A Classic Education of Heavenly Pop Hits

October 27, 2011 at 10:45 am | Posted in Italia, Music | Leave a comment
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If you are waiting for James Mercer to make the next Shins album or Martin Phillips to complete the new Chills album, cast your gaze away from the calendar, stop crossing off the days and have a listen to the debut album from Bologna, Italy’s A Classic Education. Call It Blazing is twelve songs (three of which previously appeared on last year’s hey There Stranger EP) of understated sublime pop that will seduce you from the first listen.

The album was recorded at the Rear House in Brooklyn by Woods‘ Jarvis Taveniere who has recorded the Vivian Girls, Real Estate and the Ganglians to name a few. He does a good job in keeping the sound clean and singer Jonathan Clancy’s voice in the forefront. Clancy, who also records as His Clancyness has a voice that resembles the afore mentioned Mercer and Phillips in the way he sings in a melancholy high pitch. The band is obviously well schooled, or should I say (ahem) classically educated in the fine artistry of the pop song employing elements of the Dunedin, baroque, and American indie schools of rock.

The record is anchored by a handful of upbeat songs (Baby, It’s Find, Gone to Sea and Can You Feel the Backwash) that are immediate, easy to like and strategically placed to catch your attention and draw you into the record. Backwash comes late, but seems to lift the record into the stratosphere with it’s rushing chorus. The slower numbers like Spin Me Round, Forever Boy, I Lost Time and Night Owl are worth your time too. They act like slow release medication keeping your interest after you’ve worn through the rush of the more immediate tracks. Call It Blazing does blaze but it also sustains itself after the initial blast, something that all of the great records do and is quite a feat for a band’s first album.

mp3: A Classic Education – Baby, It’s Fine

mp3: A Classic Education – Forever Boy

Order a copy of Call It Blazing on vinyl or CD from Lefse

Tunabunny Not Faking It

October 22, 2011 at 10:34 pm | Posted in DIY, Music | Leave a comment
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Weird, they did it again. I’ve listened to the new Tunabunny album probably 10 times, but it wasn’t until tonight that it clicked with me.  This happened on their last album, but I thought I had them figured out and would immediately dig their second one, but there is something about this band from Athens, Georgia that keeps catches you off guard. Minima Moralia was recorded in apartments and houses and sounds lo-fi, but doesn’t subscribe to current trendy lo-fi aesthetic.  The band are hunkered down ignoring the world, flying in the face of fashion and making records on their own terms.

Tunabunny like their guitars sounding raw and they like you to hear the singing bleeding into the red on the recording console, making it sound like they’re in YOUR basement when you play this record loud. They use violin and keyboards economically in their songs, sometime to increase the dissonance and sometimes to reign you in from the noise. This summer’s brilliant single Solar Sister reappears, but everything else is new.  Songs like Fake It Faker are tense and taught. Perfect Time, Every Time is strangely funky, and then Cross Wire Technique is pure white noise and tin can funk, the kind fellow Athenians Pylon did in the 80′s. The record hums like an engine and blows out like a car crash at the same time.

Anything you read about Seattle grunge in the 90′s mentions how bands were making it up as they went along. Left to thrive in a vacuum far away from the rest of the world and its influence they came up with their own sound. That doesn’t happen much anymore because you are only isolated if you actively try to be isolated.  Tunabunny aren’t grunge, but seem to be working in their own self-imposed vacuum down in Athens, Georgia and Minima Morilia is like a thesis on how to do it on your own, in isolation and very well indeed.

mp3: Tunabunny – Perfect Time, Every Time  (Minima Moralia is out on HHBTM)

Yang Yang: Anika At the Crocodile

October 18, 2011 at 9:35 pm | Posted in Crocodile, Dub, Gigs, Ice Queens, Seattle | 2 Comments
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Anika played the Crocodile Sunday night. She looked and sounded like Nico fronting Metal Box era Public Image Limited. Actually she was fronting BEAK>,Geoff Barrow of Portishead‘s other band. His body double was behind the drums somehow making them sound as if they were being recorded by Martin Hannett.

