

High Places – On Giving Up – Rob Barber and Mary Pearson make up the duo High Places, and considering the blast off this track unveils, we’re excited to listen to their April 6^th upcoming LP High Places vs. Mankind, out via Thrill Jockey.  A rather galloping back rhythm steers this far away from a rock song, but smoky vocals and some darkly atmospheric attitude leaps outward from this track.  If the entire album lifts off with this much gusto, you can expect it to land squarely in the middle of a ton of critical praise.

High Places – On Giving Up

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim – Please Don’t (feat. Santigold) – This collaboration has me tied in all sorts of knots.  Nonesuch is releasing Byrne’s concept album, Here Lies Love on 2/23, and it’s all centered around Imelda Marcos.   The only connection I have is remembering my father trying to explain to me that a woman in a far off land had a houseload of shoes.  This is all I know about Imelda Marcos.  Apparently, Byrne has enlisted the help of some heavy hitters to create the LP, collaborating with Norman Cook in it’s entirety and bringing in folks like Tori Amos, Santigold, and Sharon Jones.  Hit THIS WEBSITE to pre-order the release, along with all sorts of other goodies.

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim – Please Don’t (Feat. Santigold)

The xx – VCR (Matthew Dear Remix) – Detroit’s Matthew Dear picked up The xx and remixed “VCR.”  The xx was the remix closet for the latter part of 2009, and apparently, the tracks lend themselves nicely to remixing.  For me to throw two remixes on a Radio Dick post, I’ve got to either be really hungover or interested.  The xx wasn’t tops on the list for me in 2009, but if remixes like this keep showing up, perhaps I’ll need to give it another listen.

The xx – VCR (Matthew Dear Remix)

She & Him – In the Sun – Volume Two hits the shelves March 23^rd and the first released track is solid, and our writer Brian is especially stoked for this release.  M. Ward isn’t my kind of thing, but the duo is producing noteworthy music, no doubt.  When Merge Records released Volume One, folks let the album embrace them, and based off my listens of the first, this track offers a natural blend and transition into the second installment.  I don’t think you’re getting any sort of new revelation here, but if you loved what the first collection of duets did for you, get in line for this release.  “In the Sun” promises more of the same goodness.

She & Him – In the Sun

Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man – I give full props to Rob, our writer here, who clued me into this amazingly badass album that’s about to drop on the US side on February 16^th.  “Little Lion Man” is one part chamber folk, one part cinematic musical, and about six parts of ass kicking intensity.  The rest of the album moves in the same vein, and if those of you reading are unhip to this act, hop on the train.  It will depart soon and you’ll lose brownie points with your friends.

Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man

The Ruby Suns – Cranberry (Radio Edit) – I’ve included this as the cherry on top of the sundae today.  The upcoming album Fight Softly is set for release on March 10^th, and this kind of fuzzy and loud marching band-esque track is earthy and global in nature and scope.  Morphed vocals, blips, angular shifts, and a whole multitude of ear-filling intrigue is sitting right here.   I’m not certain where this sound goes next, but we’re willing to dig into the full release proper in March.  Sea Lion in 2008 was a grand little album, and this promises more with the upcoming.

The Ruby Suns – Cranberry (Radio Edit)

Grizzly Bear – Boy from School (Hot Chip Cover) – While touring in Australia, Ed Droste recorded this version of Hot Chip’s song for Triple J.  I’m not an enormous Hot Chip fan, but I suppose any new content from Grizzly Bear is worth noting.  I love the stripped down model here, and the Australian folks who got him to record this deserve some heavy props.  We’re a little late in getting this out to you, but enjoy nonetheless.

Grizzly Bear – Boy from School (Hot Chip Cover)

Shearwater – Black Eyes – Shearwater is wandering into ambitious air in 2010 and have a killer LP and thematic opus in tow with them.  The Golden Archipelago is Shearwater’s third installment, and will be released by Matador on 2/23.  The sophomore effort, Rook, was vastly underrated, as the Okkervil River offshoot has continually produced stellar albums.  The Golden Archipelago may be the most ambitious to date, thematically centering around islands from around the globe, each track surrounded by its own unique back story.  Click RIGHT HERE to take a look at the special-edition materials that will be sold in conjunction with the lofty album.  The first track, “Castaways” was released awhile back, and “Black Eyes” steers into similar areas.  Large and satiating, this track has us stoked for the newest release.  We’ve been spinning the full album for a week now, and will have a full review as the release date nears.  Catharsis seems to be the name of the game here.

Shearwater – Black Eyes

Drive-By Truckers – This Fucking Job – Love or hate Drive-By Truckers and all the various solo offspring, one thing, for me, that’s impossible to dislike is the narrative element of our southern underbelly.  Patterson Hood’s Murdering Oscar is still sitting on the top shelf of my record collection, and hasn’t moved since I gave it an initial spin.  The Big To-Do is being released via ATO March 16^th.  The newest release is supposed to steer more into anthemic southern rock, and this is fitting considering Jason Isbell and Patterson Hood’s most recent solo efforts.

Drive-By Truckers – This Fucking Job

The Antlers – Two (Buffetlibre Remix) – Since “Two” is easily my favorite track on Hospice, I was mildly revolted, but nonetheless intrigued to see a remix pop onto the web.  Like a mixture of “The Neverending Story” and a gazillion billowing synthesized movie anthems, this thing is actually pretty catchy.  I suppose taking The Antlers out of the equation would make this pretty horrific, but the major conrnerstones of the track are covered and left unmarred here.  Basically, it’s ripping the acoustic guitar out of the track and replacing it will rolling synthesizers.  As I leave this, I’m unaffected, but, I’ll admit, I played it all the way through.

