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The Duke Spirit

Smoldering (or perhaps smouldering, as The Duke Spirit are from London...) lyrics shoved and mauled and torn apart by a smoky-voiced, hollerin' chanteuse? Check. Red-hot blues licks? Check. Occasional dissonant and droning guitar bits tied up with a tight, tight rhythm section? Check, check, check. With all of the above in play, how could I not be drawn to this band?

I won't resort, as I've seen some writers do, to comparing the band to Blondie -- this is completely irrelevant. Yes, frontwoman Leila Moss is blonde and reportedly (but we'll soon know for ourselves) has a swaggering stage presence and commands a roost of four boys (Luke Ford on guitar, keys, and backup vocals; Dan Higgins, also on guitar; Toby Butler on bass; and Ollie Betts behind the kit) but the similarities end there. Taking cues from recent sexy, dirty blues-heavy rockers The Kills (who we covered last year), The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and SYITP faves The Gossip -- as well as the early work of PJ Harvey that's now nearly 15 years old, the bands' songs are delightfully moody and loveworn, covering the gamut of emotional levels from bitchy rave-ups to dark laments on unrequited love.

The Duke Spirit's been cropping up on to-watch lists in the UK since 2003, and thanks to a new deal with NYC's Startime Records (most notably home of The Walkmen, Tom Vek, Dios (Malos), and The French Kicks), they're poised to do the same in the US. So get ready -- you heard it here first-ish.

The Duke Spirit - Win Your Love
The Duke Spirit - Bottom of the Sea

The Duke Spirits' official site. Their debut album, Cuts Across the Land, is available from Amazon and the iTunes Music Store. In addition to their showcase at Maggie Mae's on Saturday, March 18th, the band is playing a number of free shows out and about during the course of SXSW -- including those infamous Urban Outfitters sets. Nothing like seeing a hot band play next to a swimsuit display.

shadows tags:thedukespirit

Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll on 03.11.06 at 10:42 PM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

The Galactic Heroes

The absolutely charming Galactic Heroes are the embodiment of teenage awkwardness, expressing in charming, ramshackle indie pop. The Heroes excel at sunny '60s pop with catchy choruses, using everything but the kitchen sink as instruments, and a machine gun style, as most of the songs clock in at about three minutes long. The tunes come fast and furious, with nonsense syllables showing up on numerous occasions with a kazoo or bicycle whistle chiming in, reminiscent of Apples in Stereo or Of Montreal. Their hyperactive songs are about the mundane memories that typically make up childhood: flashes of roadtrips and people that are uninteresting to anyone else, but the Galactic Heroes make such banalities inviting and endearing with bubblegum hooks and sweet harmonies.

The songs on Every Sidewalk and How About San Francisco? burst with a youthful energy, as if they have to get all of their messages out before the answering machine tape runs out. The words in verses rush and trip over each other, two-part vocals are hurrying to get to that all too important hook, with handclaps, bells, and tambourines playing catchup the whole way. It's all cotton candy and jelly beans and gummi bears and bright sunny mornings. Meanwhile, the Galactic Heroes are telling a story, such as joys of summer or that one time the band visited you in your town and thank you for inviting them, they had such a wonderful time. And how can anyone begrudge their joy? Not me.

The Galactic Heroes - Get Up
The Galactic Heroes - Coffee and Pastries
The Galactic Heroes - Heroes and Villians
The Galactic Heroes - Today Won't Be The Same
The Galactic Heroes - Wonderful

The Galactic Heroes' official site. Purchase Every Sidewalk from Amazon or iTunes Music Store. The Galactic Heroes play Saturday, March 18 at 9:30 p.m. at Habana Calle 6 Patio.

Shadows tags:galacticheroes.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 03.11.06 at 2:38 AM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

The Sharp Things

Gigantic chamber pop ensembles aren't just coming out of Canada -- apparently the boroughs of New York city play host to a number as well, including The Sharp Things. The ten-member strong band boasts a string and horn section the likes of which haven't been seen in indie rock since ... well, ever, perhaps. Okay, maybe not since the heyday of Elephant 6, or the apex of Beulah -- which is to say long enough ago that it's very nearly ancient history.

Sounding a little like if Greg Dulli sang on all those instrumental Burt Bachrach records, or if Ben Folds had a singing voice that sounded like 10 miles of bad road instead of his sweet pipes -- The Sharp Things are fronted by Perry Serpa, who founded the band with drummer Steve Gonzales back in 1995 when they were just a couple of buskers in the subway tunnels. They added guitarist Jim Santo to the lineup in 1997, and things expanded exponentially after that. (Interesting sidebar -- cello player Claire runs NYC indie rock show listing ohmyrockness.com, and Perry is a principal at Good Cop PR, which specializes in representing indie rock bands -- I find this totally fascinating.)

