Sally Suicide who come from Norway and have just released their second 7 inch on Oslo Grammofon. It incorporates hazy psychedelia and droning guitars that I wouldn’t necessarily call shoegaze, but it reminds me of a couple bands that were kind of on the periphery of that scene like the House of Love and Ultravivid Scene. The A-side is a bright sunny pop song with a chorus that reminds me of the Who’s Mary Anne With the Shakey Hand for obvious reasons. The B-side has a penchant for the more straightforward pop side of Sonic Youth. It starts off as a droner but turns into a swirling, Byrdsian drugged out storm. It’s a vast improvement from their first single that came out two years ago on We Hate. Looks like taking two years off between singles was brilliant move.
Anyone familiar with F.M. Corong’s East River Pipe knows what kind of beautiful melancholy that can pour out of a life-long east coaster. I always thought that the stereotypical laid-back west coaster wasn’t capable of creating something sounding anything like an East River Pipe. Of course my assumption is wrong, tales of heartache and depression are universal. Devon Williams who comes from La-La-Los Angeles reiterates that point with his solitary and suffering songs. This isn’t the first we’ve heard of this dour fellow, you may recognize him from Lavender Diamond, Champagne Socialists (now called Neverever), or heard his album Carefree from last year that came out on Ba Da Bing. Just as Sarah Records snapped up East River Pipe, Slumberland has nabbed Mr. Williams and the first fruits of this destined marriage is a 7 inch single with a an album coming sometime in the near future.
Grand Archives at the Crocodile, Seattle | 24 September 2009
Saying a band will make you ache with sadness is not really a much of an impetus for getting you out of the house to see a gig. A review that states they melted my face with their insane rock might do a better job of that, but Grand Archives make slow and sad pretty damn engaging. Their songs slowly build like a steam engine making it’s way from the station. Before you know it the song has filled the room with and taken over your conscious. At first glance you might think a band like Grand Archives shouldn’t be starting a gig too late for fear of lullaby-ing the audience to sleep, but the band not coming out until just before midnight appeared confident in their powers of arousal and stimulating consciousness.
Like they do on their new album Grand Archives started things off with the double ukulele attack of Topsy’s Revenge. One uke is always a treat, but as they say, two is always better than one, and then when you add in the bass hum of the cello, you pretty much cannot go wrong even if the song’s subject matter is Thomas Edison electrocuting an elephant. Grand Archives can make just about anything sound heart wrenchingly beautiful, mostly is because Mat Brooke’s voice just sounds achingly sad. He could sing a song about winning the lottery and ending world hunger and it would still be tinged with autumnal sadness. Since they were playing a hometown record release gig, they had the luxury of bringing Mat Brooke’s former Carissa’s Weird band mate Jenn Ghetto (Ghetto’s band S was on the bill this night as well) on stage to sing on a couple songs which was not only a thrill to see, but kind of mini-reunion. Grand Archives have been known for a choice cover or two and tonight we got a surprising version of ELO‘s Telephone Line, except where Jeff Lynne and his band flourished the song with cheesy synth electronic flourishes, Brooke and his band gave us a straightforward harmony laden version. As with the first their first album, it took seeing the songs live to really appreciate them, though I think that the band have done a better job on their new one Keep In Mind Frankenstein of nailing their live selves. And Yeah, they easily kept me awake past my bedtime.