The Antlers – Two (Buffetlibre Remix)

Here’s the breakdown:

(1) I write Lazy Saturdays on Fridays.  (Makes sense, right?)

(2) This Friday (yesterday for you folks) was particularly shitty.

and

(3) Robert and I will be seeing the Retribution Gospel Choir tonight (last night for you folks).

as a result, I am:

(d) I’m pressed for time and all I want to listen to is loud and/or “difficult” music.

but

(e) I didn’t want to leave you hanging on a Saturday.

so, you, dear reader, get:

(f) a classic Minor Threat video (note: “12xu” is the opener at this show.  What the hell did they follow it up with.  Sweet Jesus.)

(g) a classic Pavement live track

(h) a classic Minutemen live track

(i) my sincere promise to have killer coverage of tonight (last night’s) RBC show and their soon to be released album this week.

Thanks.  Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pavement – Best Friend’s Arm – Live, 1994

Minutemen – Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth – Live, 1985

First up is a band(?) called Caretaker. From what I can surmise from the artist’s MySpace page, it appears to be the work of one man who goes by the name of Jason Kane. That is him over there to the left, the one who looks a little bit like Charles Manson (that’s a good thing, in case you were wondering). We actually received a couple tracks from Mr. Kane, but the one that I am featuring here is called “Peoples’ Say,” an eclectic, retro-sounding number with a little bit of edge to it. The vibe reminds me a bit of Richard Swift with a little more less weirdness. There’s quite a bit going on here for just one guy, though I’m not sure if there were any other musicians involved or how the track was produced. Big, orchestral percussion, some Santana-esque guitar strumming, a little bit of twang, a hint of what sounds like an organ, and a whole lot of AM Radio style mellow. Hopefully we will get word from the man himself for a bit more insight on the track, but all you really need to know is that it sounds great. Unfortunately the dude doesn’t have much info on his page and he has only three friends at the moment, so I can’t tell you where to purchase any of his music or where you may be able to catch him live. I suggest shooting him a message if you are interested and letting him know that you heard it here on Citizen Dick. And maybe throw a friend request his way while you’re at it.

Caretaker – Peoples’ Say

Next up is a track from an Argentinean artist by the name of Ezequiel Claverie, who records under the name Ezequiel Ezequiel. According to the message accompanying the submission, this track (and, I assume, the others on his current EP) was recorded in his home studio in London, where he now resides. The song below, called “Raise the Dead,” is a delicate and somewhat breathy tune sure to appeal to fans of Sam Beam, Bon Iver, and, if you have been following my previous recommendations, Barzin. The production quality is quite good for a home recording, and the arrangements and melodies show a lot of promise. Like our last artist, Ezequiel could use some more friends on MySpace, so be sure to hit him up there as well (he only has 30 friends at the moment). In addition to his presence on everyone’s favorite dying social media platform, Ezequiel Ezequiel also has his own website, so click the link and navigate on over. There isn’t a whole lot of info to be found, but if you are feeling this track you should definitely check it out because you can stream it there along with four others. And you can even download the entire EP for free, which is nice.

Ezequiel Ezequiel – Raise The Dead

The last submission of the day definitely skews a bit poppier than the first two, but it is Friday after all so we can all use something just a little more twee to brighten up our day. And know that when I say twee, I mean it in the nicest possible way. The band is called Early Ghost, and if the track that I have been listening to is any indication, their sound reminds me of a slightly more mature rendition of The Boy Least Likely To. The track that we received is called “Witch in the Cherry Tree” and as you may imagine from my description, it is not nearly as ominous as the title makes it sound. It is actually a beautiful pop gem that features (what sounds like) a toy piano and contains just enough sugary-sweetness to draw you in without pushing you away. Not to turn this whole day into a PSA for MySpace, but this is another artist in desperate need of friends, as they, like Caretaker, currently have only three of them. And yes, one of them is Tom. In fact, there aren’t even any photos on their page and Google wasn’t much help in that department either. As such, I took it into my own hands to accompany this post with the first result that came up in a Google image search for “Early Ghost.” Because, you know, we like visuals around here. What you see to the left is not in any way official or related to the band, as far as I know anyway, but it is a drawing titled “Early Ghost” from an artist named Hector G Romero. And it’s actually pretty cool. Personally, I think they should use this as the cover art for their next record and give me a shout out in the liner notes. I’ll check with Hector and the guys in the band and let you know how that turns out. For now, just enjoy the track and have a great weekend.

Early Ghost – Witch In The Cherry Tree

Here we are, less than a week from the first major slew of 2010 releases dropping, and I still have some unfinished 2009 business to attend to. There are a bunch of records released in the last quarter of last year that we didn’t get to, but for me, the most important one to weigh in on, regardless of the exceptional tardiness, is Daniel Johnston’s Is And Always Was.

Johnston’s seventh studio album, Is And Always Was, continues his recent streak of working with talented and unique producers to amplify the traditional singer-songwriter quirk and turn it into something new and unusual. Following previous partnerships with folks like Mark Linkous (Fear Yourself) and Brian Beattie (Rejected Unknown, Lost and Found), Johnston gave the production nod to Jason Falkner this go-round, a choice, having listened to this record countless times since its October release, that was as inspired as it was sound.

Falkner, who is known to enthusiasts from his work with artists like Air and Beck, does a great job of taking Johnston’s raw materials, namely his voice and his lyrics, and fusing them with rock arrangements that take the tracks to new levels. In so doing, he’s evolved Johnston’s traditional minimalistic, Beatles-esque sound into a fuller effort more akin to the post-Beatles work done by George Harrison and, especially, Paul McCartney in the 1970s. This new sound is as big and complex as anything Johnston’s done to date, save perhaps his short-lived garage experiment with some fellow Waller TX residents in Danny and the Nightmares.