Anika has the stage presence of an icicle, but it works. The songs have a steely isolating feel to them and her icy demeanor perfectly compliments them. When listening to desolate, dark dub music, I don’t want jokes and “Hello Seattle” in between songs. I want to feel on edge and slightly uncomfortable and that is what I felt as she awkwardly looked at the floor and moved her mic stand from one side of the stage to the other between songs, not speaking a word.

The set was heavy on the covers, but with a band that has such a strong aesthetic, they could cover just about anything and make it interesting and their own. The set included covers of Twinkle‘s Terry, Dylan‘s Masters of War, the Kinks‘ I Go To Sleep, and Yoko Ono‘s Yang Yang all of which appeared on the Stones Throw album. There were new ones too. The Crystals‘ He Hit Me and the Chromatics‘ In the City were both highlights. The set ended with a version of the Talking Heads‘ Once In a Lifetime which seemed so new to them that Anika pulled out a little black book for the lyrics. The setlist had one more song on it that they didn’t play, another cover, He Needs Me from the Popeye soundtrack. I’m sure it would have been sublimely weird, but Anika turned and left the stage after Once In a Lifetime with nary a goodbye.

A Hazy Shade of Jangle Goth

October 17, 2011 at 9:55 pm | Posted in Crocodile, Gigs, Music, Seattle | Leave a comment
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A ton is being written currentlyabout Veronica Falls and their new self-titled debut long player and for good reason, it  is easily one of the best pop records of the year. If you are a fan of  the autumnal sounds of the 60′s like the Mama’s and the Papas and Simon & Garfunkle, lightning fast jangle similar to the Bats or early Wedding Present,  lyrical darkness that verges on goth,  the innate ability to incorporate the psychedelia of the 60′s into a pop song and still make it danceable the way the Stone Roses did on their first album (yes, it’s that good) and have not heard this album then see about correcting that as soon as possible (details below).

Veronica Falls were in Seattle last week to open for the Drums at the Crocodile.  The four piece band slashed through their set to a nearly packed Crocodile. I’m pretty certain that the majority of the people  were there for Drums, but they got an unexpected treat while waiting around. Singer and guitarist Roxanne Clifford handles her big red hollow body Fender guitar like it is an appendage she was born with, moving it about and strumming the hell out of it. Her playing is perfectly timed with other guitarist James Hoare to create a jangly web of bliss inside the listener’s head. She’s a great front person too, with confidence and a classic indie look. I bet Stuart Murdoch is ringing her up so he can photograph here for the next Belle and Sebastian cover. The songs sounded great live with the harmonies from both Hoare and drummer Patrick Doyle standing out over their little maelstrom of strumming.

Doyle and Clifford were in Sexy Kids and the Royal We together while Hoare played in Your Twenties, and that previous experience is evident in their playing. They’re a young band, but they seemed like old pros playing with seasoned confidence. I guess confidence is easy when you know that you’ve got a gold mine of great songs.

Here is some video of a new song they played:


Order the album on CD or vinyl from Slumberland.

Giving Your Dusty Shelves Some Life

October 13, 2011 at 10:00 pm | Posted in indiepop, Portland, 7 inch, Quality, Record Labels | Leave a comment
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Shelflife Records down in Portland has been quietly and consistently releasing quality records for the past 15 years. There’s no let up in sight,  and the recent handful of releases sees them continuing to do it.  Here’s a rundown of those recent releases, all of them worth checking out.

