Category: MP3s

This Week’s Finds: July 3-9 (Halloween Alaska, Halomobilo, Great Lakes Myth Society)

“Call It Clear” – Halloween, Alaska

A sustained synthesizer fades into a drum that sounds simultaneously like an electronica beat and a real drum being pounded by a real drumstick. The bass that quickly joins in is yet more intriguing, mashed somehow into a boopy sort of electro-sound for half of its repeating motif. This immediate and compelling blend of electronics and organics then releases into a meltingly warm two-chord guitar riff—a sound that has clear roots in jazz rather than electronica—and I’m pretty much hooked. Guitarist James Diers, it turns out, has a voice as meltingly warm as his guitar, with something of the husky depth one hears in Peter Gabriel, or the Eels’ Mark Oliver Everett. This also makes me happy, and still happier I become as I note the indescribable series of precise, programmed sounds that work to create an electronic background of unusual (that word again) warmth. Halloween, Alaska is a four-man band from Minneapolis apparently specializing in infusing electronics with a deep human glow. The world can use the skill. “Call It Clear” is a song off the band’s self-titled debut CD, originally released on Princess Records in 2004, and re-released by East Side Digital in April. The MP3 can be found on CNET’s music.download.com. Thanks to 50 Quid Bloke (self-described “saviour of the music industry”!) for the lead.

“Shallow” – Halomobilo

So this one sways to a fat 3/4 beat and is introduced with a barrage of heavy guitar work (I will continue to find lower-register guitar playing refreshing as long as most rock guitarists express themselves predominantly on the high notes). A bonus: within the first 30 seconds of the song, the singer uses the word “whilst,” which sounds unaccountably endearing to my American ears. The entire song, come to think of it, sounds unaccountably endearing to me. I think it’s the head-bobbing chorus that does it in particular: the measure-long notes and diving intervals work especially well with the muffled sort of angst that singer Mark Burnside has itching at the back of his throat (and occasionally throwing his pitch off in a strangely effective way). Even the lyrical imperative (“I won’t be a shadow/No, I won’t be so shallow”) is unexpectedly touching, but perhaps not surprising from a group describing itself as “a heartfelt, commercially acceptable, big sounding rock band.” Halomobilo was founded in Chelmsford, England in 2002; they have yet to release a CD. “Shallow” is available as an MP3 on the band’s site.

“Across the Bridge” – Great Lakes Myth Society

Sounding like a song from some lost epic indie-folk rock opera, “Across the Bridge” weaves banjo, violin, and increasingly dramatic vocal choruses around a sure beat and a sturdy, gratifying melody. Lead vocalist James Christopher Monger bears a smile-inducing resemblance to Paul Heaton of the Beautiful South (and the Housemartins before them), singing with open-hearted gusto both alone and in larger groups. The Great Lakes Myth Society are five guys from Ann Arbor with a geographical fixation and a keen sense of socio-historical drama, not to mention an unusual way with words. As their web site notes: “Like five applehead men soaking in their respective freshwater tombs, feeling the pulp return to their faces, each day brings the delicious pain of life and the endless need to create.” Indeed. “Across the Bridge” is one of 15 songs on the band’s self-titled debut CD, released in April on their own Stop, Pop, and Roll label. Thanks to Salon’s “Audiofile” for the lead, which came from one of the intriguing summer-oriented playlists Thomas Bartlett has been posting there recently. The MP3 is hosted on the Stop, Pop, and Roll site.

This Week’s Finds: June 26-July 2 (Sambassadeur, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Dear Leader)

“Between the Lines” – Sambassadeur

A sure sign of the robust state of Swedish rock’n’roll is how there really isn’t a “sound” we here in the U.S. can pinpoint anymore to say: “Ah! That sounds like a Swedish band.” Of course I’m sure that never really was the case in Sweden to begin with–clearly the country has had a diverse and potent music scene for decades. But only recently (thanks in no small part to the internet) have we on this side of the Atlantic been exposed to so much of it to begin to be truly impressed with the range of aural possibilities emerging from Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, et al. So here’s the band Sambassadeur, a quartet formed in 2003, and here’s “Between the Lines,” a wispy, summery confection with earnest acoustic guitars and an early-’60s melody. Singer Anna Persson’s pure, weightless voice conjurs Belle & Sebastian somehow, even as the song itself better resembles something from Kirsty MacColl’s earlier years in its efforts to recapture something otherwise lost between the years 1962 and 1965. “Between the Lines” can be found on Sambassadeur’s self-titled full-length debut, recently released on Labrador Records; the MP3 is available via the Labrador web site.

