Aural Quarterly: January-March 2011

It's been a challenge, what between the diminishing time spent driving alone and the little one's need to be entertained by televised sing-alongs the audio equivalent of nails on a chalkboard, but I've managed to squeeze in a bushel full of good tunes in between quiet moments, either in the early morning hours while the household still sleeps or while Yuula's attentions are drawn more towards her toy collection. I make it work. You knew I would.

JANUARY

Every year sees a new muse, a go-to album that creates the perfect mood while the sun rises, or sets, a perfect background to every whistling tea kettle and sizzling egg, an album added to a very exclusive playlist, and this year it is Grown Unknown by Lia Ices (left). Angel voice over settling instrumental, the line is drawn early and deep. Anna Calvi draws on the opposite side of girl named albums, venturing more into the seductive and smokey-bar side of the spectrum but to no less acclaim. Where Lia navigates the hushed ballad that floats into space, Anna squirms thru a love-torn rock opera and placing the music in your lap, forcing you to deal with it. But there has to be some bright side, greener grass to peruse and that's where Jenn Grant dropped Honeymoon Punch. Too happy to be genuine and too rocking to be cute, a chick trifecta has been established. And while we're going by name only, James Vincent McMorrow began a pattern of my "surprise likes". By that I mean that in the past, an album like his would have been abruptly passed over for it's inability to swoon me in its absence of the ethereal or immediacy. But in the early quiet hours I spoke of, Early in The Morning framed some perfect mornings of lamplit peace and seemed to rise with the sun.

Amidst a sea of female voices that dominated the early months, the Smith Westerns (right) brought a much-praised take on mid-70's guitar twang, dipped lightly into Bowie-isms and topped quite nicely with irresistible pop choruses that could only be forged by humble youngens. Dye It Blonde made us by tickets to see our first concert in years. Enveloping a more 80's soft rock/jazz sound, complete with synth and sax breakdown, Destroyer composes yet another masterpiece for his arsenal, Kaputt is once again treading ground most are either afraid or unable to, with tracks designed to slowly wrap its sparkling fingers around you til your locked into a web of complex sound, and you love it. Loud and brash has been the way of British Sea Power since their debut so I would expect nothing less on Valhalla Dancehall, a welcome return to fire-breathy yelping and amphitheater-sized lazer guitar tracks that hook in a bob along.

There's a thin line between radio drivel and a worthwhile listen and on their new album, Mine Is Yours, the Cold War Kids (left) walk that line superbly. To me these guys have represented a bohemian meets modern beatnik lifestyle in their music, always seeming to be spontaneously grasping at melody and lyrics as the tunes develop around them. It's probably quite difficult to give such an off-the-cuff allusion. But they seemed to have polished up a bit, maybe rented a rehearsal space and this time are coming off more Killers than Kerouac. But I wouldn't fault them for that. The song writing is undoubtedly there, developed from beginning to end instead of chorus to chorus and man can Nathan Willet belt out a tune. Remember Cake? They are still turning them out. Showroom Of Compassion exhibits their barmy charm and legitimizes their brand of quirky alternative country, a term I loathe but have to agree, fits Cake well.

Now if you wanna talk stellar album openers we will talk Kiss Each Other Clean by my personal beard hero Iron & Wine (right). But if you wanna talk comeback album that may as well have started over fresh we will talk There Are Rules by the Get Up Kids. And if you wanna talk sweet and catchy tunes we will talk People Problems by Oh No Oh My. But if you wanna talk Spanish soft rock ballads we will talk Superluv by Remate. And if you wanna talk warbly kicking tunes we will talk Outside by Tapes 'N Tapes.

A husband and wife duo named Tennis come across as a twee-ish spazz fest, but upon further listens the tunes on Cape Dory are simple only in their presentation and may foretell of a greater future in bouncy dance rock. Laura's new favorite band of the year is aptly named (left) Braids, as in I don't know how to braid as much as I don't know how these cats come up with the sugarpop-perfect, experimentally delicious and tribal-bounce tunes they do on Native Speaker. They are Canadian so... it is expected.

