Category: MP3s

This Week’s Finds: January 7-13 (Arcade Fire, Looker, Ron Sexsmith)

“Black Mirror” – Arcade Fire

Only a couple of times every half-generation or so are rock fans treated to music from a band so sure and firm and complete that they sound only like themselves even as each song introduces new aspects of their sound. After just one CD–2004’s Funeral—Arcade Fire appeared to be one of these bands. This song, from their much-anticipated second release, Neon Bible, suggests this Montreal septet is the real thing indeed. Over an ominous opening rumble, acoustic guitars strum a couple of insistent, unresolved chords and I’m immediately intrigued. Win Butler then lends his distinctive warble to a solid, descending melody as a vague, indescribable sound roils around him and then, check it out: a piano, somewhat distantly, pounds out four ascending (again unresolved) notes, withdraws, returning to underpin the abbreviated chorus (just the words “black mirror” repeated). See, one of the things this band does so well–and uniquely, I think—is use their instruments orchestrally, employing recurring themes as motifs that are not simply the melody the singer is singing. Another asset on display is how Arcade Fire songs can effortlessly spin out in unanticipated directions. Listen, for instance, to the dramatic turn taken at 1:20—Butler’s voice leaps up into that “I may be coming unhinged” range while dynamic chords forge into surprising new territory before linking at 1:37 back to the chorus (1-2-3-4! goes the piano). Don’t miss another turn at 2:17, when Butler sings an emphatic French phrase over an increasingly frenetic but still indescribable musical background; and then, ahh!, the offhandedly marvelous theme the strings play from 3:12 (announced by that great dissonant trill at 3:11), leading the song back into the ominous rumble we started with. Neon Bible is due out in early March on Merge Records; the MP3 is available in a hidden sort of way via the band’s mysterious site via BetterPropaganda.


“Tickle My Spine” – Looker

Punchy, uncomplicated punk-pop with an undercurrent of something richer and inscrutably appealing. I like how the head-knocking rhythm of the verse alternates with a just slightly swingier feel, almost like a sped-up Supremes song, in the chorus. Singer/guitarist Boshra AlSaadi has a voice at once higher and musically stronger than one usually hears from a woman heading a hard-rocking unit like this one. Having fellow guitarist (and band co-founder) Nicole Greco on backing vocals adds a pleasing richness to the brisk, careening vibe. In fact, three of the band’s four members are women (only the drummer is male), which messes up music writers seeking to put them in either the well-worn “girl-band” box (Go-Gos, Donnas, etc.) or the “woman singer/male band” box (Blondie, Garbage, etc.). Haven’t seen anyone put them in the Elastica box but there at least was one other band with three women and one man, at least for some of its life, for what it’s worth. “Tickle My Spine” is a song dating back to Looker’s 2004 EP, On the Pull; after hitting the studio in 2006 to record some demos with none other than Richard Gottehrer (who produced the debut CDs for both Blondie and the Go-Gos), Looker is set to release its first full-length CD, Born Too Late, later this week. The MP3 is available via the band’s site. Thanks to the Deli for the lead.


“And Now the Day is Done” – Ron Sexsmith

One of the most talented singer/songwriters of his generation, Ron Sexsmith writes wondrous, lasting songs with apparent ease, but without (yet?) a lot of widespread recognition outside of his native Canada. I’ve stopped trying to figure out how he can keep writing so many good songs without resorting to studio trickery or drastic stylistic alteration, but ten albums into his recording career he seems endlessly able to amuse himself with a guitar, a cache of sturdy chords, and a direct vocabulary of plain words delivering heartfelt messages. Clearly his singing voice serves him well, to begin with—that achy, rounded tenor of his, as warm and tremulous as Tim Hardin’s or Jeff Buckley’s but with a touch of someone else entirely, like maybe Jackson Browne or, more obliquely, Elvis Costello. And even as his songs have been produced in various ways, often in a band setting, sometimes with flourishes like horn charts or strings, what remains front and center are his dual core talents as singer and songwriter. The elegiac “And Now the Day is Done” is Sexsmith at his quietest and prettiest, but listen carefully to discern how beautifully produced it is—what sounds like a stark guitar and voice number is given great depth and warmth by subtle embellishments deep down in the mix, not to mention Sexsmith’s deft touch as a guitarist (check out that glistening hammer-on at 2:48). “And Now the Day is Done” is the final song on his CD Time Being, which was released back in May in Canada, finally to be coming out in the U.S. tomorrow on Ironworks Music, an independent label co-owned by Kiefer Sutherland (really) and Jude Cole. The new CD was produced by Mitchell Froom, who had his hand on the knobs for Sexsmith’s marvelous first three CDs; among the musicians playing on the album are Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher, from Elvis Costello’s band the Impostors. MP3 is available via Salon.

