Derivative German Synth Pop from Midnight Resistance

This is the time on Sprockets when we dance.

Do you like Depeche Mode? If you like Depeche Mode and just can’t get enough, “Remote” from Midnight Resistance is cut from the same cloth. German Synth Pop doesn’t do much for me, but I will say at least it’s well done. The production is top notch, the music is tight, and the lyrics are tortured. If this is your thing, check out the review on AltSounds: http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/113010-midnight-resistance-remote-album.html.

Raucous, crafted Rock from Glocca Morra

Don't get comfortable.

They could sound prettier if they wanted to, but they want to jar you with the vocals while they wow you with their instruments. Parts of it are really good stuff. Read the review I wrote for AltSounds: http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/112982-glocca-morra-the-working-bones-a-health-decline-album.html

Quirky, accomplished Brit Pop from How’s My Pop

We all play ball up on a wall.

In my review, I describe “On the Hop” by How’s My Pop as Sondre Lerche meets The Arctic Monkeys and I really think that captures them perfectly. If you don’t know who both of those acts are, though, you’ll just have to read the review to get a sense of the album: http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/112967-hows-my-pop-on-the-hop-album.html

The Friday mix: No theme. Just good music.

When I’m riding around in my car and a song comes on my iPod that I particularly want to share, I tag it for later. So this week I don’t really have a theme other than this being a round-up of songs that I’ve tagged over the last few weeks. I hope you like.

Things I like.

1. You Make No Bones – Alfie
   Every time this song comes on, I think it’s Gomez for a minute. I like Gomez a lot, so I like this song. Great mix of harmonica and strings behind an appealing melody.
2. Spreadin’ Rhythm Around (Lady Bug vs. Lady Day RR Remix) – Billie Holiday
   Fantastic, fantastic song. In the first place, you’ve got Billie so you can hardly miss. The old instrumentation is still there, so you’ve got lots of wailing clarinet and muted trumpet. Then you add in updated percussion and Lady Bug (Digable Planets) alternating verses with Billie and it’s such a winner.
3. Arc of Time – Bright Eyes
   Kind of a cool contemplation of life, death, and what comes after. I like the funky, clap-laden percussion, the multi-octave vocals and the kind of deep lyrics.
4. Happiness – Built to Spill
   I really like Built to Spill. The juxtaposition of the slide guitar with his nasally alto verses is really cool
5. Dim the Lights – Ekolu
   I can only take so much Reggae in one sitting but the well placed Reggae tune is a thing of beauty, which is why I like to throw the occasional one into a mix. This has all the standard elements: keyboards on the upbeat, a little horns, a sweet melody. It makes me smile.
6. I Don’t Care – Fall Out Boy
   Not a whole lot of Fallout Boy really grabs me, but this is one of them. It’s a great stomping groove with cool background vocals thrown in and a really catchy guitar hook. I find a lot of their stuff kind of basic, but this is some advanced songwriting, in my opinion.
7. All Rise – Further Seems Forever
   This has kind of a grungy feel to it, but it doesn’t do so much of the minor chord thing. The verses are wispy and thoughtful but the chorus you don’t get to hear in this sample is big, sweeping, and melodic.
8. Thursday – The Futureheads
   Fat harmony vocals like this get me every time. The jangling guitars and simple percussion don’t bowl you over, but the lead and backing vocals and even the peculiar lyrics give this song appeal.
9. Do It for Free – G. Love & Special Sauce
   “Philadelphonic” was an atypical album for G. Love, but this is my favorite. Everyone has heard the Jack Johnson song ‘Rodeo Clowns’ off this album, but this one is a lesser-known but equally catchy Pop song from the same release.
10. Sirens – The Gabe Dixon Band
    Gabe has some busy fingers on his piano in this track. The melody of the verses is pretty, the chorus swells and ebbs, and the bridges feature some cool guitar work. Gabe is doing the heavy lifting keeping the groove going, so the guitar can sort of ooze around and set mood. They do a really nice job with it.
11. She Knows – Gnarls Barkley
    Charles Barkley is a prick. Gnarls Barkley, however, is a collaboration between one of my favorite producers, Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), and rapper Cee-Lo Green. This track is from “The Odd Couple” and it’s a quiet, pretty groove. Like all of their stuff, the production is worth listening to and the lyrics demand your attention.
12. Sweet Emotion – Mike Gordon & Leo Kottke
    This really is a great version of this song, though why Amazon picked this nondescript segment as their clip I don’t know. Mike Gordon (Phish) is an amazing bass player and if I could play a guitar like Leo Kottke I would never put it down.
13. Crosseyed Beautiful Youngunz – Love as Laughter
    Just a simple song with some clean electric guitar and gentle electric piano, but the melody is just beautiful.

