Gold Soundz: "Big Dipper"

Guilty pleasures are a tough call man. Many would probably be embarrassed to admit an affinity toward David Lowery’s post-Camper Van Beethoven 90s alternative hit-maker(s), Cracker, but I’m not buying it. When I was just a young, impressionable set of 16 year old ears I thought I heard the greatest song ever written in “Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)” from their self-titled debut. It’s biting mix of sharp lyrics and driving folk-rock easily won me over, and the album was an easy-to-like collection of similarly ragged tunes with similarly memorable lyrics. A few years later came Kerosene Hat, a more polished effort that housed the smash hit “Low” as well as a bunch of other equally impressive songs.

One of those is “Take Me Down To The Infirmary” - a song that was easy to overlook for the alternative fans, but whose country guitars and slow, narcotic groove made a big impression on me at the time, and remains one of my favorite Lowery-penned tracks. The song showed me another side to the smart-assedness (?) and often overly cute cultural references that regularly popped up in his writing. The weary and soulful words didn’t seem to feature any of his usual cynicism or absurdity, and made me look forward even more to what would come next. Unfortunately The Golden Age, the 1996 follow-up, was a mess - a seemingly calculated attempt at broader alternative rock appeal with its abysmal singles “I Hate My Generation” and “Nothing To Believe In”. Fortunately the album was saved from being a total loss by a few sparkling ballads - deep album tracks that again showed off Lowery’s way with the pen.

“Big Dipper” was just such a track, and bettered just about everything that had come before it. Lowery’s writing is sharper than ever with a narrator realistically worn down, lethargic, and self-defeating. There are some great lines in the song that smack with some incredibly hard hitting irreverence, and some with an equally effective (and surprising) earnestness. The “violent bloom of flowered dresses” was certainly a line my college-aged hormones related to, and the idea that he was sitting on the café steps with Jim Kerouac, “brother of the famous Jack”, was about as perfect an image as I’d ever heard and really captured the bottomed-out feeling of the song. Lousy album, good band, great fuckin’ song.

MP3 :: Big Dipper
(from The Golden Age. Buy here)
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Gold Soundz columns highlight some of my favorite songs of all time. “Gold Soundz” because I thought this blog would be cooler if I ripped off a title for a “column” from a not-at-all obscure Pavement song. Previously featured in Gold Soundz:

Slobberbone :: “Gimme Back My Dog”
The Jam :: “In The City”
World Party :: “Way Down Now”
Elmore James :: “The Sky Is Crying”
John Prine :: “Lake Marie”
The Band :: “Jawbone”
Neutral Milk Hotel :: “Holland, 1945”
The Velvet Underground :: “I Heard Her Call My Name”
Hank Williams :: “I Saw The Light”
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[mp3] Spoon - "Don't You Ever" (The Natural History Version)

Quietly crashing into your local independent record stores this week is the new single from Spoon’s #2 Album of the Year from 2007 (according to me), Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. “Don’t You Evah” is but one of many brilliant moments on the record, and on this new single it truly gets the royal treatment - 5 new remixes from some of music’s brightest young DJs (I’m just saying that, sadly I don’t know who any of them are). Oh yeah, and Ted Leo too.

The 8-song release features a brand new Spoon song - “All I Got Is Me”, which sways from dark and foreboding verses led by pounded pianos to a catchy, tambourine and slashing guitar fueled chorus. Also included is the original version of “Don’t You Evah” (actually titled “Don’t You Ever” - apparently Britt lost it in translation) by The Natural History. I hadn’t heard this band’s version before, but imagine Urge Overkill covering the Spoon version and you’d be close - dude’s voice is very close to Mr. “Sister Havana” himself, Nash Kato.

MP3 :: Don’t You Ever (by The Natural History)
(from Don’t You Evah EP. Buy here)
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P.S. - Best album art evah?
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Iron & Wine: Early Outtakes (pt. 1)

Iron & Wine’s 2002 debut, the masterful The Creek Drank The Cradle, is not what you’d consider a groundbreaking album in the traditional sense. The album was recorded with no pretense of impending fame, and I can imagine Sam Beam was probably as surprised as anyone to find out that Sub Pop was willing to release it “as is” when they first heard the tapes. Who would have thought at the time that Beam’s frail sounding southern anthems would find the strength to influence the next wave of bedroom boys with gentle voices and battered guitars? His influence is discernible throughout the modern indie-folk genre, and the blogging community (including this one) has been guilty many times of using The Creek Drank The Cradle as a reference point for reviewing similar artists.