This Week’s Finds: Dec. 31-Jan. 6 (The Thermals, The Winks, Eastern Conference Champions)

“Here’s Your Future” – the Thermals

Let’s hit the ground running here in ’07, shall we? Bracing and uncompromising, “Here’s Your Future” is a two-and-a-half-minute blast of literate, crafty 21st-century punk rock from a band that walks the walk. (The Thermals made news early last year for turning down a $50,000 request from Hummer to use a song of theirs in a commercial.) Fueled by a fast five-chord guitar riff, “Here’s Your Future” is both bleak and poignant; the song offers only the comfort (if you can call it that) of standing up and facing uncomfortable facts in a world incapable of saving itself, a world that looks again and again for salvation in exactly the wrong place (note opening chord from the church organ). Singer/guitarist Hutch Harris pummels his guitars and sings without quite singing while bassist Kathy Foster plays one-woman rhythm section—the band had lost its original drummer late last year so that’s Foster bashing away on the drums as well. (Since recording, they’ve enlisted a new drummer and are back to being a trio.) From Portland, Oregon, the Thermals have been at it since 2002; “Here’s Your Future” is the lead track from The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop), the band’s third CD. While not necessarily a concept album, this one features songs that apparently envision the U.S. as being governed by Christian fascists. Not sure how much envisioning that took. The MP3 is available via the Sub Pop site.

“Guitar Swing” – The Winks

At the core of this peculiar but compelling song is the primordially affecting two-chord progression that works magic just about wherever it goes: this is the one where a major tonic chord alternates with the minor mediant chord—that’s the I and the iii, as they say in music theory land. In “Guitar Swing,” the chords underpin a cryptic song with an insistent beat and the unusual if not unique instrumental combination of cello and mandolin. In a wavery tenor that sounds, somehow, both heartbroken and indifferent, singer/mandolinist Todd MacDonald intersperses the largely impenetrable lyrics with Delphic pronouncements–“Sleepers know the facts”; “Tuxedos are only as strong as your heart”—that engage and mystify simultaneously. Meanwhile, bandmate Tyr Jami uses her cello both as rhythmic texture and melodic color, and sings a bit too, with a smiley-er tone than her partner. Don’t miss the “wa-wa” duet section, beginning at 2:23, during which MacDonald and Jami explore the I-iii alternation with earnest whimsy. The Winks are a Montreal-based duo that use a rotating cast of 13 musicians to fill in as needed. “Guitar Swing” is a track off the band’s Birthday Party CD, which was released on Ache Records in November. Birthday Party is the band’s second full-length, widely released CD, but their eighth CD in all (the first five were limited-edition CD-Rs; they’ve also done a split with their side-project, Tights). The MP3 is via the Ache site.

“Hollywood” – Eastern Conference Champions

Any band combining gorgeous melody with ghostly electronics is going to bring Radiohead to mind at this point, and the suburban Philadelphia band Eastern Conference Champions certainly does that here. I will note—as I have in the past—that it is no sin for one band to remind us of another; I always believe a good song is a good song. “Hollywood” is a very good song indeed, its delicate, soaring melody telling an elusive tale of loss and disappointment, accompanied only by percussion and synths and maybe some samples. I like how the song feels expressive and expansive and even organic without any guitar in the mix. Maybe it has something to do with the sleighbells. Lead singer Josh Ostrander has a thin, high voice, not unlike Thom Yorke’s, that sometimes crackles with syllable shifts; he is joined here on backing vocals by Maura Davis of the group Ambulette, a nice touch that accentuates the lullaby-like nature of the song (as do those sleighbells) while creating a little distance from the Radiohead-ish vibe. The song can be found on ECC’s debut EP, The Southampton Collection, was released on Retone Records back in March. The band was signed shortly thereafter to Suretone Records, but what a difference two letters make—Suretone is an offshoot of Interscope Records, part of the Geffen family. ECC’s next full-length will be out on Suretone this spring.

This Week’s Finds: December 10-16 (Andy Partridge, Amy Winehouse, Sam Phillips)

“Sonic Boom” – Andy Partridge

As buoyant, crisp, and driven as any number of great XTC songs Partridge wrote in his years as that seminal British band’s principal singer and songwriter. And why shouldn’t it be? This was one of more than 100 songs Partridge had accumulated over a couple of decades that never made it to an XTC album for a variety of reasons. They’ve come to the light of day, along with many alternate recordings of songs XTC did release, on the eight so-called Fuzzy Warbles CDs Partridge has released over the last three years or so. The series has been gathered this fall into one spiffily-designed boxed set (The Fuzzy Warbles Collector Album) that is a crazy overload of songwriting goodness for XTC devotees. From disc number seven, “Sonic Boom” is an ode to loud music—in particular to the role an electric guitar can play in the redemption of a listless teenager—that is not itself, cleverly, a particularly raucous song. (After all, extolling the virtues of loud music in a really loud song would not speak to the unconverted.) Instead we get cheerful, crunchy pop with a really great guitar sound. For me, the siren-like riffs that ring from the intro are the key to the song’s presence and depth. Listen in particular to the second verse, beginning around 0:55, and how the guitar at that point remains in that higher register to puncutate the lyrics with semi-dissonant squawks. And then, wow, the concise guitar solo, from 1:37 to 1:55, is a brilliant bit of controlled chaos that might pass you right by if you don’t pay close attention. As with the vast majority of the songs on all the Fuzzy Warbles CD, the irrepressible Partridge does all the singing and playing.

