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Shearwater

(We covered Shearwater last year -- here's a reprint of that original entry, updated with what the band's been up to in the past year.)

"When I hear recordings of us playing live recently, it sounds to me like we're heading for something, aiming at someplace, somewhere otherworldly and lovely and a little bit evil, and that we're closer now than before."

Otherworldy. Lovely. Evil. Those are the words of Jonathan Meiburg, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and ornithologist, that perfectly describe the music of his band, Shearwater. I'm a little hesitant to quote his words here -- but I feel that in order to describe the band to you, some input from a primary source -- besides the songs themselves -- is imperative.

Shearwater's music is intensely intimate and personal, but not self-absorbed. And when belted out by Mr. Meiburg in his clear, reedy tenor reminiscent of Mark Hollis', the band's songs swoop organically -- from whispered, sinister moments to bombastic, triumphant melodic passages and back again -- like a predatory bird in flight, circling its quarry and going in for the kill.

For a long time, it seemed that Shearwater was a kind of hidden treasure of the Austin music scene -- just a little side project of members of the more well-known outfit, the eclectic Okkervil River. But over the past few years, since the release of their second album, Everybody Makes Mistakes, and on the heels a lengthy touring schedule in support of their third full-length, Winged Life and the gem-like perfection of their 2005 EP Thieves, Shearwater finally come into their own. And it was about damn time.

They've settled, after some personnel changes (including the departure of Okkervil River's Will Sheff, who shared lead vocal duties with Mr. Meiburg, and fiddler Travis Weller), into a more or less into a stable lineup that includes (in addition to Mr. Meiburg on vocals, keyboards, guitar, banjo, and occasionally, the accordion) Kim Burke on the upright bass, Howard Draper on keyboards, lap steel, and bass, and multi-percussionist Thor Harris. This slimmed down version of the band is gearing up to tour in support of their latest album Palo Santo, which is due out in May 2006. Be warned, they're working on a blazing cover of Brian Eno's "Baby's on Fire" that rivals their former cover showpiece -- a lovely, evil version of Talk Talk's "A Rainbow," that culminated in several minutes of creepy instrumentals buzzing with feedback from the guitar and violin.

Shearwater - Mountain Laurel
Shearwater - I Can't Wait
Shearwater - Whipping Boy


There are more songs available to download at Shearwater's official site. Buy the Theives EP at Amazon and the iTunes Music Store, and their latest full length, Winged Life, Amazon and the iTunes Music Store.

Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll on 02.04.06 at 12:10 AM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

controller.controller

(We featured the following artist last year on SYITP; this previous entry has been updated from last year's.

Sexy dance-rock from Canada, anyone? controller.controller deliver swaggering post-punk that is dark and mesmerizing, and pretty but with secret muscles. They stand apart from all of other other dance-punk acts criss-crossing the country. Why? One reason is the sheer stage presence of vocalist Nirmala Basnayake, who draws you in and tears you apart. She sounds more than a little like Andrea Zollo of Pretty Girls Make Graves; her sultry, uber-hot contributions can prick even the coldest of hearts, laid down upon angular guitars and throbbing bass lines and more than enough high hat to last you for the next three months.

Which is not to say that controller.controller don't have a fine sense of dynamics. In fact, they do, and demonstrate an ability to pull back and let the atmosphere rule, as well as rock the fuck out when needed. "City of Daggers" is the perfect anthem for a Hollywood ganster movie: heavy, thumping, and a little bit threatening, all wrapped up in four minutes of bliss, topped with a shout-a-long chorus. "Poison/Safe" starts out gently enough, with a repetitive but catchy phrase, then Basnayake's swagger stomps all over the skinny mop-haired boys in the front row, and you know that's exactly what they came for. Meanwhile, the rest of the five piece lurks in the background until just the right moment. And when Basnayake signals, cymbals crash and guitars squall, and the rest of the band ups the ante gradually until they are propelling the song forward with the force of a runaway tanker made up entirely of wailing electric guitars.