Perhaps that’s why so much of the writing on the record seems like an effort on Johnston’s part to evoke “Daniel Johnston” the character rather than Daniel Dale Johnston the person. We don’t hear as many references to lost love and funeral homes on Is And Always Was, though the ones we do have – “Freedom” and “High Horse” – are pretty great. What we do hear, however, are a number of awkward references to Johnston’s mental illness (“Mind Movies”) and his previous releases (“Lost In My Infinite Memory”). It should be noted, though, that “I Had Lost My Mind” gets excused from this critique, despite the thematic similarities, since it is essentially an awesomely tricked-out reprise of a track from Johnston’s 1982 recording, Don’t Be Scared. It also has the whimsical and unforced self-deprecation of that era that seems to be missing from some of these heavy-handed songs.

This isn’t to slag on the man – he’s still my favorite songwriter and one of my most dearly beloved artists – but just to say that his writing on several songs seems unnecessarily referential to a particular popular portrayal of him as a person. The songs where Johnston’s not bogged down in perpetuating the myth, on the other hand, are some of the finest on the album (“Tears,” “Queenie the Dog,” “Is And Always Was,” and especially “Light of Day”).

These quibbles, however, will only resonate with longtime Johnston listeners, and even some of them won’t be bothered. Those new to Daniel Johnston or even heretofore unaware of his body of work are unlikely even to notice. Instead, most attention will be paid, and rightfully so, to the sonic compositions that Johnston and Falkner have created. Considered in that way, Is And Always Was is an incredibly successful effort, sprinkled with gems and smothered in charm.

The album begins almost deceptively, Johnston’s nervous warble and guitar only, but when the brief chorus (“And I love you so/And I can’t let go”) is repeated, it is accompanied by a spaced-out vibe that one hasn’t heard before on an original Johnston recording. Falkner’s involvement on the record – in addition to producing, Falkner also plays guitar, bass, and keys on numerous tracks – becomes more evident on the driving, dirty rock of “Fake Records of Rock n Roll – in Johnston’s own words, “a get-down boogie like never before” and Irish wake-style ditty in honor of a past pet on the hilarious and moving track “Queenie the Dog.” The absolute counter-point to Jason Lytle’s “Ghost of My Old Dog,” which is the musical equivalent of Old Yeller and, thus, impossible for me to listen to without choking up, “Queenie the Dog” is a song Phish could’ve written during the Junta sessions.. This song feels the way I earnestly hope to when my beloved beagle shuffles off this mortal coil, and finds Johnston at his most playful and light-hearted, singing strange lines about speaking dogs, werewolves, and howling at the sun with glee and love.

Throughout Is And Always Was, Johnston and Falkner change up the vibe. “High Horse” features delightful synth effects and a light echo, while “Without You” has a kitschy 80s contemporary sound that would be perfect as the theme song of a Night Court rom-com spin-off. The album’s title track, however, is a psychadelic swirl, vintage Daniel Johnston by way of Jefferson Airplane. The song focuses on self-loathing, religion, pop culture, and self-awareness, and the pairing of words with music brilliantly links the foreboding and fantastical dimensions with darker manifestations of romantic love. The preceding track, “Tears,” however, is an entirely different vehicle, all syncopation in the backseat with Johnston’s vocals and lyrics at the wheel on cruise control.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Along with “Tears,” the three stand-out tracks on this record include the reconditioned “I Had Lost My Mind,” which was used to great effect in this Austin-based musical about Johnston’s life and art, the album’s lead single “Freedom,” which was the stand-out song during Johnston’s performance in Ann Arbor last summer reviewed here, and, most definitely, the album’s terrifyingly genius closer, “Light of Day.” This 6 1/2 minute opus alone is worth the price of purchase for Is And Always Was. It is, in a word, WONDERFUL, the kind of song you just don’t want to end. While it does eventually end – everything does, eventually – the long stretch you get with it is a delectably slow jam, repetitive but hardly noticeably so, given the deep, deep groove Johnston gets to in the song. Longtime listeners who have not yet had the pleasure of hearing this song will probably be shocked to hear this, but there’s even a point in the track (at about 3:50) where you’ll find yourself fist-pumping. Part of that is because the song is just so damn good, but a lot of the credit in this track should go to session drummer Joey Waronker (REM, Beck, Smashing Pumpkins), who somehow resists what must have been biblical-scale urges to go with the thundersticks, and instead keeps things so laudably atmospheric your adrenalin will rise as high as its been since the last time you got mugged, but in a very good way.

In all, Is And Always Was amounts to incontrovertible evidence that Daniel Johnston the artist is still alive and kicking, but, at the same time, is at his best with the supportive guidance from a talented producer and musician like Jason Falkner (or Mark Linkous or Brian Beattie) and, maybe, a little encouragement to write songs about the now and even the future, rather than taking steps to keep in the spirit of the cariacature of his character that has developed since his post-The Devil and Daniel Johnston resurgence.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Daniel Johnston – Freedom

Old Books is a twenty-six minute amalgam of a whole mess of comforting genres, resulting in an insulating listening experience that both soothes and agitates in equal measure. (If I had to stamp a label on it, I’d go with  quasi-psych folk with a strong helping of the acoustic ambient.)  There’s a certain sonic density to the five songs on Old Books that belies its lightness; there’s a lot of sound to parse through, but none of it is particularly loud.  The band’s moniker might offer the best description of their sound; drifting through a giant cloud would provide a thick, impenetrable surrounding, but would be composed of the lightest of elements.  The sound of Giant Cloud is one to get lost in, drifting among the often angelic vocals and pillowy, semi-symphonic soundscapes.

