New Music

Here’s some stuff from the inbox that caught my ear.

Bad Veins is a meaty, beaty, big and bouncy two-piece from Cincinnati that come off like a dancier version of The Strokes. “Dancing on TV” is from their new album The Mess We’ve Made. Go here for a free download or check out the video.

Jay Shepard’s album Harsh Mistress comes out in July. The single “Last Man on Earth” is a buoyant, fuzzy ray of power pop sunshine. Listen and download for free here.

Ali Young is a singer-songwriter with a deft melodic touch. Her EP Love Animal can be downloaded here. 

Listen to Ali Young’s “Make Believe” 

The title to Gospel Music’s song “This Town Doesn’t Have Enough Bars For Both of Us” is irresistible, and so is the tune. You can download it here, or check it out below.

Finally, the band Animal isn’t exactly in my wheelhouse, but the email that brought them to my attention was perfect – short and to the point, the perfect antidote to the six-paragraph bluster about how “our post-psychedelic dreamcore band started as an idea in one man’s bedroom in Boise and took shape over a nine-year spiritual journey that ended in Tibet” that I get from so many bands. Note to such bands: I get dozens of these things a week. If I have to work that hard to get to the actual music you make, I’m never going to listen to it, let alone share. So, yeah, check out Animal’s album Diatoms.

Robin Gibb

# 1 (TM) Middle Brother - Middle Brother

Supergroup my ass. That term generally signifies bland half-baked jams (Superheavy, Them Crooked Vultures), main group throwaways (Golden Smog, Monsters of Folk), intriguing novelty (The Baseball Project, Tinted Windows) or sheer wretchedness (Chickenfoot). Middle Brother brings their A game and top flight songs.

Middle Brother brings together three songwriters (Deer Tick's John McCauley, Dawes' Taylor Goldsmith and Delta Spirit's Matthew Vasquez) whose main bands have yet to rise above club status. They cherry pick the best attributes from each band and reign in their excesses. While Vasquez (the Crazy Horse inspired "Blue Eyes", the irresistible 50's pastiche "Someday") and Goldsmith ("Thanks for Nothing" and "Wilderness") shine, it's McCauley's rumpled stumblebum who dazzles. The theme is pie-eyed lovable losers, and the only cover, a suitably shaggy run through The Replacements' rarity "Portland", manages the neat trick of saluting patron saint Paul Westerberg and eclipsing his original.

But the stunner, and the best song on the year's best album, is "Daydreaming", whose chord progressions hint that this is the kid from Big Star's "Thirteen", a few years older, still lovesick and longing, looking for someone to "be an outlaw for my love". Simply gorgeous.

Middle Brother - "Daydreaming" (from Middle Brother)

Big Star - "Thirteen" (from # 1 Record)

# 2 (TM) Butch Walker and The Black Widows - The Spade

Butch Walker is a melody freak. And a fun junkie. And with The Spade, he hits all my musical g spots - big guitars, gigantic hooks and instantly memorable choruses. There's also bit of hair metal cheese wrapped in a glam, alt-country sandwich. But the main focus is F-U-N. With an in-jokey, self-referential, self-deprecating boys club atmosphere, The Spade was 2011's best non-stop party.  

Butch Walker and The Black Widows - "Bodegas and Blood" (from The Spade)

#1 (MA) Nick Lowe - The Old Magic

Nick Lowe has been mining the same territory for nearly twenty years now, meaning that "this phase" of his career has gone on for longer than the part that we normally think of as "his career," namely the Jesus of Cool and Labour of Lust years. His stock-in-trade is now to create new songs that you swear you've heard before, 1960s country and R&B classics that you just can't place, records that James Carr and Charlie Rich probably made before you were born. And he does it with such ease, such wit, such elegance that you might fail to notice the genius behind all this effortless beauty. The Old Magic is pure grace, the kind of album that will never be in fashion, but can't go out of style.

#2 (MA) Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - Mysterious Power

There's a moment on Mysterious Power when you realize that this isn't the Ezra Furman you know, the clever but sometimes too-jokey troubadour whose whine too often overwhelms his roar. It happens on the third track, "Hard Time in a Terrible Land," when Ezra and the Harpoons cast all notions of indie propriety aside and rock out with abandon. There are no trappings of irony here. Instead, Mysterious Power is a deeply felt set of songs, alternatively tender and ferocious, that reveal a songwriter and band at the height of their powers.