A good instrumental album is not hard to come by, but one as diverse yet utilitarian as Monster Rally's latest and first full length, is. Coral is the ultimate mixtape fodder as each tiny track may seem insignificant as a whole but become essential as singular tracks amidst a random collection, the double spacing between paragraphs of a term paper. Together We Step: Is it a drone album with Latin tendencies? Is it tropicalia run on the wrong rpm? Whatever it is, I set Está Vivo aside for the summer, now that I have a sunroof and all. Another album I've set aside for heavy summer listening is Arcade Dynamics by Ducktails (right), a name that instantly takes me to a time of afterschool obsession, but sounds more like Scrooge McDuck joined a lo-fi, neo-psychedelia chillwave band that experiments in ambient pop tunes perfect for swimming in pools of money. Not since I was in highschool have I listened to such bold & blasted pop-punk as the finally here self-titled Cloud Nothings debut. They were just too catchy to resist.

I gotta be honest, I haven't taken a good listen to the new Deerhoof (left). albeit for one track that is up for track of the year, but isn't that the way Deerhoof does it? Deerhoof Vs Evil is yet another collection of challenging tunes, to play, to hear, to love, but love is the ultimate goal after all. Branching out from his many groups is an interesting instrumental attempt by Phil Manley. The songs on Life Coach range from goofy electronic dawdles too seriously dark and lovely slips and slides along the neck of a guitar no matter what it's plugged in to. Fujiya & Miyagi are a band I've managed to ignore for a couple years now but their latest, awkwardly titled Ventriloquizzing has me interested enough to go back and discover a few more tracks of dark electronic dance tunes, even if it isn't my genre of choice. The Decemberists made another album too. The King Is Dead is good. That is all.

FEBRUARY

I immediately knew I'd love Too Beautiful To Work by The Luyas (right), not because I feel it encompasses my life's mantra, but because opening track shines a light in your eyes and doesn't let you look away for 37 sweet and freaky minutes. The presence of girly vocals, weird-o synths, just enough percussion and gentle affected horns has me coming back for multiple repeat listens, just to find out how they did that. The Low Anthem was a borderline breakthrough, not expecting the sound coming from their mouths by the look of the cover or the write up in a magazine. What I heard was meant to be much more treasured and lauded over, a real contender for album of the year, or at least gut wrencher of the year in the closer on Smart Flesh. A new album by aural explorists Akron/Family is always something to get excited over and while I haven't fallen in love with The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT like I have so many of their others, the songs are no less valuable. Maybe just less revolutionary, but anyone who reinvents the wheel too many times always ends up rolling downhill.

Let's get foreign. Cut Copy is from Australia, so you can bet anything that makes it this far around the world is worth a listen. Zonoscope is a dance happy synth record that would fit snugly between some OMD & Yaz. Glasgow's answer-before-the-question to Explosions in The Sky, Mogwai, have been testing the unfriendly waters of guitar heavy instrumentals, epic odes to skylines and city lights in super fast motion. Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will takes an unexpectedly lighter approach to the whole process while still managing to burn you face to bone. Lukestar (left) is from Norway, and finally after three releases I checked out Taiga. Driving dual guitars, power bass and slappy drums all reinforce the falsetto of an Oslo angel and make for a surprisingly abrupt party album.

Oscillate Wisely is good advice for any situation but Mike Adams At His Honest Weight brings to us a dreamy collection of groovy, slow pop tracks with heartfelt lyrics and a sense of sincerity that is becoming far too absent in music. La Sera (right) is the sexier third of Vivian Girls, a garage rock trio, but Kickball Katy's eponymous branching is less frigid and riff-laden and more honeyed beach-mospherics, a term I've coined to give a handful of new artists making modern day Gidget soundtracks. Hook after hook is the game plan for Tristen or her second release, Charlatans At The Garden Gate. Combine 60's throwbacks with witty lyrics and a shining plug from NPR and you've got a good idea what you're dealing with here.