The songs on Old Books generally take their time to develop, meandering across several minutes, finding a groove and rolling with it on occasion.  It’s only an EP, but three of the songs clock in at over five minutes, so there’s a kind of semi-albumish feel going on.  The best songs all have a distinct flourish of some sort; “Strange Peaches” snaps out of a somnolent march into a frenetic, near-ragtime acoustic explosion.  “Old Soul,” the stellar, rambling closer is almost a waltz through the middle section, but grows an almost vaudevillian set of balls towards the end.  It’s the kind of EP that builds excitement for the band’s future work; they’re getting ready to record a full-length, which I’m already eager to hear.

We’ve got two tracks below from the EP that offer a solid taste of what the band is about.  The intertwined male/female vocals that stand out on “Fingernails” are all over the record, as is that fuzzed-up acoustic shimmer.  “Rainbows,” the EP’s opener, offers an indicative sample of the emotional tenor of the record; that equable tone is all over the rest of the tracks.  The tempo shift around the three minute mark is a killer example of the chamelonic nature of many of the songs.  If you dig these, you’ll dig the rest.  Even better, you can grab it here for one single American dollar (I’ll assume this is a limited time thing, so get on it).

Giant Cloud – Rainbows

Giant Cloud – Fingernails

In other news, you might have noticed that I’ve been curiously mum about the recent release of Vampire Weekend’s sophomore record.  I’ve been public about my deep anticipation for Contra and have wrangled in this forum with the generalized bad taste “Horchata” left in my mouth and the resplendent glee I got from “Cousins.”  I’d hoped that Contra would be pakced with a “Cousins” vibe and bereft of the bloated self-importance that plagued “Horchata.”

I haven’t written about Contra yet because we only like to tell you about records that we like.  Our express mission is to avoid the kind of petty dismemberments that many blogs traffic in.  It is easy to say mean things about marginal art.  I could bang out a nasty review that belittles music that I find distasteful with ease.  (Believe me.  We lob out nasty jokes in the email all the time.  We keep those in house cause we’re classy, but we’re not shy amongst ourselves about identifying things we don’t  like.) But.  Where would that get us?  I’d piss off someone who’s done something I’ll never do (even the worst record is more than I’m musically capable of) and you wouldn’t have any new records to listen to.  We want to spread the word on stuff that blows our minds.  We’ll leave the snide shit for P4K.

That said, “Cousins” is a great song.  So is “White Sky.”  Those tracks held onto the traits that I loved about the self-titled record: a certain brashness that’s not overbearing, a willingness to synthesize foreign sounds and vibes into a western idiom, a liveliness that served to ammeliorate any tendency towards smugness and, more than anything else, a distilled bit of joy and fun.  There’s (maybe) one song that you can’t dance to on the self-titled record.  “Cousins” and “White Sky” encourage the same things that many of the old songs did.  I’ll leave the rest of the  new record without the same ringing endorsement and leave it at that.

I’ll part with the hope that this is a bump in the road.  But.  Some bands have one great record in them.  No matter how I feel about Contra, I will be spinning Vampire Weekend forever.  (Justin’s poked some fun at me for this, but this is, ultimately, how I judge records.  Will I listen to this in 20 years?  The self-titled record is a homerun play for my retirement party.)  The musical landscape is littered with Icarus-like bands that flew close to the sun before crashing to the earth.  I’ll hope for the best for the third Vampire Weekend record, but I fear the wax is melting.

I’ll leave you with a track to remind you how great this band can be.  Remember how excited this made you the first time you heard it?

Vampire Weekend – M79 – Daytrotter Session

All this to lead into the latest Roadside Graves track that showed up on Stereogum this morning.  The prolific New Jersey act is delivering their Americana hybrid of folk, guitar stomp, and barstool anthem yet again on 3/16 through Aquarium Drunkard’s amazing spinoff label, Autumn Tone.  You Won’t Be Happy With Me is a six-song collection that we’re eager to put our ears to as soon as possible.  Last year’s stellar LP, My Son’s Home is near and dear to me at all times.  This newest track, “Liv Tyler” is a 7 1/2 minute ass-shaking saloon romp with enough punch and vibe to send me to the repeat button six times before settling in to write this post.  Piano arpeggios sprinkle the background while John Gleason raspily delivers emotionally epic vocals.  A jumpy breakdown about midway through increases tempo and the pianos rise upward out of the background, paired with a bluesy and frenetic guitar solo.  Stereogum mentions that the six songs o the newest effort a touch darker, exploring more spacious areas.  If this track is any indication, we love where Roadside Graves is moving.  When my favorite folky rock band can palm mute their way to anthemic highs, I can get behind it.

As far as Liv Tyler, well, I smirk when I hear the lyrics.  I don’t know, who’s baby you are is repeated early on in the song.  Obviously somebody’s on the same page as me.

Roadside Graves – Liv Tyler

Buy My Son’s Home at Insound now!

Roadside Graves Official Site

Brooklyn quartet Bear in Heaven’s 2009 LP, Beast Rest Forth Mouth wound up as one of our Best Albums of 2009, and as the band tours around the US, armed with even more European/US touring on tap, the Hometapes label act is primed for the stars.  The inclusion of the record on Pitchfork’s top 50 album releases of 2009 doesn’t surprise us a bit.  The huge and sprawling album has drawn high critical nods from all the right places.  Nonetheless, the quietly advertised stop at Case Western Reserve’s student-only concert venue, “The Spot,” was a must see for us at Citizen Dick.  Jon Philpot and crew, importantly, are nice dudes, and putting the entire package together (i.e. recorded material, live show, and introductions) exhibits a mature band that is facing the limelight with vigor and grace.  The largeness of the band’s sound translates perfectly live, and perhaps, requires an audience and stage.  For the, maybe, one hundred students that attended Wednesday night’s show, a fully loaded and sonically limber Bear in Heaven both stole the show from headliners, Freelance Whales, and offered solidified proof of why they’re one of the more underrated artists coming from the Brooklyn independent label assault right now.