“In This Home On Ice” – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Alec Ounsworth has a voice like a mosquito, thin and buzzy, and he sometimes infuses syllables with the same swoopy anxiety that David Byrne specialized in back in the early days of Talking Heads. Beyond that, however, this suddenly visible Brooklyn quintet really doesn’t have much to do with Talking Heads, early new wave, ’70s or ’80s art school rock, or any particular past moment in rock’n’roll, despite what you may be reading. What catches my ear here is the song’s ongoing juxtaposition of edginess and resolution, most prominent in the way Ounsworth’s metallic strangle of a voice works against the muted, pulsing drive of the guitars. But maybe the best example is at the end of the verse, a moment that sounds to me like the song’s central pivot point (and best hook): the way the melody works through the same note twice with a classic (actually classical) chord progression through to the tonic, or home chord. Adding that extra line delays resolution even as it makes resolution all the more inevitable and delicious–extra-delicious, really, in the context of this nervous-seeming song. Don’t by the way miss the wacky moment of Queen-ish anarchy in the bridge, which adds to the song’s odd brilliance. “In This Home On Ice” can be found on the band’s self-titled debut CD, self-released this month (and temporarily sold out); the MP3 is one of three available on the band’s site.

“Raging Red” – Dear Leader

The idea that music has to sound different to be deemed admirable/worthy/whatever is a common underlying theme in many reviews you will read every which where, but it’s a needless intellectual conceit, introducing a boggy layer between the sound itself and the world at large. Too many critics are so wrapped up in assessing whether a band is doing something “new” that they can’t possibly be listening, simply, to the song itself and deciding whether it is good, which may or may not have to do with how much sonic ground it happens to be breaking. Never mind the fact that what critics tend to listen for to determine newness are typically surface-level characteristics (same guitar sound as Band X, same vocal sound as Musician Y) that can be concretely identified, versus ineffable aspects of the sound such as vibe, integrity, and spirit. That said, this is a big, bashing rocker from a Boston band fronted by Aaron Perrino (ex- of local indie favorites the Sheila Devine) and the way it is different than most songs you’ll hear on the internet is that it’s good: solidly constructed and passionately delivered, with a nice balance between the exclamatory verses and the anthemic chorus. Perrino is not above utilizing time-honored big-time rock tricks like stuttering a central word in the chorus, screeching beyond the capacity of his vocal cords, and a quick cut of silence before cranking into verse number two. “Raging Red” is a track off Dear Leader’s debut CD, All I Ever Wanted Was Tonight, released towards the end of 2004 on Newburyport, Mass.-based Lunch Records. The MP3 is available via the band’s site.

This Week’s Finds: June 19-25 (Goldrush, The Arrogants, Van Elk)

“Wait for the Wheels” – Goldrush

Five lads from Oxford, England who do not sound like Radiohead, Goldrush has been busy the last few years perfecting a British take on Americana music, with nods towards everyone from the Byrds to Neil Young to Wilco. In the process (as these things go with the right amount of talent), the band has developed a sound that seems pretty much their own (not to mention a record company in the U.K. that is their own). “Wait for the Wheels” begins (nice touch) like the end of a Neil Young/Crazy Horse song–a fuzzy blare of guitar, a flare of cymbals, a noodling bass–but the drummer picks up the beat and soon we’re churning along to the crunch of a deep, circular interplay between guitar and bass. As singer Robin Bennett opens his mouth, the guitar peels away, which highlights the almost funky bass riff, while an acoustic guitar soon slips in to provide some sparkly texture underneath Bennett’s friendly, slightly breathy voice. Electric guitars return rather janglingly in the somewhat syncopated chorus: listen to how both sides of the verse “I wait for the wheels/To turn” begin on the central upbeat between the second and third beats, which then drags the line into the next measure. You sense a stutter or shift even as the song retains its 4/4 drive. Bennett has something of Jeff Tweedy’s casually pained depth while not sounding very much like Tweedy at all (except maybe a little in the chorus, come to think of it, particularly the second time, as the guitars really start buzzing and crunching); I really want to describe Bennett’s voice as “chalky” except that I’ve never quite figured out what a chalky voice is. Ah well. “Wait for the Wheels” will be found on the band’s U.S. debut CD, Ozona, scheduled for release in July on Better Looking Records. The MP3 is available via the Better Looking site; the other one there is equally as good, as is one more that’s available on the band’s site, which is a song from their first CD, Don’t Bring Me Down, released in the U.K. in 2002.


