That kind of feeling pretty much mirrors itself in my love of music. I love elaborate, meticulously made melodies, which make use of unexpected instrumentation or highly detailed arrangements, but without ever, ever neglecting a good old fashioned shit-kicking exploder. And that’s where Middle Class Rut come into the equation. From the minute All Walks Of Life kicks off, you know you’re in for a scorcher. The song’s bluesy chord-busting rends you like a hacksaw, the searing, face-melting vocals screech like a sandstorm, while the blistering, stormy drumwork bakes whatever you had left into a nice, tidy ash heap. But don’t get me wrong, this is one precise, angular, calculated conflagration, streaking with flawless, relentless execution. So I guess it does have a place in that “elaborate” category. To me, it’s the best of both worlds.

Oxford Collapse - Amongst Friends
What about some jangling pop happyness? Huh? Do we not have enough of that? Do we? DO WE? No! The answer is an uppercase “NO!” Do you hear me? You will listen to the oblique musical peppyness of Oxford Collapse’s celebration of friendship, which can be found on The Hann-Byrd EP, which is a lead-in to their double-album due out in August, and you will be thankful that you have listed to such a furtive, pert tune devoid of frills and syrup.

Kaki King - Bone Chaos In The CastleKaki King is one hell of a guitarist. She can pluck and weave and slide her way around a six-string with such dexterity and attention to detail that you wonder why the hell people are still pent up on Stevie Ray and Zakk Wylde. Probably because she’s not as show-offy and more privy to creating engaging musical moods. Anyway, save her a spot on the next Guitar Hero.

Wilderness guitarist Colin McCann put together The Gift Of Song In The Lion’s Den in his own home on four track cassette, which accounts for its heavily analogue, forthright, folk-inspired simplicity. However, the song makes no qualms about its unpolished aura: the guitars start off with a purposeful awkwardness amidst the low buzz of the surrounding equipment, in somewhat of a muted, out of focus membrane, painfully melodious, as if carrying a charge it craves to release. Thankfully, the thud of a bass drum and the crispy jaunt of a tambourine emerge to back it up, as if propping the melody up to ensure it be heard, accompanied by McCann’s elevating, vivid, fervent, Peter Gabriel-esque vocals, wide and welcoming, with a profound earnestness that drips of vulnerability, yet robust enough to feel strong. Or at least, stronger. The result is a song full of hope, determined to cast the weight off itself and pursue a life unburdened.

I swear, we weren’t expecting this one.

And what a giveaway I have in store for you kind, wonderful, admirable folks today. Indeed, you have the chance to make up with a ton (and I mean a ton) of bitchin’ From Bubblegum To Sky stuff. There is no other way to describe this as anything else than a “prize package,” making me feel ever so closer to Bob Barker than I ever have been in my entire life.

And what a prize package it is: there’s stuff to download, stuff to wear, stuff to pin, stuff to hang, and stuff to listen to! All this is offered to you through my Internet rest-stop thanks to the folks at Fanatic Promotion and Eenie Meenie Records in honour of the release of From Bubblegum To Sky’s third LP A Soft Kill.

To be literal, the winner of this giveaway will receive:

• A Dropcard to download a copy of A Soft Kill
• An awesome t-shirt featuring artwork from the cover of A Soft Kill
• A A Soft Kill button
• A poster signed by FBTS’s Mario Hernandez (with his hands!)
• CDs of FBTS’s two previous releases: Me And Army And The Two French Boys and Nothing Sadder Than Lonely Queen.

Enticed yet? Can’t wait another moment to know how to enter your chance to win? Okay then!

To enter the contest, all you have to do is send me visuals. An image. A drawing. A photograph. Vector graphics. Whatever you like as long as you use A Soft Kill (or one of the album’s track titles) as your theme. Email your entry to ox@alimerickox.com pronto! And this is no raffle: the winner will be picked by FBTS’s one-man-band Mario Hernandez himself.

Will you send me a drawing of a cloud being stabbed? Will it be a short comic of a Play-Doh man being squished? Will it be a photograph of you holding a piece of paper with the album’s name scribbled on it as you stand next to a dead body (ew!)? Time to get creative, get awesome, and get those prizes! You have till June 29 at 11:59PM EST to do so!