There is no doubt that Beam, ever the self-challenging artist, has developed into a songwriter capable of more sonic tricks than The Creek Drank The Cradle ever hinted at. His band’s sonic progression, from the debut to Our Endless Numbered Days and last year’s The Shepherd’s Dog (as well as his various side projects and EPs), are all the work of a man very much aware of the need to evolve as an artist in order to maintain relevance. The one constant over the past 6 years though has been the consistency of his writing. Each album is full of songs with striking imagery, uniquely original metaphors, and allusions to the many driving forces that inspire him - tradition, religion, sex, death, the South, nature, family, childhood, memory, and so on and so forth.

Though each album in the Iron & Wine catalog is essential, the one I find myself returning to most often is in fact the debut. I’d dare say that The Creek Drank The Cradle is the best example of what a man can do with an acoustic guitar and an 8-track since Nebraska. Originally a film professor in Florida, Beam recorded dozens of songs before he had ever even played in front of an audience. Eventually those songs were whittled down to the 11 that finally wound up on the album. Over the years other songs from these early years have been released here and there, most notably the The Sea & The Rhythm EP. Others became the object of many a serious fan’s fruitless online search. That’s where this post comes in. Here are a few noteworthy outtakes from that bountiful era that, to my knowledge, have never seen legal release:

MP3 :: Sacred Vision
MP3 :: Same Old Song
MP3 :: Call Your Boys
MP3 :: Her Tea Leaves
MP3 :: Ab’s Song
MP3 :: Waiting For A Superman

As far as I know “Sacred Vision”, “Call Your Boys”, “Her Tea Leaves”, and “Ab’s Song” are Sam Beam originals recorded around the same time as the songs from The Creek Drank The Cradle.

“The Same Old Song” is a cover of a classic Motown song originally made famous by The Four Tops.

“Waiting For A Superman” is, of course, Iron & Wine covering The Flaming Lips song from the classic The Soft Bulletin. This one has been in pretty regular circulation for years.
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There is plenty more where these came from. Check back in a day or 2 for another batch of early Iron & Wine rarities.
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Tapes 'n Tapes Do Daytrotter

With the impending release of the good not great Walk It Off (today, actually - 4/8), Tapes n’ Tapes recently found time to record a session for Daytrotter featuring 4 songs from the new record. The highlight, of course, is a version of the blistering first single, “Hang Them All” (which I’ve already featured not once but twice), quite possibly the finest indie-rock single of the young year.

MP3 :: Hang Them All / Demon Apple / George Michael / Conquest
(Live from Daytrotter. from Walk It Off. Buy here)
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MP3 :: Hang Them All
(from Walk It Off. Buy here)
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The band hits New York a few times next week (w/ White Denim):

4/18 - Fillmore NY @ Irving Plaza
4/19 - Music Hall of Williamsburg
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[mp3] King Khan & The Shrines - "Torture"

The 60’s inspired rock n’ soul of King Khan & The Shrines’ What Is?! was one of those records that slipped under my radar for most of 2007. That is, until mop up season in December. I’d now say “No Regrets” and “Welfare Bread” are easily among 2007’s best singles, and only didn’t appear among my faves because I didn’t hear them until it was too late.

Word today via Pitchfork is the band has recently signed on with Vice Records, home of their more well-known/less ass-kickin’ garage rock compadres The Black Lips. This June they’ll release The Supreme Genuis Of…, and, if first single “Torture” is any indication, the king will once again be reigning supreme over any and all bands equally smitten with The Stooges and James Brown.

MP3 :: Torture
(from The Supreme Genuis Of… Info here)
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MP3 :: Welfare Bread
MP3 :: No Regrets
(from What Is?! Buy here)
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Album Review: The Black Keys - "Attack & Release"

When word came a few months ago that esteemed hip-hop producer Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz, The Grey Album) would be behind the boards for the new Black Keys record, Attack & Release, my initial reaction was that at the very least it would have more life to it than 2006’s rather dull Magic Potion. I figured on the heels of all the attention they got for Rubber Factory, not to mention signing on with Nonesuch Records, the band was poised to catapult to the top of the indie-rock world with its follow up. But of course that never happened, and for me The Black Keys remained among my second or third tier of favorite modern rock bands. Well, Attack & Release was released last week and it doesn’t disappoint at all - in fact it’s the best album, from start to finish, that the band has ever released. Working in a real studio for the first time has led to increased production qualities throughout these 11 tracks, but for the most part Danger Mouse smartly avoids trying to tamper with the band’s trademark hard blues-rock sound. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with all sorts of blips and beats, he simply adds the occasional flourish (a little banjo here, a little piano there, backing vocals in a few places) to keep things interesting.