“Rehab” – Amy Winehouse

I find three things about this song irresistible. First, the glistening retro sound: from the snazzy horn charts and string flourishes to the big drum beats and Winehouse’s sharp, spacious, soulful vocal, everything blends to deliver a loving ’60s sheen that manages at the same time to sound current and new rather than merely nostalgic. Second, that cockeyed refrain in the chorus—the way she drags her recalcitrant “no, no, no” (alternately: “go, go, go”) just a bit off the beat is nutty and beguiling. I don’t know why. The third wonderful thing is how Winehouse–who is quite the notorious (and loose-lipped) carouser over there in the U.K.–manages to turn a song about going through an alcohol recovery program (or, rather, not) into an almost gospel-like stomper. There’s something poignant in the effort, despite the swagger in Winehouse’s voice. “Rehab” is the opening track off Back to Black, the young singer/songwriter’s second CD. Her first album, Frank, came out in 2003 when she was just 20. That one was a jazz-inflected effort that she has since been quoted as saying is an album she never liked. Her new one is shot through with Phil Spector-meets-Motown girl-group sounds from the early ’60s; if “Rehab” is any indication, Winehouse is a well-suited practitioner of that distinctive musical vocabulary. Released on Island Records in the U.K. in October, Back to Black is scheduled for a March release here in the States, on Universal.

“Reflecting Light” – Sam Phillips

Sam Phillips is a musical hero of mine; few if any singer/songwriters I’ve encountered can match her ability to capture poetic insights, sometimes bordering on the genuinely mystical, within the everyday, agreeable realm of the three-minute pop song. Her Beatlesque 1994 masterpiece, Martinis & Bikinis, was a triumph of songwriting and production; her two CDs (so far) of the 21st century have found her working in a starker, quieter setting, with acoustic instruments–the songs on both Fan Dance (2001) and A Boot and a Shoe (2004) often sound as if they were laid down in one room, in one take. A sweet, melancholy waltz from the latter CD, “Reflecting Light” shines with sad spirit and forlorn dignity; there’s a ’20s-like brio to the string arrangement, while hard-earned enlightenment runs through its lyrical veins: “Give up the ground under your feet/Hold onto nothing for good/Turn and run at the mean dogs chasing you/Stand alone and misunderstood.” Phillips’ association with the TV show Gilmore Girls—she wrote the show’s original score and her songs have been prominently featured–has given this song a second life and a slew of fans she would have otherwise never reached. Her next CD, apparently to be called Don’t Do Anything, will be released some time in 2007. And not a moment too soon.

This Week’s Finds: December 3-9 (Megan Palmer, A Passing Feeling, Maia Hirasawa)

“Angelo” – Megan Palmer

Smart piano-based pop that puts me in the mind of Jonatha Brooke both for its savvy songwriting—this thing has both bounce and venom—and for Palmer’s vocal style; she sings with something of Brooke’s timbre and sometimes crack-voiced phrasing, without at all sounding like a knock-off. Palmer is a violinist, of all things, and her instrument adds a nice depth to the unfolding of the song—listen for instance to its role in the instrumental part of the bridge that begins at 1:29. The violin is typically an ensemble instrument, whether playing in classical, country, or (occasionally) rock, and it strikes me that violinists may therefore have a leg up when it comes to knowing how to blend instruments into a cohesive whole. In any case, Palmer does a great job of that here, using the piano, violin, electric guitar, and percussion with great aplomb. One nice example is how the song emerges from the bridge at around 2:10: first a chime plays a lazy three-note melody (I kept thinking the doorbell was ringing when I initially heard that), out of which the violin emerges, slurring in with an answering couple of notes, underneath which the guitar then plays its own little dancey variation. It’s a small but indicative moment in a song that’s both immediately appealing and satisfyingly substantive. “Angelo” is a song from Palmer’s debut CD, Forget Me Not, which was released this summer on tiny Sunken Treasure Records. The MP3 is available via her site.