Citizen Dick writer Rob and I took this one in, and although we’re not Case Western students, we were able to sneak onto the list and hit the venue early.  Eerily reminiscent of Dazed and Confused’s The Emporium, “The Spot” is a pretty sweet student hangout located in the basement of Leutner hall at Case Western, complete with a snarky little bar, pool tables, and pub style college table and chair set ups.  Case houses some of America’s best and brightest students, so it came to no surprise that our early entrance was met with a few stares as students sat with laptops and completed homework while both bands soundchecked and set up the stage. Even as Bear in Heaven began their opening set, it felt like a middle school party, as the students were reluctant to hop up and close in on the stage.  Rob and I are a little more seasoned, and we stood up in front of everyone as the band began playing.

One of the distinct markers of Bear in Heaven is its brilliant and pummeling percussion, and when put into a live setting, this leaps outward. Drummer Joe Stickney never stops moving, whether it’s the near tribal pounding bass drum booms of “Beast in Peace” or the cymbal heavy crashing of “You Do You,” the percussion is what glues the sound together.  Stickney lined up to the left of the stage due to the Freelance Whales setup behind, but this move was excellent for showcasing all of the members’ talents.  Jon Philpot sets up with more wires and gadgets than just about any band I’ve seen.  Rolling loops and pre-recorded flourishes splash through each song, and Philpot is the engineer, hitting switches and keys as the largeness of the songs borderline overwhelm the audience.  In post-show discussions with Philpot, we chatted about the expansive nature of BIH’s sound and how the tracks need room to breath, which didn’t make “The Spot” the most ideal setup for the sound.  The electronic underpinnings of the songs absolutely require a larger setting, lasers and arena filling light arrangements.  Of course, the lack of these things didn’t stop folks from shaking their asses and getting lost in the fuzzy and progressive sounds unleashed on them at the show.

The band rolled through most of BRFM with swagger.  Fans eventually inched forward to the stage and let the sound saturate them.  At the third song, guitarist Adam Wills went into the fuzzy, siren-like riff of “Ultimate Satisfaction,” and any rust was washed away for the remainder of the show.  In each review I’ve written, I’ve alluded to how much I love this song, and hearing it live plunges it back into my heavy play rotation.  The crowd favorite, “Lovesick Teenagers” was played once early, and then the band aptly ended with “Casual Goodbye” which launches into the previous track’s flighty and soaring chorus at its close.  This was oddly relevant, considering most of the Case students probably fit the description.  I’ve also mentioned the album as one that listeners MUST listen to in its entirety.  Tracks begin one way and often progress into eye-popping and chill-inducing grandiosity.  Move this into a face-to-face meeting, and those tracks are downright enormous.  Particularly speaking, “Dust Cloud” slowly builds into a chanting, vocal-morphed slow rhythm blitz at the close.  Hearing this live was the cherry on top for the evening.  Cymbals crashed and most of the fans in attendance seemed to look around and collectively breath out a “woah” in unison.  I suppose that’s what draws me to the band’s sound the most.  A breathtaking mixture of electronic and rock sounds take listeners into a spaceship of balanced chaos.  If you’re unhip on BIH, check out their website by clicking HERE, and try to catch their upcoming tour with indie darlings, Cymbals Eat Guitars, as the year moves onward.  In our opinion, the list of must-see shows this year is long, but we’ve got a repeat visit in high ranking.  Do yourself the favor and, if Bear in Heaven is within 200 miles, make the drive and grab a seat close to the stage.  Earplugs are for wimps, might I add. Check out the dates below as they embark on the tour with CEG.  Also, enjoy both “Lovesick Teenagers” and “Wholehearted Mess.”

Bear In Heaven’s Upcoming Dates (With Cymbals Eat Guitars)

Mar 05 Johnny Brenda’s – Johnny Brenda’s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Mar 06 Rock And Roll Hotel – Rock and Roll Hotel Washington, Washington DC
Mar 07 Local 506 – Local 506 Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Mar 09 The End – The End Nashville, Tennessee
Mar 10 Pilot Light – Pilot Light Knoxville, Tennessee
Mar 11 Earl – The Earl East Atlanta, Georgia
Mar 13 Will’s Pub – Will’s Pub Orlando, Florida
Mar 16 Mango’s – Mango’s Houston, Texas
Mar 22 The Rhythm Room – Rhythm Room Phoenix, Arizona
Mar 23 Casbah San Diego – Casbah San Diego, California
Mar 24 Echo – The Echo Los Angeles, California
Mar 25 Bottom Of The Hill – Bottom of The Hill San Francisco, California
Mar 27 Berbati’s Pan – Berbati’s Pan Portland, Oregon
Mar 29 The Biltmore Cabaret – The Biltmore Cabaret Vancouver, British Columbia
Mar 31 Kilby Court – Kilby Court Salt Lake City, Utah
Apr 01 Hi Dive – Hi Dive Denver, Colorado
Apr 02 Replay Lounge – Replay Lounge Lawrence, Kansas
Apr 03 Turf Club – Turf Club Saint Paul, Minnesota
Apr 04 Schubas Tavern – Schubes Chicago, Illinois
Apr 06 El Mocambo – El Mocambo Toronto, Ontario
Apr 07 Il Motore – Il Motore Montreal, Quebec
Apr 08 Middle East Downstairs – Middle East Downstairs Cambridge, Massachusetts
Apr 09 Music Hall Of Williamsburg – Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York