Sep 26 BILTMORE VANCOUVER, British Columbia
Sep 28 THE BIG DIPPER SPOKANE, Washington
Sep 29 HABITAT KELOWNA, British Columbia
Sep 30 PALOMINO CALGARY, Alberta
Oct 1 STARLIGHT EDMONTON, Alberta
Oct 2 LOUIS PUB SASKATOON, Saskatchewan
Oct 3 PYRAMID WINNIPEG, Manitoba
Oct 5 HIGH NOON SALOON MADISON, Wisconsin
Oct 6 BEACHLAND TAVERN CLEVELAND, Ohio
Oct 7 JOHNNY BRENDA’S PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania
Oct 8 LE POISSON ROUGE NYC, New York
Oct 9 SOUTHPAW BROOKLYN, New York
Oct 10 GREAT SCOTT BOSTON, Massachusetts
Oct 12 IRON HORSE NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts
Oct 13 CLUB METRONOME BURLINGTON, Vermont
Oct 14 GREEN ROOM MONTREAL, Quebec
Oct 15 MOD CLUB TORONTO, Ontario
Oct 16 PIKE ROOM PONTIAC, Michigan
Oct 17 SCHUBAS CHICAGO, Illinois
Oct 19 7th STREET ENTRY MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota
Oct 22 KILBY COURT SALT LAKE CITY, Utah
Oct 23 NEUROLUX BOISE, Idaho
Nov 12 CREPE PLACE SANTA CRUZ, California
Nov 13 BOOTLEG THEATRE LOS ANGELES, California
Nov 14 DETROIT BAR COSTA MESA, California
Nov 17 PLUSH TUCSON, Arizona
Nov 18 RHYTHM ROOM PHOENIX, Arizona
Nov 19 LAUNCHPAD ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico
Nov 20 LARIMER LOUNGE DENVER, Colorado
Buck up everyone summer is over and it’s time to get back to work. We here at the Finest Kiss loath work, but we do what we’ve gotta do to get by. If you need a little something to get by this may be just the thing. To quote Mick Jones, It’s multipurpose in a jar, If you ain`t ill it`ll fix your car. So carry it around with you, put it in your car, stuff it away into cupboards because you never know when you might need it.
You are most likely aware of the Hype Machine. It’s that magical thing that indexes all the songs that music blogs post. You may not know that the Hype Machine has a radio show (created by the fine folks that use to do Blog Fresh Radio). Well it does and guess what, yours truely is on it blabbing about the unparalleled BOAT. Hear me wax ineloquently about the many facets of BOAT. We talk about their new record Setting the Paces, their confetti strewn gigs, and the pleasures of maritime travel. It’s more fun than a barrel of boats. Since were talking BOAT, I hear their record is gonna hit stores on October 27 and that the vinyl is going to be orange. I also hear they’ve got a killer extravaganza planned for their not one but two record release shows. One at Neumo’s on 22 October and then on 5 November down in Portland. In the interim you can either catch them at Urban Outfitters in Seattle this coming Saturday or listen to Hype Machine Radio. If you don’t live in Seattle I would recommend the latter.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & Depreciation Guild at Neumo’s, Seattle | 15 September 2009 Photo from Joshc’s flickr stream
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are currently riding a relative wave of popularity. I say relative for a few reasons. With the exception of maybe the Vivian Girls they are by far the most popular band today that plays Sarah, C-86, and (early) Creation influenced indiepop, a genre of music that has always had cult following, but never much more than that. The only band that I can think of that was as popular doing the same thing was Velocity Girl in the early 90’s (Archie Moore of Velocity Girl mixed the POBPAH album). Their gig at Neumo’s last night was well attended, but by no means sold out, but just the idea of The Pains getting booked at larger venues, playing summer festivals and getting people genuinely excited about music is one that redeems my faith in pop culture. Usually fans of indiepop are relegated to the dive bars, basements and ad hoc house venues to see their favorite bands play.
The opportunity to see a band like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart headline a big-time venue is one that doesn’t happen very often, so I should enjoy it right? Well, that’s what I did, and so did everyone else at Neumo’s last night. The kids (and old folks) danced and pogo’d to the likes of Come Saturday, Young Adult Friction, Everything With You and This Love Is Fucking Right. Front guy Kip Berman seems like kind of a sweet, sly guy. He looks like someone you’d want your teenage daughter to bring home, but when you started reading his lyrics you begin to have second thoughts. He greeted everyone with a shy How’s It Goin’ and then joked about stealing Mudhoney‘s effects pedal, either superfuzz or bigmuff. The band stopped mid-set when Kip said he couldn’t believe that they had forgotten to play their song Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan. They remedied that immediately and then went straight into their self-titled theme song. In my perfect world every band would a self-titled theme song, and the Pains’ theme song easily puts them in my perfect world with its anthem like refrain “we will never die, no no we will never die”. We all went crazy in our own sedated, elated and introverted indiepop ways. It was a time.