“Red Gold” – A Passing Feeling

This is one of those “you had me at the intro” songs: the ringing chords, hinting at but not quite utilizing dissonance and/or feedback, and so carefully placed in that universally appealing 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3 pattern—but actually no, they extend past the “obvious” resolution with chord number seven of the progression and manage to re-resolve with an additional, eighth chord. This NYC-based quartet will hang the entire song upon this series of nicely articulated chords and it works because of what it sounds like when Brian Miltenberg starts spitting out the words: it sounds like his life depends upon every syllable. And I do mean spitting: he rivals Joe Strummer as the rock vocalist who for me most easily conjures visions of sweat and saliva hitting the microphone with each lyrical declaration. (This is a compliment by the way.) A Passing Feeling had a Fingertips Top 10 song earlier this year with “Book of Matches,” from their debut EP. Now they have a debut full-length CD called We Might Not Sleep At All This Year, which was released in November on 75 or Less Records. That’s where you’ll find “Red Gold”; the MP3 is up on the 75 or Less site.

“Roselin” – Maia Hirasawa

We’re back to the piano but this one is so charming and exquisite I needed to put it in the mix this week, figuring that separating the two songs with that blast of melodic indie-punk will kind of cleanse your palette. And in any case I can surely use the beauty right here and now, breathing it into me like a supple, restorative wine. “Roselin” starts daintily enough, heading almost but not quite towards preciousness, but right away with a great melodic sensibility. And I’ll tell you where it just slays me—mainlining the beauty part right here—is in the chorus, which has as winsome and plaintive a melody as I’ve heard in a long time: notes that sound ancient and familiar and fresh and coy; as a bonus (for me, anyway) it’s got a touch of early Jane Siberry about it, adding to the depth and charm. When she sings “Don’t know what I should do/What I should get”—ahhh. Just that: ahhhh (more h’s are useful). She even sings the “ahhh” for us right at that point: how convenient. Maia Hirasawa is a half-Swedish, half-Japanese musician who sings in English in Stockholm with an unplaceable accent; “Roselin” is from her self-released EP entitled My New Friend, which came out back in April (and is now sold out). The MP3 is available via the really impressive, information-packed blog It’s a Trap, which is devoted to Scandanavian music. Thanks to Avi over there for permission to link, and thanks too to Hedvika at the great Getecho blog for the original lead. Hirasawa by the way was recently since signed to the Stockholm-based Razzia Records and will have a full-length debut available in March 2007.

This Week’s Finds: Nov. 26-Dec. 2 (The Shins, Prototypes, Patrick Watson)

“Phantom Limb” – the Shins

Rarely have I heard a rock’n’roll songwriter sing inscrutable lyrics with such heartbreaking sincerity as the Shins’ front man, James Mercer. Over time I’ve decided it’s quite an alluring, perhaps even unique, attribute. Most if not all of pop music’s traffickers in willfully opaque lyrics sing with more emotional flatness, maybe a bit of an ironic smirk, or sometimes even aggressive overcompensation. But Mercer has figured out how to be sincere, even movingly sincere, while singing words that only intermittently (at best) reveal any straightforward meaning. Clearly he, at least, knows what he’s singing about–which is exactly what keeps me going back to tease out whatever meaning I can. And at that point, Mercer’s ability to write subtly beautiful melodies becomes another alluring feature of his songwriting. To think of his songs simply as “catchy” (Google “Shins” and “catchy” and check it out) sells Mercer way short, because he’s doing much more than writing songs to hum after one listen. As one example, listen to the secondary melody he uses from 0:18 to 0:24—it follows the ascendant opening melody, employing now a couple of minor chords to end the verse in an unresolved place, just in time to return to the surging melody that we began with, although even then he alters the tail of it a bit. I love too the unexpected falsetto note he hits at 0:58 and the subsequent turn the melody takes there in the middle of what is probably the chorus. It’s almost as if he’s writing classical motifs rather than pop melodies, and your ability to note them and hear when they recur greatly adds to the pleasure of your listening experience. “Phantom Limb” is the first single from the band’s much-anticipated third CD, Wincing the Night Away, which will be officially released next month on Sub Pop Records. The CD however has been “leaked” online as of October, causing much hubbub in blogoland. The MP3 is now available legally via the Sub Pop site.

“Décider” – Prototypes

A buzzy, deadpan, neo-new wave rave-up. The appeal here is all in the vibe: there’s something steely and electro going on with that astringent drumbeat and ringing guitar line; at the same time singer Isabel Le Doussal’s uninflected speak-singing in the verse adds something mysterious and earthy to the beat-driven proceedings, which churn away with unrelenting vigor. The chorus, meanwhile, adds enough melody and bouncy synthesizer to make the return of the steely-electro section seem appealingly inevitable. Keep your ears open for unexpected additions to the sonic palette: the percussive, off-kilter metallic accents at around 1:20, for instance; or the whistly, arcade-game chirping that pops up around 2:36; and is that an accordion near the end? I think maybe. Prototypes are a French trio with one full-length CD released so far in the U.S. “Décider” can be found on a new EP called Je Ne Te Connais Pas, released for free online last week by Minty Fresh Records.