“Lovesick” – the Arrogants

If “Lovesick” wastes no time flaunting one of pop music’s greatest of chord progressions, so be it–either not enough people bother to employ it, or (more likely) it’s not as easy to pull off as it may seem. Eschewing all distracting embellishments (there’s no introduction, no instrumental break, and the chorus and bridge are effectively combined), “Lovesick” accentuates its classic-pop roots and in so doing, may just transcend them. I especially enjoy the messy-tight guitar work scorching a hole in the background, as well as singer Jana Wittren’s endearing vocals, with their elusive almost-British-isms and sweet phrasing (the way she sings “you were the one” 15 or so seconds into the song melts my heart). If Harriet Wheeler from the Sundays sang lead for Blondie, they might have sounded, at least sometimes, like this. The Arrogants have released two EP-length CDs on Shelflife Records; “Lovesick” comes from their first, entitled Your Simple Beauty, released in 2000. The band’s long-awaited first full-length CD is due out next month; it will feature 23 songs, most of them new, some of them reworked “oldies,” including a new version of “Lovesick.” The MP3 is available via the band’s site.



“Salome” – Van Elk

Quiet, elegiac “Salome” overcomes its somewhat lo-fi trappings through the palpable mystery evoked by its simple setting and haunting beauty. There’s such refinement at work within the aural landscape here that it casts a spell and I am hooked. I love the heartbeaty percussive accent that sounds like a squelched guitar chord and love even more the stately, wordless motif that winds its way repeatedly through the song. “Salome”‘s mystery is enhanced by the dirth of information available about the duo calling itself Van Elk. Featuring former Mistle Thrush singer Valerie Forgione and Boston-area musician Ken Michaels, Van Elk (Val plus Ken, swirled around a bit) has the barest of internet presences–a web site with four songs to listen to, basically. No word about releases, no word about current work. I for one hope to hear more.

This Week’s Finds: June 12-18 (New Estate, Noe Venable, The Spectacular Fantastic)

“Don’t Like The Way” – New Estate

Rocking with a leisurely, feedbacky vibe, “Don’t Like The Way” juxtaposes an edgy, shrill-but-likable guitar sound with a flowy melody and good-natured background chug that somehow puts me in the mind of Fleetwood Mac of all things (hm, maybe the song title also did it, bringing “Go Your Own Way” unconsciously to mind). In any case, the band has an intriguing sound going here, and while I am not one of the writers about music on the web who demands innovation above all else, I certainly am impressed when I come across a band that seems to have its own particular voice–something that has become more and more difficult to do without lapsing into unaccountable quirkiness here in the new century. I’m guessing that this Melbourne-based quartet–featuring, unusually, both three singers and three songwriters–may be worth keeping eyes and ears on. “Don’t Like The Way” is the lead track on the band’s CD Considering…, released this month on Kittridge Records; the MP3 is found on the Kittridge web site.

“Boots” – Noe Venable

Atmospheric and structurally engaging, “Boots” unfolds with precision and intrigue, anchored by Venable’s able and appealing voice. While an acoustic guitar provides a centering pulse, this song moves well beyond standard singer/sonwriter fare, brandishing a varied instrumental palette with great subtlety and skill, while some of the melodic turns give me goosebumps. Venable is a Bay Area musician with a loyal local following; she plays in a trio featuring keyboards, violin, and various electronic devices. “Boots” is the title track to her second most recent CD, released in 2003 on Venable’s Petridish Records. The MP3 can be found on her site; thanks to 3hive for the tip.