#3 (MA) Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Yeah, so it's May, and we're still telling you about the albums we enjoyed last year. Maybe it's just taking us that long to get our heads around them. I feel rushed when December comes and I have to tell you how I feel about an album I bought five minutes ago. How should I know how I feel about it? I don't even know it yet. This is one of those albums that took some time to get to know. On one level, it's irrepressibly indie, the kind of thing made for the blogger/tumblr/twitter culture that celebrates songs that only twenty-seven people will ever know. On another, it's rooted in the let's-roll-another ethos of the 1970s, an unapologetic rock record that demands to be revisited, not just consumed. I bought this on mp3, but I find myself reaching for the gatefold cover and lyric sheet that I don't have. It's magic.

Adam Yauch

# 3 (TM) William Elliott Whitmore - Field Songs

William Elliott Whitmore's Iowa farmer perspective infuses darkly soulful songs with dirt underneath the fingers backbone that are delivered in an extraordinarily rich, booming cannon of a voice. Each song is a call to arms, inspring listener action and reaction. Reminds me of Jay Farrar's gift - sounding like an old soul frozen in a young man's body.

Field Songs mark time like old time spirituals, songs of faith and promise sung by slaves to try and temporarily ease their burdens. The sparse instrumentation (a gently picked banjo, a barely strummed guitar) places the focus on Whitmore's bruising vocals, and he hangs on to words like he's afraid to let them go. At 8 songs and 34 minutes, Field Songs scores a quick and decisive knockout, landing blows for the oppressed and depressed everywhere.

William Elliott Whitmore - "Let's Do Something Impossible" (from Field Songs)
William Elliott Whitmore - "Johnny Law" (from Animals in the Dark)

# 4 (TM) - Lydia Loveless - Indestructible Machine

21 year old Lydia Loveless (who name conjures up a goth country diva) initially impressed with "Steve Earle", a fitting "tribute" that paints Earle as a stalker of sweet young things who "won't stop calling me" and "just wants to write some songs", but all she wants is for Steve "to please introduce me to your son", the ultimate backhanded compliment. And it's just the tip of the iceberg for Indestructible Machine, an album awash in that Old 97's galloping backbeat, but recasts Rhett Miller as Loretta Lynn.

But mostly this album recalls the glory and go-for-broke-ness of the debut Lone Justice record, especially on the roiling "Bad Way to Go" and the unapologetic war cry of "Do Right." Loveless may not possess Maria McKee's wondrous range, but that's really praising by faint damn. Loveless is a take-no-prisoners storyteller and the freshest new female alt-country voice in recent memory.

Lydia Loveless - "Steve Earle" (from Indestructible Machine)
Lydia Loveless - "Alison" (Elvis Costello cover from her "Bad Way to Go" Record Store Day 7")

# 5 (TM) The Decemberists - The King is Dead

Deciding to cast aside the wonkier folk-prog pretensions that conjured dreams of 17 song suites and nightmares of Jethro Tull comparisons, The King is Dead is far and away the most inviting record The Decemberists have ever made. It also contains the best collection of melodies on any 2011 album. Sounding like a more lucid REM in their prime, songs like "January Hymn", "All Arise", "Dear Avery" and "June Hymn" all sound like instant classics. A panoply of song indeed.

The Decemberists - "January Hymn" (from The King is Dead)

The Decemberists - "Cuyahoga" (REM cover)

Record Store Day 2012!!

I hope you score that Feistodon 7" that's got Feist and Mastodon covering each other. Or the Carolina Chocolate Drops/Run DMC split 7" which pairs CCD's new version of Run DMC's classic "You Be Illin" with the original. Or maybe you'll splurge and get the first three groundbreaking Uncle Tupelo albums on 180 gram vinyl. Me, I'd like to get the Dave Hause and Justin Townes Earle 45's and the fun. 10". But the important thing is to get out of the house today and go converse with other humanoids. That's what Record Store Day is about (well, that and getting Feeney to perk up a bit) - the connection with the music, the discovery, the thrill of finding a record you've been searching for or stumbling upon a future crush you didn't even know existed (like Shark Tape). Talking to people!! Check out this clip from Almost Famous which features a young Patrick J. Feeney getting safe passage to a new world courtesy of the old album stash under the bed.

I'll be spending the day at Main Street Music in Manayunk, but Record Store Day sales and celebrations will be emptying wallets all over the Delaware Valley at Repo, aka, Shady Dog, Tunes, Mad Platter, Siren, Positively and many others.

Here is the Main Street Music (4444 Main St., 215-487-7732) schedule of live bands and a sample mp3 from each:

12:30 - Shark Tape - "Joanne"

1 PM - Cheers Elephant - "Falling Out"
2 PM - Megan Reilly - "Throw It Out"
2:30 - John Wesley Harding - "There's A Starbucks (Where The Starbucks Used to Be)"
3:30 - Anthony D'Amato - "On The Banks of The River Where I Died"
(buy Anthony D'Amato's brand new release, Paper Back Bones, a month
before it's release date exclusively at Main Street Music... it's really good!)