The song starts off with some desperately frantic drumming, splashing through a cloud of noisy grit, as expectant guitar chords fleetingly timbre a muted melody which attempts to make sense of the surrounding distortion, yet feels eerily drowned out by the frenetic noise. Far-off rumblings the background foreshadow the second part of the song, which enters a barrage of deep, gutteral baritone drones, bitcrunched into a ghastly storm of unnerving turbulence. Then, as if finding shelter, a clear yet fathomless hum grows out of the storm, as guitars reverberate in an empty state of solitude, and drums batter like window shutters in strong wind, providing protection but no comfort.

Like I said: damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Looker - Gates Of The Old City
Now for those of us who are looking for a little candy for their ears (because, Heaven knows, we music lovers don’t make it easy on our auditory systems), I propose Looker’s Gates Of The Old City, a sweet and tasty treat of girly powerpop, coated in tangy hookyness and bursting melodious flavour. Jolting guitar riffs blend together with bouncy piano chords charismatic vocals for that special pop-rocks-in-soda feeling without that exploding head urban myth.

Truckasaurus - Super Copter
You know, the only way they could make that new Knight Rider series less obnoxious is if they had KITT go ballistic about gas prices and start fighting oil execs instead of terrorists. Just like if they were to bring Airwolf back, they’d have to use Truckasaurus‘ 8-bit rethinking of the theme entitled Super Copter, lest they bring Jean-Michel Vincent back, the only man I know who would accept to portray a character whose name was “Stringfellow Hawke.” Fippin’ eh.

So, of course, like any Gabriel-era Genesis fan, I have a strong dislike for the Collins/Rutherford/Banks era. Yeah, I’m one of those costumes-and-makeup theatrics purists, finding the trio’s ongoing material contrived, uninspired, and safe (except maybe Mama, which sort of shines clearly throughout all that murkiness). Don’t talk to me about how Land Of Confusion is sharp global criticism; there’s more social commentary in the two minute-fifteen second Harold The Barrel than in Land’s interminable 4:45; and it’s much much cheekier, too.

See how worked up I get?

So when I listen to Immigration Reform by Baltimore’s Dennis Patrick Bowen, aka Smart Growth, I can’t help but smirk complacently at how relevant and fun Phil Collins’ voice sounds in this re-hash of Illegal Alien. Bowen, a drummer himself, gives more than enough sonic space to crashing percussions, pounding bass drums, and Collins-signature machine-gun drum pads, thunka-lunking frantically like it’s 1981. There’s more than enough synthwork to go around, from crystalline notes glinting celestially to punchy, snarling chords escalating the groove to searing levels, all accompanied by an animated, pep rally-worthy chorus of “It’s no fun/Being an illegal alien” cheers. I swear, the chorus works on so many levels.

And if you’re privy to Smart Growth’s Immigration Reform (which I am thrilled to have permission to host) and you’d like to hear more of his Genesis-inspired concoctions, you might want to give a listen to his EP, Surrey, which is offered up completely free for your listening, and my post-Gabriel vexation, pleasure.

Here they are in order of appearance:

• Dead Leaf Echo - Pale Fire
• Great Bloomers - Catching Up
• Melvins - Nude With Boots
• Jaguar Love - Bats Over The Pacific Ocean
• Ayla Brook - Wake Up Early
• Women - Black Rice
• Perhapst - “Quote”
• Windmill - Tokyo Moon
• Afternoons - Say Yes!
• Podington Bear - Ebullience

When my son ploughed through the entire Spiderwick Chronicles during the fall of 2007, I decided that giving him the entire His Dark Materials trilogy for Christmas would be a great idea. Of course, his interest (and mine, admittedly) had been piqued with the advertisements for the Golden Compass movie, but knowing full well it wouldn’t be released in English in my town and we’d have to wait for the DVD release before seeing it, I figured he could go the other route and read the book before seeing the movie.

He simply adored The Golden Compass. He’d keep me updated daily on Lyra’s progress, on her tribulations with Mrs. Coulter, her meeting with the gyptians, her travels up North, the awesomeness of Iorek Byrnison, and, of course, her improvement in reading the alethiometer. His imagination had not been captivated like this with the Spiderwick books, and I therefore took it upon myself to read The Golden Compass once he was done with it.

What I discovered was a surprisingly intricate fantasy-like universe, profound and layered, written in a perfectly dynamic, colourful, and paced style which doesn’t go too easy on the audience the novel is targeted for, while remaining gratifyingly escapist for adults. In fact, I enjoyed a great deal the modern themes Pullman was trying to convey through the people, politics, and institutions of his Earth, as numerous parallels with our (not-so-different) world were fascinatingly drawn.

My son’s started on The Subtle Knife, and I believe I will be next in line.