“Giver” – Patrick Watson

I’m guessing there aren’t a lot of indie rockers who know who Steve Reich is; Montreal’s Patrick Watson has actually played with the man. This suggests the U.S.-born, Canada-raised pianist/singer/songwriter Patrick Watson is at the very least an interesting, multifaceted musician. “Giver” suggests he also knows a thing or two about writing and performing a stylish pop song. To begin with, there’s Watson’s rich, echoey tenor, which maintains its character even soaring occasionally into the falsetto-sphere. As I listen repeatedly I’m struck by the song’s great texture–without piling on instruments or effects, it delivers a gratifying sense of motion and change throughout. Some of that has to do with the effective use of time signature changes (relatively rare in three and a half minute rock tunes), and some may have to do with the underlying, Beatle-like sense of jauntiness in the air–the Beatles were nothing if not masters of texture in pop music. And okay maybe I have a soft spot for the guy because he loves Debussy. If more people loved Debussy the world would be a better place. “Giver” is a track from the CD Close to Paradise, which was released in Canada in September on Secret City Records; this is Watson’s third CD but Secret City’s very first release ever. The MP3 is available via the Secret City site. An American release is expected next month, although you can already buy it electronically via iTunes.

This Week’s Finds: Nov. 19-25 (The Casting Couch, Apes and Androids, Benjy Ferree)

“Song About Dying” – The Casting Couch

Have I been in a rut? Do I always put the quiet songs second? This has occurred to me. And maybe there’s nothing wrong with that. But this week I’m starting quiet, and maybe a little sad. Though not as sad as you’d think from the title. And it doesn’t stay completely quiet, either. I really like the variety of instruments that show up here—hand bells, clarinet, a horn of some sort, a (I think) theremin(!)–but even more I like how these instruments just kinda sorta play, they just do their thing without fuss, making an ensemble blending hand bells, clarinet, a horn of some sort and even maybe a theremin sound like well, yes, doesn’t everyone? Meanwhile, singer Wendy Mitchell has just the right sort of crack in her not-quite-twangy voice for this down-home alt-country meets chamber pop lullaby. The Casting Couch is based in Austin, but combines the talents of musicians from both Texas and Athens, Georgia. “Song About Dying” is from the band’s debut full-length CD, Row Your Boat, which was released on I Eat Records at the very end of last year. The MP3 is available via the I Eat site.


“Radio” – Apes and Androids

If this sounds at first like just another blippy bit of electro-rock sung by another nasally vocalist, well, okay, it is a blippy bit of electro-rock sung by a nasally vocalist—but it’s also a whole lot more. If you want a hand-hold, here’s one point that gave me a clue this was something significant: after the opening melody, where it sounds like it’s just a nasally guy singing blip-rock, check it out: at 0:23, a chorus of voices opens up, somewhat Queen-like but not exactly, and they’re not singing any words, just an extended “oh,” but oh what an “oh”–there are a copule of interesting descending lines and nice chords in there even as the lead singer joins in on top with a resolutely dissonant “counter-oh,” as it were. Whoa. And then: the initial melody returns but now there’s an awesome chord in there, somehow, at 0:43. Listen to that and and then best of all listen to how it comes back at 0:59 with backing harmonies. Whoa-ho. Soon a vaguely Middle Eastern synthed-up guitar lines plays against soaring harmonies, then stops for a gliding funk break and we regroup back into blippiness before a big bashy wash of sound closes things out, like some sort of robot orchestra kicking out the jams. This is seriously unusual and engaging, always a good combination. A relatively new band, Apes and Androids is from New York City and appears to be wowing live audiences wherever they go. “Radio” is available via the band’s web site NME. Perhaps you haven’t heard the last of these guys.


“In the Countryside” – Benjy Ferree

This one is weird (but enjoyable!) in a whole different way, as Washington, D.C.-based singer/songwriter Benjy Ferree gives us a crisp, head-bobbing ditty that sounds like an American version of a British music-hall romp, funneled through a nebulous ’60s filter (T. Rex? the Kinks? Thunderclap Newman??). This is, in any case, one style of old-timey music that Bob Dylan has yet to wrap his arms around. We get a bit of fiddle, a little whistling, and a guitar trying to sound like a tuba, but mostly we get Ferree’s high, appealingly robust voice—sounding not completely unlike Robert Plant, if he were on the front porch singing to the neighbor’s children, perhaps in Tennessee. “In the Countryside” is from Leaving The Nest (Domino Records), Ferree’s first CD, which was originally released in the D.C. area last year as an EP. The MP3 is via the Domino site.