Follow Bear In Heaven on Twitter by clicking HERE

Bear In Heaven – Official Site

Bear In Heaven – Lovesick Teenagers

Bear In Heaven – Wholehearted Mess

The mid-January thaw in Cleveland is always a nice reprieve from the snowy assault that usually spans five months of our year in the snow belt of Ohio.  Typically, the gods smile intermittently and allow us the chance to catch up with the plowing and salting of the roads.  The slight increase above freezing temps late this week has been fabulous, and as the dead grass of my yard slowly emerges underneath the melting ice, I’ve been able to enjoy a slight jolt in spirits; the cavernous and introspective moments of winter are quite pronounced in those of us that reside in winter wonderlands.  We know the drill, right?  Hunker down in our homes, where the only light we receive is the 70 watt charge from a desktop light bulb.  These flashes of thaw wash this away, however, and remind us that Spring is on the way.  I’ve been using the time to get outside and do the things I do when snow doesn’t hinder progress.  If you’re a Clevelander and doing the same, get out and check out Citizen Dick writer Justin’s sponsored show tonight at Beachland Ballroom.  The Rural Alberta Advantage has been trolling across northern America and this evening’s stop in Cleveland promises to be well worth venturing out of the house.  The lively Canadian pop outfit is, additionally, another reason to enjoy this little late January thawing.

For the rest of you stopping by today, here’s a list of tracks that we’ve been spinning this week.  Some have just hit the webs, and others have been floating around for a little while.  Nonetheless, as we’ve mentioned throughout the week, early 2010 is shaping up to be monstrous, and February and March don’t forecast any sort of let up.  Enjoy the tunes and continue reading throughout the week as we review some of these upcoming albums.

Additionally, if you’re hip to the twitter game, we’re posting regularly @citizendickorg.  Click HERE to add us.

This Week’s Tracklist

Seabear – Lion Face Boy – This Icelandic septet, a project by Sing Fang Bous’ Sindri Mar Sigfusson, quietly released the first single from their upcoming LP, We Built A Fire.  The March release promises more sprawling indie folk sonic goodness, and this track brings everything but the kitchen sink at listeners in a smooth package.  Horns, synths, acoustic guitars, and hook-laden vocal arrangements.  One spin of this, and you’ll probably be leaning forward and diving in for a repeat listen.

Seabear – Lion Face Boy

Laura Veirs – July Flame – This track has been floating out across the interwebs for awhile, but we’ve been a little slow getting it out to you.  Initially, I didn’t give it a lot of credit, but it’s slowly been getting repeat listens throughout this past week.  July Flame drops this Tuesday, and the title track is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Veirs, and this certainly isn’t a knock.  Large, smoky, and regal tracks of yearning promise another spectacular release.  To check out a solid review of the album, click over to our pals at Knox Road and their review.

Laura Veirs – July Flame

Thomas Western – Your Front Door – British singer/songwriter Thomas Western currently resides in Scotland.  I Snagged this track from I Guess I’m Floating, as part of their Music Alliance Pact, always a great source for new and emerging global acts.  This track is, essentially, blues based, but steers into comforting modes that northerners like us require during these winter months as we enter our caves for the winter.

Thomas Western – Your Front Door

Twin Sister – Nectarine – Brooklyn’s Twin Sister is dropping two free-to-download EP’s, and the first, Vampires With Dreaming Kids is available at the band’s website. Some tracks are more large scale and sprawling, but I’m a fan of this one, primarily because of it’s simplistic, straightforward style, and more home-recorded feel.  Snag the EP HERE and their second EP, Color Your Life is planned to be unveiled later in the year from Infinite Best.

Twin Sister – Nectarine

Eat Skull – Don’t Leave Me On The Speaker – Portland’s very own Eat Skull are releasing a 7” on Woodsist Records.  I loved the 2009 full length, Sick to Death, and usually save it for my more gritty moments, when I’m more apt to punch things and throw objects about my house in frustration.  This track is the fuzzy and and sleazy (but entirely accessible) sound I attach to the band.  Look forward to the 7” entitled Jerusalem Mall and turn this one up.

Eat Skull – Don’t Leave Me On The Speaker

El Perro Del Mar – Change of Heart (Rakamonie Remix) – Love is Not Pop, El Perro Del Mar’s 2009 release, topped many album lists, but for me, the best track of the loot was “Change of Heart.”  The rest of the album didn’t do it for me, but that track specifically was a mainstay in my rotation.  This remix is pretty solid, and comes on the haunches of the video combination performance of the track with indie songstress Lykke Li.  I’m usually a pretty heavy opponent to remixes, but this one isn’t too bad.

El Perro Del Mar – Change of Heart (Rakamonie Remix)

jj – My Way – Secretly Canadian is set to release the label’s debut of jj, and released a track, “Let Go” that will be included.  Also dropped into the ether is this track, which won’t be on the album, but, in my opinion, blows the other one away.  Stereogum referred to the vocal tracks as sounding like Bone Thugs’ “Crossroads.”  We’re from Cleveland. Sign us up.

jj – My Way

Phantogram – Running from the Cops – Barsuk Records does a great job quietly releasing quality material without much fanfare.  Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel are the duo behind Phantogram, who recently released their label debut, Eyelid Moves.  This quirky and oddball track of looping synthesizers and flourishes is at the very least, intriguing.  What hits me on the first listen is the pummeling aggression lying underneath it all. Other Phantogram tracks have been blowing up the web of late.  Snag this first release to get a taste, but purchase the entire record for more.