White Wishes are from St. Petersburg, Russia and have an obvious thing for records that came out on 53rd & 3rd. They write slightly noisy yet tuneful pop songs. Come Say Hello is their first physical release. It has a noisy jangle and the singer sounds like a more tuneful Stephen Pastel or Steve Kilby on those early (and great) Church albums. I don’t know what the scene is like in St. Petersburgh. Are White Wishes part of a scene tucked away in the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic or an anomaly? They sing in English, cover Orange Juice songs and don’t sound remotely Russian so I’m assuming anomaly. The iron curtain came down years ago, but it still seems to exist in the indiepop world since you don’t hear of too many bands from Russia. Shelflife and White Wishes are bringing down the indiepop iron curtain one 7 inch at a time.

mp3: White Wishes – Come Say Hello (found on LIFE077)


Balloon Magic are from Denmark. Between Balloon Magic and Northern Portrait one might assume that Denmark has a thing for the 80′s UK indie charts. The Queen is not dead and this case it is the queen of Denmark, Margrethe II. I wonder if she’s a fan of Balloon Magic? Seems like a pretty safe bet given their wispy and fully formed pop songs. Put away your sponges and your rusty spanners and head down to the record store for this CD EP.

mp3: Balloon Magic – I’d Like to Build a House (found on LIFE076)


For a while Pains of Being Pure at Heart drummer Kurt Feldman had a thing for shoegaze with his other band the Depreciation Guild. I assume he still has a thing for shoegaze, but his new band Ice Choir has nothing to do with that genre. He’s gone back a little further in time, to the 80′s to be precise and Scritti Politti (anyone remember Perfect Way?). If you lived it, you most certainly remember it (and may not want to relive it). Not to fear, Feldman does it with style and doesn’t go over the top. Two Rings even has a little bit of a Prefab Sprout feel to it. I wonder if Thomas Dolby has signed on to produce the album?

mp3: Ice Choir – Two Rings (found on LIFE079)

Everybody’s Happy Nowadays

October 9, 2011 at 10:07 am | Posted in Funhouse, Gigs, Music, Punk Rock, Seattle | Leave a comment
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Jacuzzi Boys, TV Ghost & Love Tan at the Funhouse, Seattle | 7 October 2011

The second album from Miami, F-L-A’s Jacuzzi Boys is one of those records that demonstrates a band taking a giant leap from their previous record. Their first album No Seasons which came out Florida’s Dying back in 2009 was kind of all over the place. I mean that in a good way because the places that it was coming from were good places to originate. It just didn’t have a cohesiveness to it. It seemed like they knew what sounded good, but hadn’t yet gotten the three minute pop song thing down yet.
Sometime in between screws were tightened, chops were honed, and Buzzcocks albums were studied. Glazin’ is a record that owes much to that Manchester punk band whether it knows it or not. Singer and guitarist Gabriel Alcala even sounds like Pete Shelley, and their short sharp shards cut right to your skull’s pleasure center just like Singles Going Steady still does.

Their set last night at the Funhouse was blistering and glazin’. Right from the start people were slamming and jamming. The Funhouse is a punk rock dive bar, but more often than not people don’t seem to treat it that way. Last night they did, and it wasn’t just guys. The pit was half girls rocking out to the band. Adhering to rule number 10 in Robert Forsters‘ 10 Rules of Rock and Roll: “The three-piece band is the purest form of rock and roll expression”, the Jacuzzi Boys were tight making every song cut to the quick. Friday night they were real life proof that executed properly rule number 10 is no lie. There ain’t no studio trickery behind the curtain on Glazin’. These guys are the real deal. Alcala has a funny Ramones/Comic book guy persona where he has something weird he says after each song. Nothing hilarious, just weird-isms that make it obvious that this guys is operating at a different frequency than the rest of us. I hope the Jacuzzi Boys keep it tuned to that frequency because they are dialing in something special. Go see ‘em if they’re in your town.

mp3: Jacuzzi Boys – Automatic Jail

mp3: Jacuzzi Boys – Cool Vapors

If you haven’t got their new album yet, Hardly Art has it for sale.