This Week’s Finds: November 12-18 (31Knots, Nina Nastasia, Elanors)

“Sedition’s Wish” – 31Knots

Even as I am historically oriented towards the simple-sounding music that falls under the “pop” umbrella (the intelligent edge of the umbrella, in any case), I don’t think that anyone’s musical tastes are as rigid and unyielding as, say, American radio has long assumed. Sure, I love a smart and catchy pop song; but I also love something as dense and prickly as this song from the dense and prickly Portland, Ore.-based trio 31Knots. Mind you, I still need something to hook me, but the hooks don’t always have to be soaring melodies and warm-and-fuzzy chord changes. For instance, once I’m accustomed to it, the clumpy melody of the verse, mirrored simultaneously by a meticulous guitar, has its own special charm. It’s a careful-sounding, somewhat homely refrain that becomes the oddball backbone of this vaguely threatening song–and so even when the guitar explodes into almost incoherent noise (e.g. 1:14), note how you can still sing that central melody along with the noise, and how the noise halts at exactly the right moment for the refrain to return (1:25). My favorite iteration of the melody is in the middle of the song when an unexpected trumpet joins in (1:44), accompanying much as the guitar had originally, but not directly mirroring the vocal notes; instead it plays a semi-dissonant countermelody that gives a Kurt Weill-ish air to the proceedings, somehow. We get a bit more noise, a bit more horn, and then a smoother, flow-ier section as a coda. This is not a pop song, but it’s less than four minutes long; it’s not “catchy” but it sure engages me. “Sedition’s Wish” can be found on the band’s new EP, Polemics, which was released last week on Polyvinyl Records. The band also expects its fourth full-length CD, The Days and Nights of Everything Anywhere, to be released early next year. MP3 via Better Propaganda.

<“Bird of Cuzco” – Nina Nastasia

Hollywood-born, New York City-based singer/songwriter Nina Nastasia has a pretty, unadorned voice that brings Suzanne Vega to mind, a bit, but not precisely, as Nastasia sounds more ordinary on the one hand (Vega’s voice has always had an unearthly air) and yet also richer and rounder: the ordinary made extraordinary through breathtaking clarity and presence. Or something like that. This sad and stately acoustic guitar piece, adorned with cozy, precise piano accents, seems eerily aligned with the sort of day it’s been out my window today–a gray, rainy, wet-leaved day that looks dreary yet somehow also comforts; the day and the song alike manage to be melancholy and heartening at the same time, a feeling-state I’m not sure there’s a word for in English. “Bird of Cuzco” is from Nastasia’s CD On Leaving, her fourth, which was released in September on Fat Cat Records, a British label. As with her previous discs, Nastasia has teamed again with engineer Steve Albini (don’t call him a producer, he hates it), who has worked with a mighty range of alternative and indie musicians from the ’80s through the ’00s, including big names such as the Pixies, Nirvana, and P.J. Harvey. The MP3 is via Insound.

“She Had a Dream” – Elanors

Don’t miss the opening combination of insistent drumming and sugary strings, an uncommon juxtaposition that lends a curious vibe to this idiosyncratic and gorgeous piece of music. The Chicago-based duo Elanors, featuring singer/pianist Noah Harris and wife Adriel Harris on guitar and backing vocal, paint big orchestral pictures of a familiar-seeming yet singular variety. (For the CD, Elanors have borrowed two players from the band Judah Johnson, for whom Noah plays keyboards.) Brian Wilson comes to mind, partly because of the orchestral aspirations, but mostly because of just how in-its-own-world this song seems. Having spent a certain amount of time reacquainting myself with Pet Sounds in recent weeks, I was struck anew by how thoroughly peculiar a sonic reality it presents, a peculiarity rooted somewhere in the marriage of the songs he wrote, the voice he sung them in, and the instruments he employed and how he employed them. With Elanors, a similar sort of splendid peculiarity is in the air. Note for instance the drumming again, which with or without the strings is just plain unusual, keeping up as it does a unflagging but continuously inventive triplet rhythm, three beats for each beat of the 4/4 measure, until the very end (oh and don’t miss too that point, at 3:57, when the drum actually stops, just seconds before the end of the song; it’s almost a revelation). “She Had a Dream” is a song from the band’s second CD, Movements, released last month on Parasol Records. The MP3 is via the Parasol site.

This Week’s Finds: Nov. 5-11 (Tall Hands, Feathers, May Or May Not)

“Fifteen On Ice” – Tall Hands

Singer Justin Raisen has sure enough got Lou Reed’s blasé NYC dude delivery down pat, but with a twist: while Reed tended to sing as if the apocalypse were just around the corner (not that this fazed him, mind you), Raisen sounds as if he actually knows how to smile. Not that he is smiling, but that he knows how, he and the other five members of Tall Hands. You can hear it in the upbeat piano riff that drives the song forward, and most of all in the tumble of unruly rhymes Raisen lets forth. He rhymes “sarcophagus” with “none of this”; he rhymes “cover” and “recover.” And he likes rapid-fire rhyming, syllable-matching beyond even internal rhyming into something more manic: “Some kind of believer/total underachiever/dialing up a receiver/but the receiver won’t see ya/and I won’t see ya either.” Tall Hands is a six-man band with enough personality, or ego(s), to consider themselves their own new genre, which they have named “boat rock.” From what I’ve read so far it seems people are taking this as a joke, and maybe I’m crazy, but I actually hear it, and it starts in the banging piano background. If you want to hear it too, follow me specifically to the 2:02 mark and listen how the entire instrumental backing falls into step with that regular 1-2-3-4 piano beat, with nothing in between. The effect, for lack of a better word, is oceanic. I’m hearing some string sounds in here too, which accentuates the oceanic feeling. Close your eyes and check it out. Tall Hands released its self-titled EP a couple of weeks ago on the Pulse Recording label. The MP3 is via the Spin.com’s “band of the day” feature.