Equally at home next to PIL, Interpol, and the Rapture, controller.controller have been honing their chops over the last year and it shows. Their first full-length, X-Amounts, shakes up the disco-retro movement with its eminently danceable and extraordinarily catchy anthems, building upon the framework laid down with the History EP, and exhibiting a greater sense of control. The drumwork is precise to the nearest millimeter, the buildups and breakdowns are funkier, and the band now finds ways to allow listeners to catch their breath before the next post-punk assault. controller.controller's "death disco" music is perfect for shaking your way through darkened rooms full of strangers and cold purple neon lights. Now close your eyes and get moving.

controller.controller - History
controller.controller - Poison/Safe
controller.controller - City of Daggers

Official controller.controller site. Buy X-Amounts from Amazon. The album, released in Canada last year, hits shelves on March 7, 2006 in the US.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 02.03.06 at 1:26 AM | Comments (2), TrackBack (0)

Oppenheimer

This Oppenheimer's Manhattan Project is the tooth-achingly sweet and blindingly catchy "Breakfast in New York." And yeah, I admit, I did hear about the band on an mp3 blog, where the title track caught my ear.

Comparisons to Joy Zipper and The Postal Service, as well as Australia's The Disassociatives and (Bar/None labelmates) Architecture in Helsinki are sure to abound for the Belfast-based pals and bedroom popsters Rocky O. and Shaun O., who make up Oppenheimer. But I'm going to take those comparisons one step further and hit up my two other favorite points of reference when synths and vocoders engaged are in an excessively sweet pop confection -- ELO and Giorgio Moroder. And adding even more retro-panache, there's what I think are not coincidental echoes of Supertramp in "Breakfast in New York," as well as both Petula Clark and Elton John in "Saturday Looks Bad For Me." But lest that turn you off, I'm also here to remind you that there's hand claps and an egg shaker and some of the darn catchiest choruses I've heard in ages, too.

It's brilliantly warm and fuzzy stuff, and I guess it won't shock you when I confess that I really can't resist bedroom pop that's adorably twee and glitchy with synths at the same time. And Oppeneheimer met all criteria more than admirably.

Our friends in the UK, Scotland, and Ireland have gobs of chances to catch the boys play live -- but currently, Oppenheimer is playing only two dates in the US this March -- at SXSW and the Bang Fest in Bangor, Maine. Here's hoping they'll get more live dates booked -- from the articles that I've read, Oppeneheimer promises to be even more grand in person.

Oppenheimer - Saturday Looks Bad For Me
Oppenheimer - Breakfast in New York
Oppenheimer - Nine Words

There's not much yet at Oppenheimer's webpage, but there's lots of info at their MySpace page. Their self-titled debut album is due out June 6, 2006, from Bar/None Records.

Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll on 02.02.06 at 12:30 AM | Comments (4), TrackBack (0)

Art Brut

At a recent New York City performance, Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos climbed into the audience, and implored all of the rapt hip kids to start a band. He threatened to return to Manhattan, track down every one of the audience members, and ask each and every single one if they had yet formed a band. Argos continued with, "...if you say no, then I will be very disappointed. Go home. Form a band." (I find it's very difficult to discuss the band without everything becoming an Argos quote-fest.)

Art Brut want you to look at them. And how can you not? Lead singer Argos demands to be heard. Wearing his trademark blazer and sporting a near porn-star moustache, he yelps, flails, howls, pumps his fist, and whips the crowd up into a frenzy. The exuberant post-punk music of Art Brut recalls the past greatness of The Fall and Buzzcocks, as well as channeling some of their contemporaries, the Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party, but with a sly sense of humor.

Sometimes we all need a rock'n'roll wink and a smile, followed by a swift kick in the arse, and Art Brut delivers. The lovably cheeky band tackles classic punk rock themes: everything from boring suburbs, hot girlfriends, bad sex, picking fights with bullies, and lost sweethearts, but with a keen analytical eye and pop ear that keeps listeners guessing and asking, "They are taking themselves seriously?" as Argos tells his brother to "stay off the crack!" and tells a story of himself head-butting a piece of modern art.