Though he has helped shape Attack & Release into The Black Keys’ most adventurous album to date, Danger Mouse is not the star. That role belongs squarely to the dynamic Akron, Ohio duo of singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Karney. I wouldn’t necessarily say that their songwriting has grown by leaps and bounds on Attack & Release over earlier efforts such as The Big Come Up, Thickfreakness, or Rubber Factory, but it is certainly more consistent. Meaning if you’ve enjoyed the Keys’ in the past, then this album will be right up your alley. Lead single “Strange Times” is effective, if not as incredible as “10 A.M. Automatic“ or “Set You Free”, and “I Got Mine” and “Remember When (Side B)” rock out familiarly. “Lies” is a dark, incendiary slow-burner that recalls early Zeppelin (and may better it), and the Danger Mouse fingerprints come through on the haunted country-blues of “Psychotic Girl” in the tinkered piano and ghostly background vocals.

The album’s high points though may be a trio of laid-back tracks that employ open space better than anything in the Keys back catalog - opener “All You Ever Wanted” ambles beautifully, Auerbach showing off his gruff vocals more than usual. “Remember When (Side A)” and “Things Ain’t Like They Used To Be” are similarly gripping and effective - both heartfelt songs of pure heartache. What makes this their best effort to date is the fact that they kept it to a brisk 11 songs, without any filler. Each song is individually memorable, and many, including “Same Old Thing” and “So He Won’t Break”, get better with more listens. The only thing that’s going to keep Attack & Release from attaining the same level of indie-rock stardom as, say, Band of Horses, is the lack of a truly gripping single with crossover potential, a la the aforementioned “10 A.M. Automatic”. But that’s fine with me. The Black Keys, to these ears always a band on the cusp, have finally released an album that fulfills their early promise. Welcome to my first tier boys.

MP3 :: Strange Times
MP3 :: Remember When (Side A)
(from Attack & Release. Buy here)
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Musical Fun with Barack Obama

Both brilliant. The second is Earl Pickens covering his own Pennsylvania version of Johnny Cash's cover of "I've Been Everywhere".

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ABKCO Catalog Now Available @ emusic

If the age old hypothesis is true - that you can’t like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones equally - then chalk me up as a Stones guy. Not to say anything negative about the Fab Four, but the street grittiness and folk/blues/rock n’ roll influence of early and mid-period Stones always appealed to me more so than The Beatles cuter, studio-perfected pop genuis. I’m just saying.

So you can imagine I’m tickled pink right now because of what I just saw as I was browsing around over at eMusic - the very best online mp3 hub just landed a pretty sweet deal. How about the ABKCO catalog? The 60’s home of The Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, ? & The Mysterians, and Herman’s Hermits, among others. I haven’t checked, but I don’t know if this stuff is even over at iTunes. And if it is you should still get it at emusic because iTunes is stupid. Does iTunes offer 25 or sometimes 50 FREE downloads for joining? Nope! Is iTunes DRM-free? Nope!

My monthly downloads just reset the other day, so this weekend I’ll be browsing through a few Stones Singles Compilations looking for old b-sides I’ve never heard before. Then maybe I’ll move myself into some Sam Cooke, who, other than a few of his bigger hits, I’ve never really listened to much. Very exciting indeed.

MP3 :: Memo From Turner
(from Metamorphosis. Available from EMUSIC)
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[mp3] Ladyhawk - "S.T.H.D."

That new Ladyhawk album, Shots, has kind of snuck under my radar since its release earlier last month. I’m yet to hear the full album, but after hearing this newly released track I’m going to make it a priority. I was a big fan of the first single, “I Don’t Always Know What You’re Saying”, when it hit the web back in January. If you liked that earlier track you will no doubt get sweaty from “S.T.H.D.” too - it’s more of the same monster riffs, gruff vocals and pounded rhythms. There’s certainly nothing lady-like brimming out of these speakers - these hairy manly men sure know how to bring the R.O.C.K. Shots is available through the good folks at Jagjaguwar Records.