“60 Cycles” – the Spectacular Fantastic

First of all, check out the big bashy guitars in the intro and the way the lead and the rhythm guitars leap immediately into action with both a manner and sound that seem heartbreakingly old-fashioned (the lead guitar’s tone is itself a blast from some indefinable past). Then Mike Detmer opens his mouth and he’s got a great dollop of Westerberg-ish goofy humor about his voice even as he’s not saying or doing anything particularly funny. And then, geez, is the hook in the chorus insanely good or what? I have no idea why, it just is: “And I try to be the same as you,” he sings, and listen if you would to the notes he hits on the word “try” and “as” and somewhere in there is not only the secret to the hook but (maybe) the secret to life as we know it. (Maybe. It’s a hunch, that’s all.) While nothing here is new or different it sounds new and different precisely because it’s not trying to be new and different, if that makes any sense. This isn’t self-conscious retro rock, this is brand new classic pop, delivered with love and verve by the Cincinnati-based Detmer, who likes to work with a rotating cast of characters and call himself a band. “60 Cycles” is the lead track on a new EP entitled I Love You, all six songs of which are available as free downloads on the band’s web site. Thanks to The Catbirdseat for the head’s up.

This Week’s Finds: June 5-11 (Novillero, The Sames, Devics)

“Aptitude” – Novillero

Anchored by a swinging piano riff, appealing chord progressions, and what seems an unusually hard-headed philosophy for a pop song, “Aptitude” is both immediately enjoyable and lastingly affecting. A quartet from Winnipeg founded in 1999, Novillero sounds like the real thing to me, capable of delivering music that is at once melodically and lyrically astute–no mean feat in our mash-up culture. The chorus is especially marvelous, rendered all the more effective for its jaunty bouncing between major and minor chords. Even better, it builds with each iteration–first delivered in a restrained vocal-and-piano setting, the chorus next arrives with the full band fleshing out the harmonics, and the third time with vocalist Rod Slaughter (he’s also the piano player) singing an octave higher, adding a keening edge to both the music and lyrics. This works particularly well as the song has now shifted its focus: what began as a world-weary warning about how we are all limited by our inherent capabilities reveals itself (if I’m hearing it right) rather poignantly as a philosophy borne from disappointment in love. Complete with nifty horn charts. “Aptitude” is on the band’s cleverly titled second CD, Aim Right For The Holes In Their Lives, which was released in the U.S. last week on Mint Records. The MP3 comes from the band’s web site.

“Heart Pine” – the Sames

From its opening guitar pulse—sounding like a stressed-out siren—“Heart Pine” grabs my ear and doesn’t let up. This is quite an accomplishment for a song lacking both melodic and harmonic diversity; here the whole clearly transcends the sum of its parts. With repeated listens I begin to understand how the insistent guitar accompaniment, at once slashing and chiming, works with the hypnotic melody (sung with slightly fuzzed-out vocals) to push the song forward with an urgent but subtly complex sort of drone–and then how the drone itself is slyly deconstructed as the song develops. Listen for instance to the way the second beat is dropped in the verse section–once the singing starts, you may notice the 4/4 time is marked out by the first, third, and fourth beats, which is a very gratifying rhythm (the fact that the drummer masks what he’s doing adds to the effect). Listen too to how the song’s limited chord changes are swallowed by the drone for a good minute and a half, creating an extra layer of tension before the release introduced by a perfectly timed bit of feedback at 1:35 and then (at last) a series of chord changes that I feel as if I’m hearing in my stomach more than my ears. The Sames are a quartet from Durham, North Carolina; “Heart Pine” is a song from their debut full-length CD, You Are The Sames, released in April on Pox World Empire. The MP3 is available via band’s web site.

“Just One Breath” – Devics

What an instantly fetching voice Devics singer Sara Lov has, simultaneously strong and vulnerable, with great character and yet not odd in the way that voices with great character can sometimes be—think, maybe, Tanya Donelly (upper register) combined with Over the Rhine’s Karin Bergquist (lower register) without, somehow, the potentially distracting idiosyncracies of either. The song glides along with grace and assurance, blending equally crisp acoustic and electric guitars with some baroque-ish keyboards in a cinematic sort of aural space, veering into the occasionally unexpected chord, with Lov always at the magnetic center. Devics are a duo from Los Angeles now living in Italy, multi-instrumentalist Dustin O’Halloran being the other half.
“Just One Breath” is a song off the band’s new EP Distant Radio, to be released next week on Leftwing Records. The MP3 is hosted on the band’s site, with Filter Magazine pointing the way.