Lafayette, Indiana’s TV Ghost got revved up everyone into a stupor with their unhinged Cramps/Scientists/Birthday Party cave stomp. Singer Tim Gick with his Gene Vincent hairdo has this thing where he rolls his eyes back when he sings making himself look possessed by some demon or other. He also displays uncanny cat-like balance. He has the ability to concoct his lanky frame in ways that most humans would fall flat on their backs trying. I found myself transfixed with these abilities and sometimes forgot about the music wondering how he was defying gravity. Eventually gravity did get him when he careened into the drum set, but that only happened once. It obviously took a lot out of him, because after their set he crouched in a corner, exhausted trying to recover.

mp3: TV Ghost – Doppleganger (from Mass Dream)

Seattle’s Love Tan preceded TV Ghost. It had been a while since I’d seen them, but they have gotten better. I recognized a lot of the songs from their album Miscellaneous Night Feelings which came out a few years ago. The songs seemed to have had time to gel or they’ve just had more time to practice. In any case, their set left me hoping that there’s more to come from them.

Swiftumz 4EVA

October 6, 2011 at 10:08 pm | Posted in Bedroom Troubadours, Frisco, Music | Leave a comment
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Chris McVicker, aka Swiftumz seems to get compared with the current crop of lo-fi starry eyed bedroom popsters like Ariel Pink/John Maus/Stevie Moore. Those guys don’t have a patent on that style of course. Those of us older than 22 will remember the lo-fi Baby Bird records, the Busy Signals, His Name is Alive and ESP Summer albums from the past 20 years that utilized the same aesthetic. Whatever your point of reference, Don’t Trip the first album from McVicker’s Swiftumz persona is well worth checking out.

The aesthetic is introverted lo-fi, but the pallet is much broader for this San Francisco bedroom troubadour. Too Many Friends uses the same brush that Felt (or the Tyde) used on Ballad of the Band. More Than Sleep is an impression of Darklands Jesus & Mary Chain and Tuff Guy & If U Were Mine steal a few brushstrokes from NoBunny.

Don’t Trip willingly and effortlessly reveals it’s charms. Good records are always about the songs and Swiftumz definitely has those, the adornments are just icing on the cake.


Swiftumz’ Don’t Trip is available directly from Holy Mountain.

stream: Swiftumz – Angelita

stream: Swiftumz – Too Many Friends

Erik Blood Goes To the Movies

October 3, 2011 at 10:00 pm | Posted in Movies, Music, Seattle, Soundtracks | Leave a comment
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A couple years ago Erik Blood, former member of Seattle’s Turn-Ons, released his first solo album The Way We Live that deftly combined elements of shoegaze and soul music. The Way We Live was one of my favorite albums of 2009. If you missed it head over to Blood’s bandcamp page to rectify that oversight.

It’s been two years since that record, in the meantime Blood has been busy in the production/recording chair doing records with the Moondoggies and Shabbaz Palaces. He has now turned his golden ear back to his own music, writing the music for a Brazilian movie called Center of Gravity.  Now that we are all connected by tiny chips behind our ears, an album that is mostly unknown in its own hometown can make its way down to Brazil to a film director.  That director Steven Richter can hear it and think, damn,this guy’s music would be great for my film.

The music for the soundtrack has a predominantly ambient feel which permeates much of this mostly instrumental album. Seven of the ten tracks are instrumentals and each one is overwhelming evidence that Blood is up to the task of doing a soundtrack. Some of the tracks are sound landscapes that wouldn’t be out of place on a Cocteau Twins or Blue Nile album, while others like Shut the Fuck Up create a ruckus similar to Radiohead‘s The National Anthem. A couple even have a Henri Mancini feel to them with their lush playful strings. The songs where Blood lends his voice are bound to be the ones that most will gravitate to first (and likely leaving you wanting more). Or Am I Wrong and So Many Things up the romance level of the album significantly. Making this record the equivalent to having an aphrodisiac in your stereo, and a perfect one to fit into your arsenal of romance records right beside those Cocteau Twins and Blue Nile records.

For those wondering what’s next for Mr. Blood, he’s promising a new non-soundtrack album for early next year.

 

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