I think that will do it for this week. Enjoy with an early Christmas Ale, which is something else I’ve enjoyed over the last few weeks. Have a good weekend.

Old school bluesy Alt Country from Deadstring Brothers

Turns out they DO make 'em like they used to.

Did you like “Exile on Main Street” by The Rolling Stones? Want more? This is as close as you’ll come to that vintage Stones sound and it is a brand new album from Deadstring Brothers. I reviewed this for AltSounds, so you can check it out there: http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/112890-deadstring-brothers-sao-paulo-cd.html

Challenging but appealing Psychedelic Pop from Animal Collective

Animal Collective is a band out of Baltimore, MD that consists of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb), and Geologist (Brian Weitz). Their music is not for the faint of heart. They play way, way outside and although the songs are often beautiful, they can be very challenging. Their music typically features keyboards that are often the most disciplined instrument, atmospheric guitars and other affects, and meandering vocals that frequently wander up into falsetto. These are not Pop songs. Well, maybe they are psychedelic Pop songs. The Wikipedia article on Psychedelic Pop includes them along with accessible, mainstream acts like The Shins, MGMT, and The Polyphonic Spree. Animal Collective isn’t really cut from the same cloth, though.

"Strawberry Jam" from Animal Collective is even better than it looks.

So after all those caveats and warnings, let me say I really like Animal Collective. I don’t like every song I’ve heard, but I really enjoy a lot of what they’ve done. For all its weirdness, their music is usually melodic and appealing. The guys are talented on their instruments and play them fearlessly. It’s a potent combination that has led to some very interesting sounds over the years. Today, I’m going to recommend a few tracks from a couple of late releases. They have put out 8 releases to date, though not always with the same lineup. A CD credited to Animal Collective might feature any or all of their members so there is a lot of variability in the music.

First, a couple tracks from “Feels,” released in October of 2005.

• Did You See the Words – This track in unorthodox, but still pretty accessible. Piano, drums, and guitars are used for traditional purposes. The melody is also catchy, if a bit strange. I suppose, though, that the strangeness is a lot of the appeal to me. It doesn’t sound like anything else I own, but it rocks out a bit before dissolving to a finish.
• Bees – The singer meanders through this ethereal tune, backed by noodling piano and what I think must be autoharp. The song never really goes anywhere, but it’s a beautiful composition.

These three are from their 2007 release, “Strawberry Jam.” If you thought ‘Bees’ was weird, have a seat.

• Derek – I am reminded of some joyful African folk song, though after the first half of the song, more instruments kick in. The melody remains the same, but the song sounds bigger. As for this video, live footage, studio audio.
• Cuckoo Cuckoo – The feel of this track is dreamy, but I’m not altogether sure it’s a good dream. I couldn’t assign a time signature to this song, though I suppose it can be counted in 4/4. Moments of quiet piano are punctuated by spikes of punching, chaotic percussion and wailing and warbling vocals. I can’t explain why I like this song.
• #1 – A descending keyboard arpeggio is the basis of this song, behind which an incomprehensible poem is chanted with accompanying singing voices and clicking percussion. This song is entirely experimental but it reaches me. What can I say? I have listened to a lot of cutting edge New Age music for a long time and this closer to that than any Pop music.