Resigning herself to the darker corners of the music world PJ Harvey (left) pokes her head out of the murky depths and gives us Let England Shake, a grand exclamation with grander content, dealing with all the world's woes and wars and wrapping it into a xylophony package. Up until now I had thought of DeVotchka as a one trick pony, but their latest collection of powerful chamber folk ballads are really quite good. 100 Lovers does return to its How It Ends hook, even briefly and in theory, but when you're wearing a edgy new shirt it's best to have your comfy jeans on. I was forced to listen to Yuck, the new album by Yuck, mainly because they are the openers for a concert we're going to later this month and I thought it'd be more enjoyable if I knew a couple tunes and could maybe sing along. This is a time capsule, from inception to creation to production, giving me the early 90's college vibe, if I'd've gone to college in the 90's, or at all.

Never knowing what to expect from Six Organs Of Admittance (right) is part of the reason to go and listen to to their albums when they come out. The other reason to listen to them, in the case of Asleep On The Floodplain is to weigh in on some heavy handed acoustic guitar ruminations. Searching a similar plain of soundwaves is Julianne Barwick on her new album The Magic Place. The music here seems to be listener versatile as to apply it to your own magic place and perhaps enhance ones own magical experience... I had to keep checking if this album was still playing or if I was dead. As far as electronic instrumentals go Near The Parenthesis is currently at the top of my game, as I find I'm always looking for similar characteristics no matter who I'm listening to. My needs don't evolve so the music needs to revolve, and for now Japanese For Beginners fits in the space.

The pixie speckled cover of Elk's bedroom project Let's Get Married does not prepare you for the enormity of it's scope. Beach Boys make Afropop music, the Weather Girls meets Philip Glass, it's all over the map but sign me up for this roadtrip. A spastically enjoyable sampling of what I hope keeps on coming. Little Wings has been lurking on the outskirts of my PacWest musical endeavors, but in lieu of his couterparts recent lack of material, I gave Black Grass my full attention and felt shamed for falling for the prettiest girl in the class when her friend turned out to be the one who'd've given me the lasting and meaningful relationship. No Witch is the good old American folk rock record The Cave Singers (left) put out this year. I like it best of all their spawn, seeing as how they beefed up the arrangements and explored as many, if not all of the possibilities a single solitary tune could take you and I like that.

What music collection is complete without a little French Canadian piano pop power rock? None I tell ya, and since the cryptic bandname of Who Are You caught my attention I give you Breizh. Good stuff. Cyanide Sisters is an intriguing electronic record by a band whose silly name of Com Truise hides the fact that they have some seriously good slow buzzing burners here. Soaring, swirling psychedelic dream-pop atmospherics on Daydreamer, an album by Youngteam highlights floating harmonies and celestial shoegaze guitar soundscapes like early 90's college radio. A leader of the chillwave evolution Toro Y Moi (right) splices and filets his way thru Underneath The Pine. All this sonic exploration can really make a fellow feel light headed. Then we have Magnus Moriarty™, a young Norwegian with some relatively amusing pop songs to dole out over the course of Kodachromerockopera.

MARCH

New Radiohead album called King Of Limbs. Enough said there. Attempting to follow up a masterpiece is never easy, but Elbow show respectfully with Build A Rocket Boys and prove not only do they never disappoint but hold strong against impossible odds. Yuula really dug the new Dodos (left) album which proved to be a savior one frustrating afternoon. The most unlikely dance tunes on No Color really shine while Dodos don't exactly tread new ground, for them anyhow, and stick to their guns that proved so effective in the past.

Highly criticized and unfairly dissected, The Strokes (right) seemed to have finally lost interest in pleasing the masses. Angles is a lazy album, in comparison to their earlier output, but that's not to say it's any less genuine or any less terrific. It's the Strokes album that you can relax to, use as background music without the fear that a hipster gathering may occur at any moment. Denying the whistle ever existed Peter Bjorn And John make their catchiest record yet, which is astonishing considering their past releases. Gimme Some is another unexpected dance album, but I may be looking to apply the tag at the slightest twitch of a shoulder. If you ask them, R.E.M. will tell you Collapse Into Now is their "best record yet", just like they did for their past 14 releases, but let's not get crazy. Breaking the band's history into pre and post Bill Berry departure, this ranks amongst the better of the latter but may have just become a b-side collection of the former. That was confusing.