Their songs filled with more witticisms than every primetime sitcom on TV, combined, and the music is filled with more personality with a Chinatown bus full of proto-hipster teens. Be prepared for an assault of blazing guitar, slamming into your brain, as their bassist, Frederica Feedback jackhammers into your soul. Even if you're sure they're being sincere ("it's not irony...we're just talking to the kids"), there's no denying the ambition of a band that wants to write the song "that makes Israel and Palestine get along." Meanwhile they them go about following it up with something equally self-deprecating in the same breath, as Art Brut have written the catchiest and sweetiest song ever about erectile dysfunction.

We'll be leaving the light on for you, Eddie. We most certainly will.

Art Brut - Formed a Band
Art Brut - Emily Kane
Art Brut - Good Weekend

The official Art Brut site. Purchase Bang Bang Rock & Roll from Amazon or iTunes Music Store.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 02.01.06 at 1:24 AM | Comments (1), TrackBack (0)

Crystal Skulls

I swear, I see the best bands open for The Mountain Goats. In the first half of 2005, I happened to catch two shows on the southern leg of their tour -- one in Austin and one in Denton -- where Black Mountain and the Crystal Skulls opened. I was utterly charmed by the Crystal Skulls' live show, but was more than little weirded out by their name. I had a junior high boyfriend who was totally obsessed with the paranormal -- who didn't, really? Right? But do you remember what the deal was with the 13 (or 12 or however many there are) mystical crystal skulls from the Reader's Digest Book of Paranormal Mysteries? I totally had to hit Google to refresh my memory -- creepy!

Anyway, the Crystal Skulls are anything but dark and weird (sure would be a great name for a goth band, though) and really, I might have expected them to be called the Sugar Skulls instead (which, you know, wouldn't be a bad name for a band, actually -- if you wanted to start a 'skull' band trend to surpass the 'wolf' band trend...), what with the band's sound located on the bittersweet pop edge frosted with just a tiny bit of creepiness and all.

As a matter of fact, It's hard to know exactly where to position the Crystal Skulls, exactly -- there's a bit of the jazziness found in Karate and Everything But the Girl frontwoman Tracey Thorn's early solo albums, and a whole lot of Franklin Bruno's witty lyrics and delivery. On top of that, there's deep, reverberating echoes of an array of 70's and 80's pop -- everything from Harry Nilsson to Steely Dan to Television to Elvis Costello. At the same time, the Crystal Skulls are so incredibly tight in that Spoon-like way -- there's no superfluous instrumentation or chamber pop flourishes to be had on the band's debut album, Blocked Numbers; the rhythm section is tight as hell, the guitars are used as strategic weapons, and lead singer Christian Wargo's sardonic and wry voice swings from friendly, easy confidence to wolfishly sexy and back again in the course of one song, winning you over after just a few words.

In the end, what I can tell you is Crystal Skulls have made a grown-up record, not the kind of nonsense that's being pushed by early 20-something kids with a penchant for "borrowed nostalgia" -- heck, Pitchfork didn't even review their debut album and last I checked there weren't any lemming-like music bloggers fawning over the work of this deceptively challenging band. The Crystal Skulls' work is the kind of pop music that comes from a seriously deep and abidingly weird relationship with your bizzaro record collection -- as well as a Sisyphean struggle with faith -- Wargo was raised Pentecostal and had stints in indie Christianity-flavored bands Pedro the Lion and the Danielsen Famile (both of whom mixed indie rock and God long before Sufjan Stevens and Page France made it slightly adorable and twee to do so), and spent a "disturbing" stint with Jesus People USA. The fact that he got out of a cult -- that'screepier than any story about crystal skulls that were left behind by aliens with the Aztecs and hold the answers to the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything.

Crystal Skulls - Every Little Bit
Crystal Skulls - Beat Me To It
Crystal Skulls - Locked Down

The Crystal Skulls' official website. Two more tracks can be sampled here; additionally there a few new songs from their forthcoming album, Outgoing Behavior, on the band's MySpace page. Buy Blocked Numbers from Amazon or the iTunes Music Store.

Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll on 01.31.06 at 2:51 AM | Comments (2), TrackBack (0)

Voxtrot

We covered Voxtrot last year. The following entry is a semi-reprint with an update of new happenings.