Phantogram – Running from the Cops

Active Child – Wilderness – This is another track that’s been floating around for the better part of a week, and we’re just getting it onto the site.  I don’t know much about Active Child, other than fact that I like it.  This track is entrancing enough to put a smoky stamp on your weekend without sacrificing accessibility.  The Los Angeles outfit’s rhythmic pulsing of drum machines and smoothed out synthesized aura does an excellent job of throwing itself into the mix of bands doing this type of atmospheric blend of beats and hazy undertones.

Active Child – Wilderness

The Morning Benders – Promises – Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor has been busy, honing solo work and producing like a mofo.  The Morning Benders’ upcoming release Big Echo promises, if the first released track indicates anything, a Taylor touch to already pretty large-scale percussion based pop/rock.  “Promises” is pretty slippery, and doesn’t necessarily hold its ground in any particular narrowing genre.  It’s percussion heavy and rich.   We’re stoked for the new record.

The Morning Benders – Promises

Rogue Wave – Good Morning – Rogue Wave is releasing their 4^th LP, Permalight, through Brushfire Records.  The album was recorded in Mississippi and looks to be an album with some restless energy release.  Vocalist Zach Rogue’s muse throughout most of the process was recovery from a back injury.  The healing process left him bed-ridden, and Rogue has alluded to the physical and danceable nature to the tracks of the album.  Interestingly, this track does just this.  Guitars.  Check.  Ass shaking.  Check.  We’re looking forward to this March 2^nd release.

Rogue Wave – Good Morning

Phillip Oskar Augustine – Internal Combustion – In another welcome addition to the emerging “chillwave” robo-blast on the interwebs, Tyler Wallace, aka Phillip Oskar Augustine, released this track for the masses via GorillavsBear accordingly.  Earnest Greene, of Washed Out, provides backing synthesizers, so even if we stopped right there, it should be a pretty indicative sign of the track’s sound.  Nonetheless, the track is certainly promising of things to come from this South Carolina native.  Angular and distinctly retro, the track moves through lots of what we love.  Attach Augustine to new indie darlings Toro Y Moi and we’ve got some big things emerging from the South this year.

Phillip Oskar Augustine – Internal Combustion

I’ve written more than once that the best part of this gig is hearing bands that I wouldn’t hear if I didn’t write for a blog.  My musical horizons are constantly expanding because talented people share their work with us.  I’m lucky.  The most recent act to blow my mind via an unsolicited submission is Darren Gaines and the Key Party.  (It’s a great band name, by the way, but, strangely not the best one today.  It’s a rare post where we have a band name that is better than the classic  “somebody and the something” approach paired with a reference to creepy suburban wife swapping, but this is that post.)  “Where Were You Last Night” is the first release from an upcoming project; it is the truth.  It starts with the yearning vocals of the titular Gaines in front a simultaneously spare and chunky guitar riff that manages to recall “Sleepwalk” and “Clash City Rockers” at the same time.  It gets better from there, layering the ethereal and vaguely sinister vocals of Sara Syms as a rag-tag brass group starts up.  (Aside: anytime a band has a designated flugelhorn player, I am in.)  The song’s finish is operatic and thrilling.  As the horns soar, Syms and Gaines swap the song’s title with increasing intensity; you could listen to the last minute or so over and over and be in pretty good shape.  2009’s My Blacks Don’t Match offers material of equal quality and emotion.  We’ll have our ears on Darren Gaines and the Key Party’s next release and will pass along relevant information.  In the meantime, enjoy “Where Were You Last Night?” and check out more songs at the band’s myspace.

Darren Gaines and the Key Party – “Where Were You Last Night?”

The Well Presented Beaver’s first record is called Placenta of Attention. Soak all of that in for a minute.  One of our pet causes here at Citizen Dick is effective and efficient band naming.  I’ve been offering my services as a namer of bands from the outset.  (We don’t need to suffer through blandly generic band names like “Iran” or borderline grammar nightmares like “She and Him.”  We can do better people!  Here’s one off the top of my head: Latency and the Modern Man.  Name your band that and fame and fortune will follow.  Just saying.)  The Well Presented Beaver is one hell of a name for something.  Past that, the music is good.  “Tuk-Tuk Took Me Home,” written, according to the band, during a drunken backpacking trip through Southeast Asia has the feel of (in the words of our own Justin) “the bastard son of Arlo Guthrie.”  I love the mouth harp, the weirdly out of place space rock guitar solo and, more than anything, the lyricism.  Who can’t relate to getting wasted and rolling home in one of these? (For the record, I originally thought a Tuk-Tuk was the same as a Ton-Ton, but that was the wrong conveyance.)  If you dig this, you’re definitely going to dig “Dog Shit Taco” at the bands’ myspace.