This Week’s Finds: May 29-June 4 (Teenage Fanclub, Shearwater, the Heartless Bastards)

<“It’s All In My Mind” – Teenage Fanclub

Glistening, accomplished pop from a Scottish band that came together in 1989 and has never quite had its day. Look how much these guys pull out of a simple melody set against a clockwork, tom-tom-accented beat, and how effortlessly they do it–largely by playing against the regularities they set up. Notice, to begin with, how the melody line of the verse starts first on the downbeat and then, when it repeats, begins on the upbeat; this creates an off-centered feeling to what is actually a regular, 4/4 beat. But then notice what happens in the chorus (which is just the words “It’s all in my mind” sung twice)–the beat is stretched to 6/4 for two measures, which manages both to ground the song and keep it slightly on edge. A minute and a half into things, we’re returned to the first verse but the song has shifted subtly, tom-tom giving way to a fuller drum kit, some gorgeous but unexpected harmonies fleshing out the words and their dreamy message. That the whole thing culminates in a spaced-out guitar break three-quarters of the way through–I love how the song sort of floats into the guitar solo, as if catching up to it–is only fitting. “It’s All In My Mind” is the lead track on the band’s new CD Man-Made, their seventh, scheduled for release next week on Merge Records.

“The World in 1984” – Shearwater

This song has the echoey, majestic sadness of a forgotten photo album, an impression accentuated by the timeless melody, backward-looking lyrics, and singer Jonathan Meiburg’s high, fluttery voice. There’s something haunting and lasting at work here, something I’d locate somewhere in the graceful interaction between the minor and major chords and the way they play out through the central, plaintive piano refrain. Shearwater features two members (keyboard player Meiburg and guitarist Will Sheff) of the somewhat better-known Okkervil River; reflecting Meiburg’s graduate-level involvement in ornithology (how does he have the time?), the band is named for a type of bird that flies close to the surface of the water. And the song comes from an album called Winged Life (released last year on Austin-based Misra Records), to continue the bird theme–although the phrase itself is William Blake’s (is it my imagination or are independent rock bands the last bastion of literate culture in our post-literate world?): “He who binds to himself a joy/Does the winged life destroy;/ But he who kisses the joy as it flies/Lives in eternity’s sun rise.” The MP3, by the way, is hosted on the band’s site.

“New Resolution” – the Heartless Bastards

Skeletal and elemental, “New Resolution” is driven by an aggressive drumbeat (hey, it’s distinctive drumbeat week) and Erika Wennerstrom’s achy-furious voice. She’s got something of that back-of-the-throat roughness that makes Lucinda Williams cut me to the core sometimes, but in this case it’s Lucinda crossed with Patti Smith, or maybe even Robert Plant. While “New Resolution” is rooted in a time-worn bass line, there is simultaneously a liberating vibe to this short and quirky tune, as if the band is gleefully writing its own rules as it goes. I for one find it impossible to argue with (not to mention half fall in love with) anyone who sings the following: “My new resolution is to be/Someone who does not care what anyone thinks of me/’Cause I don’t even like myself half the time/And what’s the use in worrying what’s on other people’s minds?” The Heartless Bastards are from Cincinnati; “New Resolution” can be found on the band’s debut CD, Stairs and Elevators, released in February on Fat Possum Records, a label previously known for blues recordings. The MP3 is available via the band’s web site.

This Week’s Finds: May 22-28 (Marjorie Fair, Cuff the Duke, Eux Autres)

“Waves” – Marjorie Fair

This is one of the most accomplished, forward-looking examples I’ve heard yet of the neo-soft-rock sound that seems to be bubbling up on the 21st-century rock scene alongside the neo-new-wave sound that’s getting most of the attention so far. What makes “Waves” a particular pleasure is the band’s success (Marjorie Fair is a band, not a person) in linking a sweetly melancholy America-esque sound with a grounded, indie-rock-style drive. Listen to the opening drumbeat: it means business, and prevents the jazzy chords that comprise the heart of the song (major sevenths and ninths and things like that) from turning mushy and dull. Likewise is the lovely melody—and singer Evan Slamka’s equally lovely delivery of said melody—counterbalanced by some edgy guitar work; beyond the central, chiming riff there are droning accents that work to create palpable mystique throughout the piece, rising at last to the surface by way of a brief, reverberant solo beginning at 2:56. This mellow-rock meets indie-rock mix might almost seem its own sort of formula except for the fact that hardly anyone can do this effectively—it’s not much of a formula if it isn’t easily replicated, after all. “Waves” is a song off the L.A. foursome’s debut CD, Self Help Serenade, which was released last year in the U.K. and is slated for a major-label stateside release in July. Capitol Records is cranking up the PR machine on this one, and while I am not always pleased by the way that manifests itself, I must remind myself that back in the day, the big labels regularly delivered good music to the masses; it’s not yet too late (I don’t think) for at least some of them to remember this.


“Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker” – Cuff the Duke

There’s a lost-epic feeling about this engaging, largely instrumental song, starting with its lengthy but chipper chimey-guitar build-up that comes complete with its own tempo shift (you hearing a “Free Bird” reference in that as I am?). It turns out the slower, weightier pace of the down-shifted part is where the song is heading; the second time the “Free Bird” section arrives, a crunchier, Neil Young-ish wall of guitar sound kicks in and singer/songwriter/guitarist Wayne Petti makes his delayed entrance (the song’s two and a half minutes old already), his thin tenor emerging first as a mixed-down, off-pitch counterpoint to the increased instrumental fury, but as he reaches the lyrical climax—an invocation-like repetition of the phrase “It’ll be all right”—he’s right there in the center, handing the song back to the guitars. Together the rhythm and lead slash and churn with yet heightened intensity before melting away for Petti’s final, quieter reprise of the same lyric from before with one subtle difference. “Ballad of a Construction Worker” is a song off the band’s debut CD, Life Stories for Minimum Wage, released in 2002 on Three Gut Records; the MP3 is hosted on the Three Gut web site. A new CD from the band is expected this August.


“Ecoutez Bien” – Eux Autres

To counter big-label promotion and epic-style earnestness, here’s a little shot of lo-fi goofiness—a brother/sister duo from Portland, Oregon offering a fetching two and a half minutes of garage rock a la francais. While it would never have occurred to me, for one, that crossing a chunky, freewheeling Stones vibe with spoken-sung lyrics in French would lead to anything in particular, there’s something smiley and effervescent in the outcome. This strikes me as rather fascinating, actually, given how much Debbie Harry-style archness is channeled by singer Heather Larimer, but I guess that’s another sign of the post-ironic world in which we live–that irony itself can now be used quite effectively to evoke sincerity. Add a distant but pounding piano riff, brother Nicholas’ megaphoned backing vocals, a flurry of well-timed whoops, and a one-line chorus, and you have an odd hodgepodge of a semi-song on the one hand, an almost-classic-sounding pop cultural tidbit on the other. “Ecoutez Bien” is the lead track on the band’s debut CD, Hell Is Eux Autres, released last year. The MP3 is available via band’s web site.

This Week’s Finds: May 15-21 (Calla, Laura Cantrell, John Vanderslice)

“It Dawned On Me” – Calla

At once driving and atmospheric, “It Dawned On Me” combines a melodic, nearly New Order-like guitar motif and classic rock chord progressions with a dreamy wash of what I can only call beautiful noise–I’m listening and listening and can’t quite figure out what exactly is behind the structure of sound that gives this song such weight and power. Given that two of the band’s three members are credited not only with playing instruments (bass, keyboards, percussion) but also with “programming,” I can only assume that some heavy-duty electronic know-how is partially responsible, but the beauty here is that the overall effect is extremely organic. Guitarist/vocalist Aurelio Valle’s dark, breathy voice has a lot to do with the song’s haunting nature, and, okay, if I can’t help hearing a bit of “Don’t Fear the Reaper”‘s minor-key elegance around the edges here, there’s nothing wrong with that either. “It Dawned On Me” is a song slated to appear on the Brooklyn-based band’s next CD, their fourth, entitled Collisions, scheduled for release this summer. The MP3 is available via the band’s web site.