MP3 :: S.T.H.D.
MP3 :: I Don’t Always Know What You’re Saying
(from Shots. Buy here)
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Previously:

MP3 :: War
(from Fight For Anarchy EP. Buy here)

MP3 :: The Dugout
(from Ladyhawk. Buy here)
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[mp3] Centro-Matic - "I, The Kite"

Songs from the upcoming split LP from Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel, Dual Hawks, are still streaming over at their respective myspace homes, but today comes the first free and legal mp3 from either side of the project. “I, The Kite” sounds like one of the most dependable bands in all of indie-rock delivering the goods yet again - the acoustic rhythm guitar giving the track slightly more of a folk-rock feel to go along with Will Johnson’s unmistakable rasp and the band’s feedback-drenched dynamics. Promising indeed.

MP3 :: I, The Kite
(from Dual Hawks. Out June 3 in U.S. Info here)
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MP3 :: Triggers And Trash Heaps
MP3 :: Patience For The Ride
(from Fort Recovery. Buy here)
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Previously :: Centro-Matic: Feedback Recovery (a primer with tons of mp3s courtesy of Misra Records and the band)
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New Music - A Faulty Chromosome

A Faulty Chromosome is a Texas band that has recently hit my ears in a big way. They self-released their debut earlier this year, the infinitely weirdly titled An Ex-Anorexic’s Six Sicks Exit, which has basically been on playing on repeat in my car all week. I featured the album’s lead-off track, “Them Pleasures of the Flesh”, earlier this week among my favorite tracks of March, as it’s found its way onto nearly every play list I’ve made over the past few weeks.

The album itself is a dense and caustic mix of sweet indie-pop, atmospheric MBV-styled shoegaze, and a decidedly lo-fi recording spirit. The guitars are sometimes harsh, sometimes chiming and are supplemented with all sorts of cool electronic sound effects. And barely noticeable on first listen amongst the murk are the strength of the Dalke-penned lyrics, which veer from heartfelt confessionals (“Them Pleasures of the Flesh”) to melodic and irreverent pop songs (“Anomie’s The Enemy”) to comically insightful character sketches (“The Lonliness Of The Short-Distance Walker” imagines its narrator as a drunken old man trying to make it home from the donut shop). All in all, An Ex-Anorexic’s Six Sicks Exit is a solid debut album from a promising band. It deftly balances its cloudy sonic layers with bright, strong melodies as it demands repeated listens.

To get the album the band asks that you make a donation ($6.66 is the suggested amount) through their myspace, though you can go higher or lower depending on your financial situation. Meaning if you like these songs you can very easily hear 8 more of them for cheap.

MP3 :: Them Pleasures Of The Flesh
MP3 :: Jackie-O
(from An Ex-Anorexic’s Six Sicks Exit. Buy here)
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Nicolai Dunger - Soul Rush

The other day as I was cooking breakfast I put on an album I hadn’t listened to in years. Swedish born songwriter Nicolai Dunger’s Soul Rush was one of those interesting discoveries I made through a music magazine’s CD sampler not long before the internet became my primary source for new music. You’re probably wondering what a music magazine is, right? Well, they were these things that were filled with pictures and words, they shared opinions, and basically told you what you should listen to and what to avoid. What a dumb idea. No wonder they’re dropping like flies in 2008. But this CD sampler had a song called “Dr. Zhivago’s Train” on it that blew my mind, and I ordered Soul Rush straightaway.

.

The first thing I noticed, as would any listener, is that Dunger is blessed/cursed by sharing a damn-near identical voice to Van Morrison. I guess if your voice is gonna be a dead ringer for another artist’s you could do much much worse than Van the Man. Geddy Lee…..Kip Winger…..the guy from Supertramp - those are just off the top of my head. It became clear very quickly though that Dunger was/is a uniquely talented singer and songwriter in his own right, and any vocal similarities he shares to the Irish bard is more a coincidence than a conscious effort on his part to emulate a legend.

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Soul Rush came out to little fanfare here in the states back in 2001 and for a pretty long time after that I thought I had stumbled onto one of the great lost folk/soul albums I’d ever hear, and I might have. Its mix of strings and horns over Dunger’s impassioned vocals and the folk backdrops of the Esbjorn Svenssons Trio are often totally captivating. Dunger has gone on to release a few more solid albums in the years since, collaborating occasionally with Mercury Rev and Will Oldham, but nothing has come close to these earlier recordings in my opinion. With Bon Iver’s soulful indie-folk making me dizzy lately I thought I’d go back and explore other artists in the same musical ballpark, and these songs, both from Soul Rush, are superb.

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MP3 :: Dr. Zhivago’s Train
MP3 :: Ballad Of A Relationship
(from Soul Rush. Info here)
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