4 PM - Jesse Malin - "St. Marks Sunset"
5 PM - Spinto Band - "Summer Grof"

Levon

#4 (MA) Black Keys - El Camino

Not the last rock and roll band, but maybe the last one with great pop instincts, in 2011 The Black Keys made the rarest kind of rock album - one that connected with the masses while remaining true to all that has always been good about a band that was once viewed as a destitute man's White Stripes.

#5 (MA) Dawes - Nothing is Wrong

On the album's closer, "A Little Bit of Everything," Taylor Goldsmith sings "so pile on those mashed potatoes and an extra chicken wing, I'm having a little bit of everything," and that's an apt a metaphor as there is for an album that's pure comfort food for the ears. My constant companion throughout the year, it was my most comfortable jeans, my softest leather boots, my mellowest whiskey.

# 6 (TM) - Dave Hause - Resolutions

Making the transition to punk rocker (as lead singer of The Loved Ones) to singer-songwriter is difficult to pull off, but Dave Hause has not only done it with grace and cred intact, but has also succeeded with his veins bulging ferocity intact.  

The songs on his solo debut Resolutions grapple with that moment when idealized notions (changing the world via punk rock) meet maturing truths (how to marry art, family and adult obligations) in a fantastic mess of frayed nerves and still to be finished stories. Hause dials down a bit of The Loved Ones' scorched earth policy, but his clear, testifying vocals fill the grooves with emotion and empathy. Inspirational verse which strikes at Resolutions evangelical, hardcore heart - "I want to play some Al Green  and spend more time with Tim".

Dave Hause - "Resolutions" (from Resolutions)

Dave Hause - "C'mon Kid" (from Revival TourCollection 2009)
Dave Hause - "Another Town" (Steve Earle cover)

# 7 (TM) - Dawes - Nothing is Wrong

Dawes will not change the world, but Nothing is Wrong might change yours. Writing drifting, lovesick tunes about homesick blues, Dawes are tasteful to a fault. The songs are terrific, but lose some of the zip the exhilarating live shows bring. But that's a minor quibble when you're sitting on songs as good as "Time Spent in Los Angeles", "Coming Back to A Man", "Fire Away" and "Million Dollar Bill". And verses like this from "Time Spent in Los Angeles" recall early Jackson Browne, which sets the bar extremely high:

"Cause you got that special kind of sadness

You got that Tragic set of charms
That only comes from time spent in Los Angeles
Makes me wanna wrap you in my arms"

Leading the way (along with The Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons) in reviving the Laurel Canyon brand of melodic and heart on sleeve songwriting, Dawes rank among the best young American bands.

Dawes - "Time Spent in Los Angeles" (from Nothing is Wrong)

Dawes - "Lawyers, Guns and Money" (Warren Zevon cover)

# 8 (TM) - Deer Tick - Divine Providence

Divine Providence is the album where Deer Tick kick off their dusty boots and put on their high heel sneakers and claim the boozy, freewheeling throne The Replacements abdicated two decades ago. Lead Tick John McCauley seems hell bent on rock and roll destruction, and on the caveman-like stomp of the "The Bump" (a too dumb to live, too smart to die update of "We're An American Band") and the Westerbergian "Main Street", he bleeds and carouses enough for all of us.

Deer Tick - "Main Street"(from Divine Providence)

Deer Tick - "Dead Flowers" (live)

# 9 (TM) - David Wax Museum - Everything is Saved

Switching effortlessly from Tex-Mex hoedowns ("Born With A Broken Heart", "Chuchumbe") to gorgeous, plaintive ballads ("Lavender Street", "Wait For Me" and the heartbreaking look back "The Least I Can Do") to the relentlessly upbeat "Yes Maria Yes", The David Wax Museum's Everything is Saved is the year's most approachable and inviting album. This band is impossible not to love. Fans of Los Lobos and early Felice Brothers should take note.

The David Wax Museum - "Yes Maria Yes" (from Everything is Saved)
The David Wax Museum - "The Least That I Can Do" (from Everything is Saved)

 

# 10 (TM) - Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - Mysterious Power

Managing the neat trick of sounding simultaneously worldly wise and impossibly naive, Ezra Furman gives Jonathan Richman a run for the money as the king of quirk. Instead of "She Cracked", Mysterious Power sounds more like "I Cracked". Come for the cloistered  optimism of "Mysterious Power" and "Fall in Love With my World" but stay for the off-the-rails punkitude desperation of "Teenage Wasteland" and "I Killed Myself but I Didn't Die".

Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - "Mysterious Power"  (from Mysterious Power)
Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - "Teenage Wasteland"  (from Mysterious Power)