“14th Street” – Laura Cantrell

Not unlike the kind of sweet, well-crafted singer/songwriter songs Nanci Griffith gathered so effectively on her much-admired Other Voices, Other Rooms CD, “14th Street” is at once breezy and poignant, held together by Cantrell’s startlingly pure, somewhat Griffith-like voice and her admirable capacity to keep the musical focus strong and simple. This song could have taken an indulgent turn, production-wise, in any number of places but is ever held in check by the crystal-clear interaction between acoustic guitar, piano, drum, voice. Cantrell’s decision to exploit the song’s Brill Building roots (check out the sleighbell/drum accent that kicks in at 1:35; I love how the Spector beat is implied without it actively materializing) creates a fetching amalgam of traditional country and traditional pop. Cantrell is a Nashville-born, New York-based musician and radio host (her weekly “Radio Thrift Shop” program can be heard on WFMU) who recorded two highly-acclaimed CDs before quitting her day job at a Manhattan-based financial firm to do music full-time. These sturdy, tradition-minded recordings of hers have attracted a number of notable music-industry fans over the last five years, including Elvis Costello (who picked her to open for him on a number of his 2002 concerts) and the late John Peel, who in 2001 called her first CD “my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life.” Written by a Portland, Oregon-based songwriter named Emily Spray, “14th Street” will be the lead track on Cantrell’s new CD, Humming By The Flowered Vine, to be released on Matador Records next month. The CD, as usual for Cantrell, will mix her own songs with traditional songs and songs from other songwriters. The MP3 arrives via the Matador web site.

“Trance Manual” – John Vanderslice

There’s a “Carpet Crawlers”-like sense of gorgeous contemplation underscoring this new tune from the underappreciated Mr. Vanderslice. Pristine without being boring, intricately produced without falling into the kitchen-sink syndrome, “Trance Manual” floats along in its own indelible world; again not unlike Peter Gabriel-era Genesis at their best, Vanderslice offers us lyrical imagery that manages the difficult trick of being both concrete and enigmatic, set against an almost orchestral sense of instrumental diversity. There’s plenty of Vanderslice’s production genius on display this time around, from the insistent chime-like drone that’s never far below the surface to the precise but limited use of flute flourishes to the wonderful way he uses keyboards (I think) to sound like backward guitars to the incredible arrival of pizzicato strings just before the three-minute mark–a truly unexpected and instantly perfect touch. “Trance Manual” has just been made available as an MP3 on the Barsuk Records site; it will appear on the next Vanderslice CD, Pixel Revolt, due out in August.

This Week’s Finds: May 8-14 (A. Graham and the Moment Band, Amy Miles, Oneida)

“Glorious” – A. Graham and the Moment Band

There are certain sorts of on-and-off-pitch voices that are so immediately friendly and unassuming that they welcome you in like an old friend handing you a beer. Andy Graham has one of those voices. Then again, this entire song is kind of like an old friend handing you a beer, most of all the loose-limbed, sing-along chorus, featuring four of the English language’s finest words—“Glorious/ Triumphant/ Optimistic/ Transcendent”—woven together with spot-on pedal steel accents. Like Doris Henson, A. Graham and the Moment Band are another endearing, worthy band from Kansas City, Kansas. “Glorious” is the lead track on the band’s 2004 CD This Tyrant is Free, released on Sonic Unyon Records. The MP3 is available via Lawrence.com, one of the better (if also unassuming) local/regional music resources on the web.

“Heavy Packer” – Amy Miles

Alternating tense, sparse verses with a spacious, gorgeous chorus, the NYC-based singer/songwriter Amy Miles here channels Martha Davis (remember the Motels? anyone?) to great effect. I find it relatively easy to lose patience with slow-building songs, but Miles holds my interest through the simmering opening minute and a half, with its ominous beat, evocative lyrics, and knowing touches—listen to the way the drum stutters on the fourth beat of every fourth measure, and how a deep synthesizer augments the staccato base line with a sustained series of almost below ear level notes. When the song arrives at the chorus—melody now slowed by half, showing Miles’ voice off at its prettiest–the effect is glistening. Don’t miss the elastic guitar accents underneath, without which the song would not have soared nearly as high. “Heavy Packer” comes from Miles’ second CD, Noble Hatch, released in March on the Pcoop label, via Redeye Distribution. Noble Hatch, by the way, was the actual name of a boy Miles had a crush on in sixth grade in Arkansas; the album apparently reflects repeatedly back on that broken-hearted period of her young life.