Other influences, at least to my bizzare ears, include Van Dyke Parks, Lambchop, and The Association (the latter two, much to my suprise, we actually listed on the band's Myspace page as actual influences -- neat!). Which is to say that The Sharp Things are melodic and mellow, but not boring -- more sassy Sunday brunch at a hip local eatery than a dreary, slow, and rainy afternoon trapped at a an outlet of bohemoth chain of coffehouses which shall remain unnamed. There's an edge and a bite to Serpa's songs that's a litttle too discomfiting to merely label the The Sharp Things "coffehouse indie" -- and I hope you'll agree.

The Sharp Things - There Will Be Violins
The Sharp Things - The Suicide Bombers
The Sharp Things - She Left With The Sun

The Sharp Things' official site. You can but their latest, Foxes and Hounds, from Amazon or the iTunes Music Store. The Sharp Things play the Bar/None showcase on March 17 @ 8pm at Friends on 6th Street. I hope they can all fit on that tiny little stage!

Shadows tags:thesharpthings

Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll on 03.10.06 at 10:52 PM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

The Owls

No, not those Owls with ex-members of Cap'n Jazz. These Owls are from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and are found on Portland's Magic Marker records. (Apparently the distinction comes from the use of the article "The" in the band's name.)

Allison LaBonne and Brian Tighe of the Owls are married. After several years of marriage, Tighe says, LaBonne began to share her songs with him, and the rest is history. The flush of new love flows through their crushworthy music--pleasant, easygoing indie pop with boy-girl vocals. Although a lot of the elements of the music draw from like-minded chamber pop bands, the songs do not induce comas with sugary sweetness, nor are do they devolve into the depths of despair. The Owls always keep momentum moving forward, flightiness grounded by jaunty piano and midtempo strummed guitars. Their unassuming, sincere Beatles-inspired sound is surprisingly coherent, given that three members share songwriting duties. Much of the chemistry in the sound comes from long-standing friendships among the band members.

The cheery "Air" mesmerizes with layered, lush vocals that soothe and relax, hiding the sorrowful content within. The interplay of whispery female and male vocals remind me a lot of Club 8, but if Club 8 were on anti-depressants, or the shimmering pop of LA's Fonda; The Owls retain the same dreamy intimacy in their work, with vulnerable vocals and spare instrumentation. But unlike a lot of boyfriend-girlfriend duos (Mates of State, Quasi), any emotional turmoil is often suppressed by velvety soft melodies and pretty "ba da, ba da" harmonies, prefering to draw fans in with their beautiful baroque romanticism. Their songs are like shiny helium-filled balloons, yearning to break free, and barely tethered to earth.

The Owls - Air
The Owls - Luck
The Owls - From Far Away

The Owls' official site. Buy the Our Hopes and Dreams EP from Amazon or iTunes Music Store. They play Saturday, March 18 at 10:30 p.m. at the Habana Calle 6 Patio.

Shadows tags:theowls.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 03.10.06 at 12:15 AM | Comments (1), TrackBack (0)

Asobi Seksu

When the term "hidden secret" gets tossed around in almost every profile of a band, you start to wonder if it's really true. In the case of Asobi Seksu, it probably is.

Take the very best shoegazer pop, with swirly, textured guitars and bazooka-spatter drumming and melodic basslines and layered synths -- and instead of a dark, lank, moody boy singing about lost love and longing, put a girl -- a sweet-faced Japanese girl with a clarion-clear, gigantic voice who sings in Japanese and English -- out front, still singing about lost love and longing. And just like that, Asobi Seksu turns two iconic cultural products on their ear.

Yuki Chikudate is pretty far removed from the overly-kawaii girls of J-pop -- but without losing that key melodic sensibility of catchy hooks and unforgettable melodies; guitarist James Hanna is certainly not that pasty under-fed English kid fronting a dark and dreamy pop band to flee a dreary existence in a bleak industrial town (he, too, sings on the occasional song). And this is the early 21st century incarnation of shoegaze, sprung from the city that's the heart of the world. The 'New York' sound may be endlessly mocked, but it's given a home to bands that run the gamut from The Walkmen to The National to Interpol -- and yes, Asobi Seksu as well.

And, don't tell any of the other bands at the festival this, but Asobi Seksu may be the one I'm most looking forward to catching out and about during SXSW. And something tells me that that they're not going to be NYC's best secret for much longer. The band has a new album coming out in May, Citrus, that promises to push the envelope of rich, dreamy pop into the song-as-soundscape territory while still preserving catchy hooks and bounce in the background of all those pretty swirling guitar effects.

Asobi Seksu - Walk on the Moon
Asobi Seksu - Umi De No Jusatsu
Asobi Seksu - End at the Beginning

Asobi Seksu's official site, there's more mp3s to be had there as well. Buy their self-titled debut at Amazon or the iTunes Music Store; Citrus will be released May 30, 2006, but you can hear a preview track, "Thursday," on the band's MySpace page.

Shadows tags:asobiseksu.

Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll on 03.09.06 at 10:09 PM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

This Is What Happens When Girls Write About Music

I'm Totally Blogging This When I Get Home

Presented by depravedfangirls.org, sxswbaby.com, seeyouinthepit.com, and therichgirlsareweeping.com.