Apparently, Animal Collective is working on a new album that will be released in conjunction with a film. The film is to feature abstract visuals and some live action footage to accompany their music, which the band claims is some of the most experimental stuff they’ve ever done. The film has been submitted to the Sundance Festival and they would like to see it shown in movie theaters before it is eventually released on DVD. If that happens, I may invest in some LSD futures, because I have a hunch psychedelic drug sales would spike.

Excellent loop-oriented Rock from Rifle Recoil

Rifle Recoil is one guy, Jeff Kessel, and the main idea he uses is starting with a groove, looping it, and adding more and more to it throughout the song. You’ve heard other musicians do this. Keller Williams do an acoustic pop version of it. Jeff Kessel is really good at it too. He picks cool songs to cover and writes some great hooks himself. This was a gem I got from AltSounds, so the review is posted there. Check it out. http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/112749-rifle-recoil-verizon-shine-album.html

The Friday mix: More of my favorite female artists

Today I’m going to continue making my way through some of my favorite female performers. I pulled 16 songs from the letters G through J in my iPod so I got artists both popular and obscure. I hope you like them.

1. Goodness – Electricity, Electricity
   I don’t actually know anything about Goodness nor do I have any other song by them. However, they contributed this winner to the “Schoolhouse Rock Rocks!” album. It’s an energetic (no pun intended) cover of the great cartoon song. Her delivery of the “Electricity Eeeeelectricity” lyric has this great liquid sheen that I love and since she sings it in every measure of the song, I love the song.
2. Helium – The Revolution of Hearts
   They were never a huge band, but there is an interesting story attached to their front woman Mary Lou Lord, if Wikipedia is to be believed. For my part, I just like their songwriting. Towering and complex guitar parts paired nicely with simple and pretty vocal lines.
3. Holly Golightly & The Greenhornes – There Is an End
   Holly Golightly pops up in some unexpected places. In addition to her own voluminous solo career, she has collaborated with acts like Rocket from the Crypt and The White Stripes. This is a collaboration with The Greenhornes that wound up on the Broken Flowers Soundtrack.
   

   Something about that is just sexy as hell. Don't stop playing those instruments, ladies.