The dark, dark meditations of Mirel Wagner (left) are not for the faint of heart. Filling out an open space in the voodoo blues of 1920's Mississippi Riverside and graveyards, it's an astonishingly touching piece of work, the strangest fact of which is that it comes from the shores of Finland. I don't think I'll hear a more strangely likable album than The Sandwitches Mrs. Jones' Cookies. Awkward hoots and hollers, un-tuned guitars (to say detuned would connotate intent), overly dramatic vocals, sparse drumming all come together to make a curious little nugget that seems to morph from song to song, while maintaining a consistency that makes you wonder... why? Paris Suit Yourself play play post-punk-New-Orleans-hip-hop-chanson-indie-rock-Manu Chao-biker-metal-African-free-jazz-harmony-pop. Sounds good to me. My Main Shitstain is a rude, belligerent, ridiculous and ultimately brilliant debut from some British scene veterans who were in the right time at the right place.

Filling my African-blues, French based Burkina Faso native duo quota, Abdoulaye Traore & Mohamed Diaby fuse some Andalusian rhythms with Afro-Latin influences to critical acclaim, or moderate refrain. There's some sparkling moments on Debademba, but I'm gonna need to familiarize myself a tad more before I can say we're as close as Ali & Toumani. But as for the laid back, stoner/krautrock psyechedlia moments of early 2011 I looked to Eternal Tapestry and their first official full length Beyond The 4th Door. Five elongated tracks, that may as well be one long one, perfect for sunset, sunrises and sun implosions. And while we're on bands that envelop their very own realm of sonic exclusion, Grails (right). Dark instrumental epics with Middle Eastern influences seem to be in full experimental display, and with a string of successful sessions preceding it, Deep Politics is an impressive landing strip in an overgrown jungle of an unmarked territory. Got that?

Tim Cohen (left) is the lead singer of one of my favorite finds of 2010 The Fresh & Onlys. He reaches out on his own with Magic Trick and shows he's got more to say than any one band can handle. Early rock feels mixed with clever lyricism at such a prolific pace is something to behold. Another "surprise like" this year has got to be the Danish pedal steel of Maggie Björklund. Coming Home is a tender recording of songs that make me wanna ride a donkey thru the desert drinking the beads of sweat that roll off my forehead, on purpose. One of the most prolific artists on our time is Mountain Goats. Heavy on the clever and spastic on the folk, I can't separate All Eternals Deck from any of their previous work, so that's good.

In the wake of mega-giant record labels crash and burn, artists denied access to the to the VIP rooms can thank their lucky stars they were able to flourish and evolve in the their own right, instead of turning into homogenized muck. Enter Kurt Vile. I highly recommend his moody-yet intensely uplifting album called Smoke Ring For My Halo, full of reposed introspection that we almost never heard. This dude I went to school with has a record label of pretty crazy yet talented musicians churning out improv tunes full of guitar experimentation, drums dropping down escalator shafts and bass clarinets rocking like Hendrix. 100% Intense is one of those releases by Intense Men. It's intense. If you watch TV you've heard Bibio (right), probably more than once. Most easily paraphrased as folktronica, Mind Bokeh starts off strong, flounders, and comes out the other end with a bronze medal. Maybe he was thinking too hard about soundtracking the next Kindle commercial.

Mixing so many of the elements found successful in today's frontrunning community That Ghost comes off like a market research focus group with the thermostat set on 95 and candy bowls full of alpha blockers, but that's how people came up with the Take5 candy bar. Songs Out Here is delicious too. Starfucker (left) quicken the pulse a touch at first, but anyone with a heart condition is advised to leave the room by track 4, cause they ain't coming down. Reptilians is a glorious gathering of cheery spaced out pop tunes I can't wait to dance to in the yard come June. A trend I'm seeing the past few years is bands trying to score 80's films, but not good films with Ringwald, McCarthy or one of the Corey's but one of those horrible ones, therefore making the music the only reason you'd pay to see the film. I'd pay the $2.94 it cost in 1982 to see Craft Spells Idle Labor.


Already to work on April.