Opening the night was the Depreciation Guild (Cymbals Eat Guitars who were also on the bill were hit with a bad case of food poisoning, a burrito apparently, and had to cancel). Depreciation Guild are two fifths of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Pains’ drummer Kurt Feldman plays guitar and sings while Pains’ second guitarist Christoph Hochheim plays guitar and his twin brother Anton Hochheim drums. The Depreciation Guild are shoegazers true and blue, and on record their songs are blissed out fuzz fests with Feldman possessing a voice that reminds me a little of the late Keith Girdler of Blueboy. Their set was good, but the songs came off sounding like they were the same song again and again. I think this may be their first time playing live extensively, so I’ll chalk it up to growing pains because their 7 inch single that’s currently available from Kanine records is pretty nice.
Fanfarlo at Chop Suey, Seattle | 14 September 2009
The stage was set like a Wes Anderson movie. Fanfarlo had criss-crossed the ceiling with ropes holding triangular flags, strings of lights enclosed stage like a picture frame and bagged lights were set around on amps and in between the band. I kind of had a good feeling about Fanfarlo when I saw that they had brought with them a mandolin, violin, trumpet, melodica, clarinet, glockenspiel and a saw. With that diversity of instruments, you know at the very least it will be interesting. The show started with three of the band on stage and an acoustic rendition of Drowning Men. After that introduction, the remaining three members joined the others on stage. The band were not quite dressed in costume, but they all had the look of just having finished play practice. With all the band on the still dimly lit stage, the drum march of I’m a Pilot started, and when the piano came in, the usually dark and dour Chop Suey stage came to life with the bright strings of lights glowing to match the sound of the band. It was eye popping, you could hear gasps from the audience and feel smiles come across everyone’s face as Fanfarlo and their little Wes Anderson movie set came to life.
Fanfarlo get compared to Arcade Fire quite a lot, but where Arcade Fire are all about pomp and bombast, Fanfarlo soften the corners coming across as a warmer friendlier band. They can sound big, but they also know how to do quiet. They all seem to be able to play multiple instruments, and apparently get tired of playing the same thing all the time based on all the switching off they did, and that restlessness spread to audience during the encore, when the band brought out hollow plastic whistling tubes and handed them out to various audience members for the song Ghost. It was just about perfect (except for ducking a few times) with the whistling forming and eerie bed of sound over which the band played. Like the stage set up, it was just another example of the band making a big impact with tiny props.
It was a Monday night, but Chop Suey was pretty full for a UK band touring the US with no album out yet. The majority of the people there must have been fans, because after the first encore the audience demanded another song. The house music and lights were coming on but everyone persisted and the band obliged. I rarely see a genuine encore, but this indeed was one, and the band were a little taken aback. They weren’t sure that they even knew another song that they could play, but they pulled out the A-side to their second single You Are One Of The Few Outsiders Who Really Understands Us. It may be the poppiest song they have, and just like the rush of the opening I’m a Pilot this put a smile on everyone’s face. In a lot of ways a gig is like a salesman making a sale, it’s all about the presentation, and Fanfarlo have got it down, visually and sonically.
Here are the remaining dates of their all too short US tour:
Popscene, San Francisco – September 17
Kungfu Necktie, Philadelphia – September 20
Bowery Ballroom, New York – September 21
Bell House, Brooklyn – September 22
Lately I’ve been on this Primitives, Darling Buds, Rosehips kick. The last couple summer months if you’d have been over, you more than likely would have been subjected to the sweet sounds of fuzzy guitars that jangle a little and sweet vixen croons from the likes of Tracy Tracy, Andrea Lewis or Yoland. All of those bands were circa C-86, with the Primitives and Darling Buds going on a bit longer making records into the early 90’s, but largely that sound has been in hibernation since then. Sure the Manhattan Suicides and the Vivian Girls kinda sound like them, but neither was as polished or overtly poppy as their late 80’s predecessors.