4. Hope Sandoval & Warm Inventions – On the Low
   Of course, I loved Hope Sandoval’s work with Mazzy Star, but this is a song you may not have heard by her. In addition to being drop dead gorgeous, she has great patient melodic sense and a smooth, smoky voice.
5. Inara George – No Poem
   OK. So this is cheating. I already wrote up Inara George as part of The Bird and Bee. But in addition to her work with them (with whom she still works), she has released some solo work. I really like this sweet, twisted love song. The gist is he is no poem when he opens his mouth, so she tells him, “If I were you I wouldn’t talk. I’d just keep on dancing.”
6. The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson
   I couldn’t decide between this song and ‘Die Alone.’ Ultimately, I picked this one because my daughter loves it. The simplicity of this song reminds me of Feist but it’s funnier than Feist.
7. Saturday’s Gone – Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
   Cellist and singer Isobel Campbell used to be a member of Belle & Sebastian. I’ve got to say I’m glad because I like her solo stuff better than I like B&S and on this one she gets to work with Scream Trees founder Mark Lanegan. This is a pretty, dreamy song like you might expect from someone hip deep in the Indie scene but maybe not from someone with roots in the grunge scene.
8. Janis Joplin – One Good Man
   The one and only. I always really liked this one, perhaps because she was able to convey so much emotion with her voice. It was made for the Blues.
9. Volunteers – Jefferson Airplane
   Grace Slick is one-of-a-kind. Radio murdered most of their songs for me. This one never got as much airplay. The whole intergenerational tension thing seems silly to me now – perhaps because I wasn’t there – but the song rocks, make no mistake.
10. They – Jem
    Jem has a few songs I really like, but again I had to go with this one because it is one of my daughter’s favorite songs ever. It is quite possibly the best updating of a Bach song ever (Prelude in F from The Well Tempered Clavier).
11. Jesca Hoop – Summertime
    Born to strict Mormon parents, Jesca Hoop ran off to be a homesteader in the wilds of Northern California before becoming a nanny for Tom Waits’ kids. He describes her music as “going swimming in a lake at night.” This song makes me smile every single time I hear it.
12. Jill Cunniff – NYC Boy
    I love Jill Cunniff most for her brilliant worth with Luscious Jackson, whom I will be writing up next time. Since their breakup, though, she has done some solo work, which I also like. This is poppier than the LJ stuff of the past, but it’s still good.
13. Jill Scott – It’s Love
    I suppose I need to listen to more Jill Scott. This was the only song on “Who Is Jill Scott?” that I really liked, but what an unbelievable song. I also really like her collaboration with Lupe Fiasco, ‘Daydreamin’.’ I should check out the rest of her catalog.
14. Joan Osborne – Right Hand Man
    Joan Osborne is an amazing talent. I was always rooting for her to become huge. She has collaborated with everyone from The Dead to Michael Franti to The Funk Brothers. I’ve seen her perform on a few occasions and she has such a great voice and exudes such a powerful sexual energy. She is absolutely riveting. This song was from the same album as the unfortunate ‘One of Us’ but this song has sprit and soul and electricity.
15. Jonatha Brooke – How Deep Is Your Love?
    I’ve been a fan of Jonatha Brooke since her early days with The Story. Ms. Brooke is a fabulous songwriter. This song comes from my favorite record of hers, Steady Pull. Also check out the title track, a collaboration with the aforementioned Michael Franti.
16. Julie Dexter – Ketch a Vibe
    I don’t know who selected this clip, but it’s from the intro. Once this song gets going, it’s huge and energetic. You can get a sense of it from this live performance, but the sound sucks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvKb-5Vu2TE

That’s it for this week. Enjoy with a bottle of some really good wine, because she’s worth it.

Surprising organic Rock from a young Robert Palmer

So I was walking through a store and I heard this song. I didn’t know who it was, but it was quick and funky with cool lyrics. I also don’t have a phone with an app that lets you hold your phone up to a speaker and it will ID the song for you. It took a few weeks to determine that the song I had been grooving to was an old Robert Palmer tune, “Looking for Clues.”  (Try to ignore the silly video. Remember, they were all this bad in 1980.) The song hit #7 in Canada and #33 in the UK when it was released in 1980, but had never been a hit here, so I had never heard it before.

I always thought Palmer was a damn good looking man. Now, I'm not gay, but if I was...

Now anybody who lived through the 80s probably remembers Palmer’s work with The Power Station in ‘85, certainly remembers the inescapable ‘Addicted to Love’ in ’86, and possibly recalls ‘Bad Case of Loving You,’ which hit # 14 in the US in 1979. I was never a huge fan of that stuff, but I was intrigued with this unknown (to me) Palmer tune that was really cool. I decided to do a little digging and see what I could turn up.

Turns out Robert Palmer was really cool back in the day. He had an organic, rootsy sound that I hadn’t expected, given the songs of his with which I was familiar. I ordered his greatest hits, “The Best of Both Worlds,” and there’s a bunch of great music on it that never charted anywhere and I had never heard it. Check these out.

• Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley – This Blues/Funk tune has some fat vocal harmony and spidery keyboards that Stevie Wonder would be proud of. Not to mention the idea behind the song and the lyrics are cool. Love this song.
• How Much Fun – A sunny groove and carnival piano back Palmer and some ladies singing about finding out how much fun they can get into life.
• Man Smart (Woman Smarter) – Not written by the Grateful Dead, as you might think. This is an old Harry Belafonte song.  Palmer swings this one with some piano, guitar, steel drum, and penny whistle. I think this is the studio recording synched with footage of a live performance.
• Sailin’ Shoes/Hey Julia – The first half of this is a funky and celebratory tune with his signature guitar sound and female backup singers. Then it turns into this cute and clever love song. “Hey hey, Julia. You’re acting so peculiar. I know I’d never fool ya in a million years. A horn section your resemble and your figure makes me tremble and I sure would like to handle what’s between your ears.” My daughter loves this song.
• I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On – This was from “Riptide,” the same album as ‘Addicted to Love.’  It’s a cool song and one I hadn’t heard but a handful of times on the radio. The video is exactly like the ‘Addicted to Love’ video.