“Skara Brain” – Feathers

If the first 45 seconds or so of “Skara Brain” sound something like a small ensemble warming up, this is an ensemble the likes of which has not been heard too often before. We get a spaghetti-western-like guitar trading noodly licks with a cheery vibe, a combination that by itself makes this song worth listening to. And it’s only just beginning. Don’t miss too, in the introduction, the scratchy-echoey guitar noises, along with the electro-expando noises that sound like an old idea of what the future was going to sound like. Then we get a slinky beat, with psychedelic flourishes, and we’re off. Except of course a minute or so later when the song appears prematurely to be ending. No worries–it’s just an excuse for a new rash of strange sounds: scratchy-blippy-funky synthesizers, deep clownish drums, tinkly-pipey organs, and who knows what-all else. We never lose the beat after this; we also never lose the sense–difficult to attain in an instrumental–of the unexpected being ever around the corner. It’s sort of like an Almodovar movie, where you can never guess, scene to scene, what’s going to happen. Best of all, even though an instrumental, it definitely feels like a song, not just an extended groove. The trio from Miami calling themselves Feathers (not to be confused with Canada’s The Lovely Feathers) just had their five-song “mini-album” Synchromy released on the Boulder-based Hometapes label last week. The MP3 is via the Hometapes site.

“Bike” – May Or May Not

It’s sextet week, as May Or May Not is a six-piece band from Chicago. It’s also lots-of-instruments week, as you’ll hear a variety of horns on this one and, yes, that’s a clarinet too. The horns carry a Latin American feel and yet, also, not, which is actually sort of endearing. Sometimes pastiche can be perfectly charming; assembled with the right sense of crazy, good-hearted spirit, music doesn’t have to follow any particular “rules” about what’s “authentic” or not. To my ears, this song is just way too much freewheeling fun, from the out-of-place (but not) horns to the ’60s-style vocals to (best of all) the severe syncopation that gives the chorus its off-kilter hook. Whenever anyone knows enough about music to do something like that, I tend to pay attention. “Bike” is the title track to a four-song EP released on Two Thumbs Down Records in September. The MP3 is courtesy the Two Thumbs Down site.

This Week’s Finds: Oct. 29-Nov. 4 (The End of the World, Ingrid Michaelson, Clinic)

“Last Cast” – The End of the World

A compelling mid-tempo rocker that’s equal parts unresolved chords and resolving melodies. It’s also equal parts playful bass line and insistently bashing cymbals, and as I listen I’m thinking these two things are related, somehow, as both oppositions—the harmonic one and the one within the rhythm section—foster a really chewy sort of dynamic, half unsettled and half really comfortable. I haven’t praised the trio concept in a while, so I think I’ll do that here, noting (yet again, for long-time Fingertips visitors) how satisfyingly present a trio is in a rock context: with guitar, bass, and drums, nothing is buried, no sound unaccounted for; I find it a welcome relief, sometimes, from the sort of sonic overload that the digital age has often brought upon us. This is another in a long (long…) line of songs that I like but have no idea what they’re about; what brings a song like this to life, lyrically, anyway is when individual lines jump out and intrigue; the one that does it for me here is: “Now it’s the quiet ones/That we watch out for.” Again, no idea what’s going on, but I’m definitely curious and engaged. The End of the World are from New York City; “Last Cast” is a song from their debut full-length CD, You’re Making It Come Alive, which was released earlier this month on Flameshovel Records. The MP3 is via the Flameshovel site

“Breakable” – Ingrid Michaelson

Deconstructing waltz time beyond recognition, Ingrid Michaelson here breathes fetching new life into a 3/4 piano ballad. The Brooklyn-based Michaelson sings with a choppy sort of breathiness, and gives me the impression that even she doesn’t quite know which way a note is going to go until her elastic voice lets it fly. I will do us all the favor of not drawing on the usual comparisons that seem to beset any woman who plays the piano, even when she sounds pretty much nothing like the person everyone is always compared to. Instead I find myself drawn to her freshness, a not-quite-like-anyone-else quality that she presents in a most familiar-seeming container. Many little things along the way are just a bit different, from the plaintive same-note harmony vocals matched against the pumping piano that open the song to the minimalist snare and percussion she calls on to provide distinctive rhythmic support. “Breakable” is a song from Girls and Boys, Michaelson’s second CD, which was self-released in May. The MP3 is available via her web site. Thanks to Bruce at Some Velvet Blog for the lead.