“August Morning Haze” – Oneida

Like some strange psychedelic nugget from the ’60s, “August Morning Haze” opens with a prickly, vaguely Near Eastern guitar line. In comes a sitar—no, wait, it’s a banjo. Who’d have thought. Together they jangle towards an unexpected and quite satisfying harmonic resolution before veering off into the first verse. The words march out in precise, repeated rhythm (ONE-two ONE-two; I looked it up—it’s trochaic tetrameter, I think), a tumble of landscape and nature images that hypnotize me entirely. I’m trying and I can’t focus on their concrete meaning, and then, wow, there are those wonderful, resolving chords again. Instruments are brought in and out with wondrous subtlety—some strings here, an accordion there, all in service of the relentless trochees. “Pictures of Matchstick Men” meets XTC’s Skylarking, if you squint a little. The song is the final track on Oneida’s new CD, The Wedding, released last week on Jagjaguwar Records in the U.S., Three Gut Records in Canada. The MP3 is hosted on the Three Gut web site. Largehearted Boy pointed the way.

This Week’s Finds: May 1-7 (Trademark, Barry Thomas Goldberg, Nouvelle Vague)

“Hold That Thought” – Trademark

Resplendent electro-pop from an Oxford synthesizer trio that apparently wears lab coats onstage. While drawing obvious inspiration from bands like Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Trademark immediately announces its own presence with the opening synthesizer riff, featuring a deeper, buzzier, funkier tone than their ’80s forebears. The song swings along in a rapid 6/8 (maybe?) shuffle, and even as vocalist Oliver Horton’s blase, slightly nasal delivery recalls the likes of Neil Tennant (of the Pet Shop Boys), there’s something sturdier and more passionate going on here. Maybe because it was all new back then, and maybe there were serious technological limitations at the time, but ’80s synth-pop had a distinct air of preprogrammed relentlessness to it—as if the groups got going by pushing a button and letting the machines do the rest. Listen, by contrast, to the way the introduction here leads into the first verse: how the rhythm shifts and the three interweaving synthesizers are redefined around the vocals—how in fact they are played musically rather than electronically, even though they are, still, electronic instruments. It may sound on the surface like the ’80s but this is the ’00s we’re listening to, and a seriously wonderful new song. “Hold That Thought” can be found on Trademark’s debut CD, Trademark Want More, released in the U.K. last year on Truck Records. The MP3 is available via the band’s web site. Thanks to The Acousticwoodlands for the lead.

“American Grotesque” – Barry Thomas Goldberg

Straightforward old-school rock with a vibrant edge. Goldberg is a singer/songwriter in his fifties who’s been kicking around the Minneapolis music scene for a couple of decades; his age and experience blaze through this simultaneously good-natured and apocalyptic song. Goldberg’s deep, cigarette-stained voice brings the late Warren Zevon to mind, but there’s an added Graham Parker-like snap and snarl to his delivery and something Dylanesque about the whole carnival-like enterprise, with its cavalcade of characters and situations set to a rollicking 3/4 beat. “American Grotesque” is the title track of Goldberg’s most recent CD, released earlier this year. The MP3 is available on Goldberg’s web site. Thanks to visitor Paul for the suggestion.

“The Guns of Brixton” – Nouvelle Vague

It’s the Clash song, it’s a French collective which has made an album transforming punk and new wave songs from the late ’70s and early ’80s into jazzy-poppy bossa nova-inflected tunes, and it’s way more successful and alluring than it has any right to be. The idea to do this came from French producer/multi-instrumentalists Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux—Marc’s idea, originally. (The web site claims that “Nouvelle Vague” means “new wave” in French and “bossa nova” in Portuguese; this seems cheeky to me, but cute.) The plan was to jettison the cultural context, focus on the strength of the song, and (a great touch) employ young singers who had never heard the original in the first place. On “The Guns of Brixton,” Camille (she uses just her first name) brings a beguiling early ’60s-style insouciance to the task, as the great Paul Simonon song is transformed into a jaunty lounge number with mind-boggling panache. Hear the incredible way she links the first verse to the chorus 48 seconds into the song, the audible out-breath she uses to get from the phrase “death row” to “You can crush us” etc. All through it of course is the crazy juxtaposition of this voice and these lyrics, but even that would not have been enough without the arrangement. What Collin and Libaux highlight most of all with this project is the sheer magic of musical arrangement, and the brilliance that can result when just the right instrument does just the right thing at just the right time without, somehow, sounding overly precise and calculated. One small example among many is the way a dark piano bass line is added at the beginning of the second verse—just perfect. Among the other songs covered by Nouvelle Vague on the CD are “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Making Plans for Nigel.” Released overseas last June on the U.K.-based Peacefrog Records, Nouvelle Vague comes out this week in the U.S. on Luaka Bop Records. The MP3 is hosted by Insound.