After the success I had with “The Best of Both Worlds,” I decided to go looking for some more Palmer. There was another track I found.

• Pressure Drop – When you think of Robert Palmer, you think of – say it with me – Reggae! Why didn’t you say it with me? I was surprised at this, but it’s a pretty good Reggae song. I like it anyway. I got this from a collection called “The Roots of Rock: Rock ‘n’ Reggae.”

Any fans of Robert Palmer will probably be surprised at the songs of his I didn’t know, but his last hit outside the UK was 15 years ago and he only had a handful of minor hits before his run in ‘85/’86. Anyway, he had his hip youth, his huge wave of success, and his period of waning popularity. Maybe it’s time for the comeback…

Spotty Electronica with some great moments from Ernest Gonzales

On the Exponential Records website, Ernest Gonzales tells us that growing up in Texas as the only child of an electrician and a Home Depot customer service rep, he spent his childhood on video games, drawing trees, making bow and arrows, too much MTV, and pizza pockets. While he was in school, he used extra scholarship money to buy his first drum machine, and since then has been developing his talents creating electronic music.

It feels like a full band could turn a disc with some great ideas into a great disc.

Ernest Gonzales already has eight releases under his belt, but I must confess I have never heard any of them. His ninth release is a seven-track EP entitled “Self Awakening.” I was a bit worried when the disc began, because the first track, ‘Self Awakening,’ was only mildly interesting. Clean guitar picks out a simple melody with a steady programmed beat and a plodding bass line. The song undergoes no crescendos and no additional melodic lines are introduced after the first minute. It’s a pleasant enough song, but not very engaging.

Then I saw the second track is called ‘Self Awakening (Faunts Remix)‘ and I began to see some of the interest. The same basic idea is in there, but this song sounds very different. The beat is more Rock-oriented. The clean guitar is accompanied this time by stomping fuzzy bass and some keyboards. The song moves through several passages, becoming large and driving before it dwindles back to where it started.

‘Self Awakening (Take Cover)’ is so different it is barely identifiable as the same song. Between the techno percussion, synthesized sound effects, and disjointed vocal samples, all that remains is the chord progression. The other versions were electronic, but this one is Electronica. The first three tracks on ‘Self Awakening’ are an interesting study in theme and variation.

The fourth track, ‘Upon the 19th Day (Cyne Cover),’ features quiet keyboards, synthetic cello, and echoing percussion and reminds me of French New Age musician Jean Michel Jarre, except it is the backdrop for a rap. This track didn’t do much for me because the rhythm of the rap never changes and each line rhymes once at the end. Neither the music nor the lyrics nor the vocal performance are strong enough to really carry a song.

The next track, ‘We Can Live in the Forest,’ has several lines of plucked bass and guitar backed by unwavering electronic percussion. This track needs more but I’m not sure what it needs more of. Ideas, I guess. It is thin and repetitive. Listen to the Amazon sample and you’ve heard the whole song. ‘I’m Here You’re There (Mexicans with Guns Remix)’ is straight up Electronica, possibly aspiring to Rave music. The disc is rounded out with ‘Etchasketch Trees (Yppah Remix),’ a danceable song with dreamy keyboards and wailing guitar in the background.

The second and third ‘Self Awakening’ and ‘Etchasketch Trees’ have some interesting moments, but overall ‘Self Awakening’ suffers from a lack of complexity. The melodies are simple, the production and effects are often gimmicky and derivative, and the arrangements don’t shake things up enough. There are some good ideas in this music, but it felt like it needed either more time being refined and fleshed out or the input of more musicians to add depth and texture.