The Well Presented Beaver – “Tuk-Tuk Took Me Home”

We’re closing this week not with live tracks but with an extended musing on the appeal of “Two Weeks” from the inimitable Grizzly Bear.  Everybody knows that I can’t stop gushing about Veckatimest. (This is the third time I’ve written about that record in this forum.  It might not be the last.)  Further, I contest that “Two Weeks” is the fourth or fifth greatest song ever recorded.  Essentially, there’s “God Only Knows,” “Dirty Frank,” “Androgynous,” “(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais” and “Two Weeks.”  That’s the list (in no particular order) of the best we’re ever going to do for rock songs.  (I’m only partially kidding,)  One of the critical knocks against Veckatimest was that it was elitist in nature, a record for masturbatory music bloggers to tout so that they could prove their superiority over the “common” music listener.  They get the “overly intricate chamber pop that doesn’t appeal to dudes who still listen to the radio” rap. The implicit message, even in positive reviews is this: bust Veckatimest out when you’re impressing the cognoscenti, but leave it on the shelf when your Levi-clad brother-in-law is over.  I say bullshit.  Animal Collective makes records for douchebags; Grizzly Bear makes records for all of us.  Craft, care and skill, assets Grizzly Bear have in spades, are, essentially, middle class values.  Give the masses something that has been created with mind-numbing precision and they’ll eat it up.  It is not the average Joe or Jane’s fault that Veckatimest didn’t go platinum, but the fault of the cultural media.  There is no meritocracy in music; for most of us somebody else  (radio, our friends, that dude at the jukebox) calls the shots on what we listen to.  I’m coming around on the whole Grizzly Bear + Twilight thing only because I want every man woman and child on earth to hear “Southern Point.”  If whoring out is the way to do that, I’m down.

The deepest confirmation of my suspicion that Veckatimest as a whole (and “Two Weeks” in specific) is populist in nature is the repeated appearance of “Two Weeks” in remixes and mash-ups.  Lil Wayne is about as mainstream as they come (sold a million records in one week, won a Grammy, makes “music videos) and “Two Weeks” makes perfect sense behind one of his hits.  Dead Prez, while less mainstreamy (they’ve still had a record in the top 25 this century) sound great in front of “Two Weeks.”  Kidz in the Hall, relatively unheralded but still working in a popular vein, adapt “Two Weeks” to their needs with aplomb.  There is no rap song that wouldn’t sound great in front of “Two Weeks.”  (Mash-up folks: please get to work on more “Two Weeks” remixes.  I’d like an Ice Cube song jammed into “Two Weeks” by next Saturday.  Thanks.)  All this to say that the appeal of “Two Weeks” extends far outside the myopic indiesphere.  I’ll admit that tracks like these are probably created cynically, with the indie snob in mind, but that doesn’t necessarily detract from their quality.  “Two Weeks” is a track that taps into something big, something universal.  I’m going to keep beating the “Two Weeks” drum for as long as it takes.  I’d like this thing to chart, if possible.  We’ve got the relevant “Two Weeks” remixes below (and a live version of the original track); if you’ve got one I missed, hit up the comments.

Lil Wayne x Grizzly Bear – “2 Weeks Til Prom”

Kidz in the Hall – “The Grizzly Man”

Dead Prez x Grizzly Bear – “Two Weeks of Hip Hop”

Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks, Live

The fellas in Man/Miracle, especially frontman Dylan Travis, have one of those near-tragic backstories of suffering yielding great art that any other band would love to fill their press releases with. My hunch, however, is that Travis et al. could have done without the broken bones, insect infestations, and all the other indignities suffered between formation and release of their new album, The Shape of Things. For the full story, check out Boston Pheonix writer David Thorpe’s short essay here.

To prime the pump for the release of The Shape of Things next month, the band has released a first single, “Hot Sprawl.” An initial listen reveals just how poignant the song’s title is. Warm with percussion and guitar, “Hot Sprawl” engages in some deconstructed noodling in a way that isn’t alienating or pompous, but rather interacts nicely with the rest of the band’s efforts on the track. The intro sounds a little like what Vampire Weekend might do if Akron/Family ambushed them in the alley and beat both restraint and humility into the Columbia preps. As the track evolves, it gets more gypsy jam than Caribbean funk, but maintains its west coast pacing throughout.

Man/Miracle’s first full-length album, The Shape of Things, drops February 23rd via Third Culture Records. You can order it here.

Man/Miracle – Hot Sprawl

If there is a record I feel most sheepish about not covering on these pages in 2009, it is The Rural Alberta Advantage’s brilliantly pastoral Hometowns.  OK, I’ll throw Merriweather Post Pavilion on there, too, but I feel way worse about Hometowns because I liked it way more.

As good as it is, and it is so good the word should have two syllables, it is a difficult album to describe. You can say it sounds Canadian, which it does even if that isn’t a terribly profound or illuminating description. You can say it is about sense memory and place, both broadly construed and with respect to Alberta, the province from which the band gets not only its name but also its frontman, Nils Edenloff. But when you try to describe its sound, you eventually get bogged down between saying it is kinda dance-oriented, only it isn’t.

I brought this up to Edenloff in an interview I did with him last week (check it out if you like here), mentioning I could burn a few songs for a friend and have them swear The Rural Alberta Advantage was a dance-pop band, and then turn around and burn a few more for a different person and have them swear they were a straight-up rock band. From his response, it seems clear that this sonic diversity isn’t accidental and has a lot to do with the different musical interests and perspectives of the band’s three members.

In light of that, I decided to bring you the two tracks that would anchor those respective hypothetical burned CDs mentioned in the paragraph above. For those that like to dance, you’ll likely dig on “Don’t Haunt This Place,” arguably the band’s biggest hit since making their huge splash at SXSW last spring. The rest of you who are a little more like me will fall in love with “Frank, AB” – the second single from Hometowns. And, finally, those of you who listen to both tracks will quickly realize I’ve set up a bit of a false dichotomy. In reality, the band’s sound exists on a contiuum; these two tracks just reside at different ends. You can dance to “Frank, AB” and rock out to “Don’t Haunt This Place.”

In fact, those of you residing in Citizen Dick Country will be pleased to note that the band’s ongoing tour itinerary brings them through Cleveland this Sunday, January 17th, for a show at the incomparable Beachland Tavern with New York City’s The Octagon. See the John G designed gig poster below for more information.

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Don’t Haunt This Place

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Frank, AB