2005 was a big year for Voxtrot, and we here at SYitP expect that 2006 will be too. Voxtrot have undertaken a seemingly non-stop tour of the US (aside from transportation issues that caused a few cancellations), have run the CMJ gauntlet in September, have twice been SPIN's band of the week, and have gotten tons of great press from other fine publications online and otherwise. Few bands are quite so openly appreciative of bloggers, or wear much-deserved praise with such humbleness and surprise, but Voxtrot's consistent live sets show they're much more than a music blog buzz band and make them of the most exciting and promising of Austin's own cadre of bands appearing at SXSW this year.

In 2004, singer Ramesh Srivastava was still living a trans-Atlantic existence, so Voxtrot's appearances were few and far between. Each was highly anticipated, however SXSW 2005 rolled around before I had a chance to catch them live. It's been said that Voxtrot have "one foot in the library and the other on the dancefloor," but the dancefloor rumor proved itself true in the first few minutes of their Thursday night set at Habana Calle Six when Ramesh roused the small audience by describing "The Start of Something" as a dance number, showing that no description could be more apt in regards to their clever pop stylings. Like a cheerful, lost offspring of the Smiths and early Pale Saints, Voxtrot offer hefty production, laden with multiple guitars, occasional strings, and the sweetest vocals since the early '90s brought twee delights and adolescent angst fresh from English towns. But it's done with smiles and twinkles, and Ramesh's boyish energy, even behind a stage piano, gets a crowd moving...and possibly searching for their dictionaries.

Plainly stated, Voxtrot are a rich vocabularied romp in the school playground and feel as wholesome as a run through rain for the perfect cup of tea. But don't be fooled that they're naive or sugar-spun, because they do have teeth. Amidst the cream and crumpets there are shades of fellow Austinites Spoon, Morrissey's darker moments, a smidgin of the Au Pairs and the frenetic energy of the Wedding Present. Voxtrot aren't all sweetness and light, but they are poised for something bigger than self-released records.

Voxtrot - The Start of Something

Voxtrot's website. Order Raised by Wolves directly from their site, or grab it from iTunes. Mothers Sisters Daughters and Wives will be in stores on April 4, but you can buy it directly from Voxtrot at their merch booth during the current spring tour.

Posted by Last Girl to the Party on 01.29.06 at 11:55 PM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

Film School

(We featured the following artist last year on SYITP but thought they were so good that we should feature them again. This previous entry has been updated to reflect changes in the last 12 months. And if you missed out the first time around, now is your chance!)

This five-piece band hailing from San Francisco specialize in beautiful shoegazer pop with spine tingling effects, along the lines of Grandaddy, Swervedriver, and early Radiohead. Film School's Alwaysnever EP showcased their finely-honed chops, creating a dreamy aftertaste of amtospheric and dreamy euphoria. The band has since signed with Beggars Banquet and (a few days ago) released a self-titled album on the renowned indie label, and is now firmly climbing the mountain towards indie rock stardom.

Fans of the genre will recognize the sound: there's the requisite swirling guitars, layered on top of haunting keyboards and droning sounds from another dimension, but also the crooning sounds of a faraway vocalist, making like a long-distance lover on the telephone, and an impressive rythmn section that grounds the band, unlike some of their similarly inclined counterparts. "P.S." is light and spritely, like your elementary school girlfriend laughing on a summer playground, teasing you and barely touching the ground until a wall of sound breaks in part-way through, clamoring to catch up. Meanwhile, some songs brood and wander through the outer regions of space, and end up out-Radioheading Radiohead, like the long-lost siblings of "Exit Music (For a Film)," before turning deadly and crushing.

Film School come a long way over the last few years, since their inception in 1998. Their latest effort finds codas unraveling longer and longer, guitar lines drawing infinite fractals, choruses becoming more expansive, walls of sound growing taller, and the overall feeling of musicians more comfortable than ever; journalists are throwing around comparisons to The Cure and Mogwai like there's no tomorrow. The music of Film School sometimes threads to drift off into the ether, far from the grasp of us mere mortals. But stay on Earth, lovely band! We need more like you on this planet.

Film School - P.S.
Film School - Pitfalls
Film School - Harmed

Official site for Film School. Buy Film School from Amazon or on iTunes Music Store.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 01.29.06 at 1:34 AM | Comments (1), TrackBack (0)