Luckily someone has seen fit to put together a band that puts a femme fatal singing on top of the buzz and jangle of a Rickenbacker. That someone is Laz McLuskey of Bubblegum Lemonade and his side project Strawberry Whiplash. Their second EP has just been released by Santa Barbara indiepop purveyors Matinée Records. Laz is joined in Strawberry Whiplash by Sandra who plays the role of Femme Fatal to Laz’s Fred MacMurray. Don’t worry, there’s no film noir ending where someone dies and someone goes to prison. It all ends happily, albeit too soon on their new four song EP Picture Perfect.
Allmusic describes them as neo-psychedelic jangle pop, the Trouser Press said they established a distinctive sound above the din of C-86 janglomania. Others claimed they were part Orange Juice, the Church, Only Ones and Echo and the Bunnymen. Whatever the case, Scottland’s Close Lobsters were stuff of which legends are made. Unlike so many other bands that get labeled with the C-86 tag, the Close Lobsters were actually on that hallowed NME cassette. Their song Firestation Towers was included on the compilation, and soon after they signed to Fire records and put out their first proper single, I’m Going to Heaven to See If It Rains. Then in a matter of three years, Two albums, an EP and a bunch of singles, poof! They were gone. Along with Animals that Swim and Moose, the Close Lobsters are one of those bands that I’ve always hoped for a reunion and a surprise new record. A reunion doesn’t look too promising as lead Lobster Andrew Burnett has gone off in an enirely different direction with his latest project CLS Kunstwerk, but the Close Lobsters do have sort of a surprise new record coming.
Their two albums Foxheads Stalk This Land and Headache Rhetoric are well worth seeking out. Foxheads was reissued a few years ago, but Headache Rhetoric is shamefully out of print. Both of these records as well as the What Is There To Smile About EP still get frequent play in my house. I knew that there were a lot of stray singles, b-sides and compilation tracks that the band had released, and I’ve always hoped that someone would compile all these lost jems and put them out. It seems that the band and their label have been thinking that there are enough people like me to actually go and release a record that does just that. The CD is titled Forever, Until Victory! It’s due to come out in October on Fire, and on it you can expect to get that C-86 track, first two pre-album singles Going To Heaven To See If It Rains and Never Seen Before, nearly all of the What Is There To Smile About EP as well as stellar covers of Neil Young’s Hey Hey My My (Into the Black), the Only Ones‘ Wide Waterways, and Leonard Cohen’s Paper Thin Hotel. If you already have all of these songs in one format or another, then maybe the fact the two of the Lobsters themselves (Andrew Burnett and Graeme Wilmington) have remastered all of the tracks. Most likely if you are a longtime fan this will fill in the gaps. If you’re someone looking for and introduction to a great band from the 80’s this is good place to start. Either way, there is lots to smile about.
You may remember (I hope you do) the danish band the Elephants who put out a very fine debut album back in December of 2007. Yeah, I know that’s a while ago in the music blog time continuum, but in the real world it’s not all that long ago. The Danish band are back with album number two. It’s called Take It! named probably for some back handed comment on how you don’t buy music these days, you take it. Well, as far as I can tell their new album has yet to leak, so you’ll have to suck it up and plunk down a few hard earned dollars and actually buy it. Why would you want to actually buy the new Elephants album you ask? Well, if you liked the last one, it’s a no-brainer, or if you’re a sucker for a sweet Scandinavian pop songs you may be at risk. The only song that really sounds like it could have been on their first album is the title track. The rest of it is more mature and confident with the band slowing things down and injecting some space into their songs, inviting you to turn up the volume to hear everything they’re piping through your tiny headphones. I compared them to Moose and Peter Bjorn and John back in 2007 and those seem to still be pretty good points of reference. Last time around the album was pretty difficult to find, only getting released in Germany. This time around there’s a US release on 15 September, in the meantime here’s an mp3. Go ahead, take it!
the finest kiss 