“Harvest (Within You)” – Clinic

If this one doesn’t hit you on first listen, I urge you to listen two more times. That’s when it really began to sink in for me, and now of course I’m not sure why I didn’t hear it the first time, but music is a mysterious thing–maybe even more so when created and performed by an enigmatic band from Liverpool that wears surgical masks and costumes in all their publicity photos, and apparently while performing as well. Against a “Lust For Life” rhythm, “Harvest” unfolds with (sorry) almost clinical precision, with Ade Blackburn’s nasally-twitchy voice accompanied by ghostly harmonies, a funereal organ, and a really really great-sounding guitar, all skeletal and portentous. “Harvest (Within You)” is a song from Visitations, the band’s fourth CD, released in the U.K. and digitally this month on Domino Records. (The U.S. hard copy will not arrive until January.) The MP3 is available via the Domino web site.

This Week’s Finds: October 22-28 (The Low Frequency in Stereo, Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters, Porter Block)

“Axes” – The Low Frequency in Stereo

To begin with we get a surf guitar over a crisp beat. Another guitar joins in for a few measures, then leaves. Surf guitar riff re-establishes itself. Next to enter is a Doors-like organ. At this point I for one would not have understood that exactly what was missing was a trumpet but what do you know: the trumpet, appearing at 56 seconds in, is utterly perfect. The whole song, as a matter of fact, seems to unfold with impeccable charm and precision all the way through, as each sonic element—the surf guitar, the organ vamp, the trumpet, and Hanne Andersen’s breathy, somewhat distant vocal, when she finally starts singing (over a minute into the proceedings)—contributes its own distinct ingredient to the musical stew. The band, from Norway, seems to call themselves, interchangeably, Low Frequency in Stereo, and The Low Frequency in Stereo. Not a big distinction but I’m kind of a stickler for details; I’m going with “The” at this point. Reading about them a bit I see that they’ve been tied since their founding in 2000 to the so-called “post-rock” genre, but I personally have trouble with that label, which seems an unnecessary way to distinguish fresh sounding rock music (interesting instrumental combinations and song structures) from previous sounds, overlooking the fact that rock music at its best is always growing and stretching. “Axes” is from the CD The Last Temptation Of…, scheduled for release next week on Gigantic Music. The MP3 is available via the band’s site.

“Fata Morgana” – Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters

A fast-picking bluesy, slidey shuffle with an odd sort of homespun character. Lucas sings of the legendary enchantress with a cartoony sort of croon on top of the almost old-timey music; the combination of the rapid-fire acoustic guitarwork, the old-fashioned melody, and Lucas’s vaguely unhinged presence creates an unexpected blast of merrymaking. Lucas is something of a cult-hero guitarist, with experience ranging all the way back to playing with Captain Beefheart during the last incarnation of his Magic Band in the early ’80s; among the impressive array of musicians he’s collaborated with are Lou Reed, Patti Smith, John Cale, Bryan Ferry, Matthew Sweet, John Zorn, Dr. John, Jeff Buckley, and (yes) Leonard Bernstein. Gods and Monsters is being billed as a sort of New Wave supergroup; certainly its members are of interest, since Billy Ficca (Television) plays drums and Ernie Brooks (the Modern Lovers) bass. What’s more, Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads (and previously also the Modern Lovers) had a hand on the knobs in here (and is playing with the band on the road). And actually Jonathan Kane (Swans) plays drums on most of the songs although Ficca’s here on “Fata Morgana.” The song is from the CD Coming Clean, which was released at the end of September on Mighty Quinn Records.

“Circles” – Porter Block

If “Circles” is as vaguely pastoral, skillfully produced, and giddily melodic as an old XTC song, this is no accident. Peter Block and Caleb Sherman, doing business as Porter Block, are the first to report that their biggest influences are the Beatles and XTC. It’s wonderful enough to see a new band that understands XTC’s brilliant but underrated contributions to rock’n’roll history; it’s all the better when the band in question handles its influences this comfortably. I hear a lot of indie bands that seem to have this unconscious need to sound exactly like their musical heroes, down to out-and-out vocal mimickry. I am relieved right away by Porter Block in that they write XTC-ish songs without having a singer who sounds at all like Andy Partridge (or Colin Moulding, for that matter). In any case, the chorus here in particular offers winsome XTC resonances, both musical and lyrical (including the very Andy Partridge-like word “whirligig”), and if you don’t have any particular knowledge of or interest in XTC (but why not??), it doesn’t matter, as the lilting 3/4 melody stands beautifully on its own two feet. “Circles” is from the CD Suburban Sprawl, scheduled for release next month by Engine Room Recordings. The MP3 is via the band’s site.