Wednesday, 15 March 2006
5 to 8 PM
The Lair Upstairs

5PM * Charles Bissell of The Wrens (Teaneck, NJ, Absolutely Kosher Records)
6PM * The Hourly Radio (Dallas, TX, Kirtland Records)
7PM * Pompeii (Austin, TX, Eyeball Records)

The Lair Upstairs is at 300 E. 6th St, above the Ivory Cat Tavern, at 6th St and San Jacinto, Austin, Texas (naturally).

See you at South-by!

Love,

Little Miss Rock'n'Roll, Last Girl to the Party, and Queen of the Front Row

Posted by Last Girl to the Party on 03.09.06 at 1:07 AM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

The M's

Good, old-fashioned rock'n'roll will never go out of style. This I know, this I'm sure of. No matter how many flash in the pan bands come and go, certain artists will find a way to draw upon the past without sounding like clones of their heros. The M's seem to know this as well, creating perfectly executed jangly garage rock on Future Women.

Based out of Chicago, The M's build on the foundation built by heavyweights The Kinks and T-Rex, holding the torch for British Invasion comrades who have long fallen by the way side. Their songs are full of crunchy guitars and three-part vocals, a little fuzzed up, boasting a healthy dose of grit. Fans of power pop, retro pop, and rock hits of the '60s will find much to admire from a band that acts much like Sloan's younger, garage-obsessed little brother. "Plan of the Man" may be the catchiest song I've heard so far this year, and has a great dancing-in-your-bedroom-in-your-socks nature with the sassy horn breakdown at the end. The band turns up the guitars in "Trucker Speed," which rumbles and thunders down the road, building up to a delightful crescendo of classic rock: a feedback frenzy with an orchestra of strings. The toe-tapping hooks are big and fat, the guitars screech and wail, their pop songwriting chops are at full force, and the M's are pulling out all of the stops with handclaps, "whoo-hoo" yelps, and twinkling keyboards.

And the retro harmonies are top notch. I haven't anything remotely close in ages, not since the Lilys' The 3-Way (but while the M's have dog-eared copies of the indie rock production handbook they have much less of an experimental bent). Or maybe The M's are the newl Teenage Fanclub, circa Bandwasgonesque-era, but without the precociousness. Not to slight either band, as those are two of my favorite albums of all time, but whatever they're drawing from, The M's sound is classic and timeless; and they succeed without the overwrought stain of derivation or over-thinking. In this case, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts.

The M's - Plan of the Man
The M's - Trucker Speed
The M's - Mansion in the Valley

The M's official site. Buy Future Women from Amazon or iTunes Music Store. The M's play Wednesday, March 15 at 10:00 p.m. at Emo's Jr.

Shadows tags:thems.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 03.09.06 at 12:56 AM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

Martha Wainwright

(We wrote about Martha Wainwright last year, here is an updated version of that profile. We also caught her set at Carribean Lights during SXSW 2005. Truth be told, it was a little disappointing -- but it seemed to be one of her first sets in support of her self-titled debut album, and we have no doubt that a live set would be much more entertaining this time around. She hits the road with Neko Case after SXSW this year.)

You could call 30-year-old Martha Wainwright the late bloomer of the Wainwright/McGarrigle clan. Yes, she's daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, sister of Rufus Wainwright. It's almost unfortunate to think of her with all this family baggage attached because she totally deserves your full and undivided attention on her own merits.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Martha's first EP, a self-titled effort from 1999, in the recent acqusitions pile at Austin's amazing used CD emporium Cheapo sometime in late 2000. Martha has the characteristic Wainwright inflection and tone on that recording; the same nascent chamber pop sensibilities of Rufus' early work. There's lots of minor keys, string arrangements, literary references ("Lolita"), and autobiographical confessions ("Laurel and Hardy" seems a response to Rufus' "Little Sister" -- or perhaps it's the other way around).

I loved what I heard on the EP and waited patiently for a full-length album, but none ever appeared. Instead, Martha appeared in a supporting role on an array of albums produced by various family members, released two EPs, Factory and Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole, and appeared as a torch singer in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator alongside Loudon and Rufus. (Outside of Jude Law's blink-and-you'll-miss-it turn as Errol Flynn, the appearance of la famille Wainwright as singers at Hollywood's mythical Coconut Grove was the best part of that otherwise ho-hum film.)

Her self-titled first album, released in 2005, is an interesting crazy quilt of genres and influences. Martha's voice has matured from a feminine shadow of Rufus' full-throated warble to a shredded, yet powerful and delicate-around-the-edges rasp that is, though slightly reminiscent of Bette Midler's circa the bathhouse years, all her own. Martha's songwriting has followed suit as well. She can spit out a polite yet scathing rant like "Bloody Motherfucking Asshole" (which proves that wicked, self-depricating humor is perhaps a little bit genetic and a little bit learned behavior) or delicately duet with brother Rufus on the parlour-song "Bring Back My Heart" and it all seems perfectly natural and not incongruous in the slightest.

Martha Wainwright - Bloody Motherfucking Asshole
Martha Wainwright - Bring Back My Love (feat. Rufus Wainwright)
Martha Wainwright - Factory
Martha Wainwright - How Soon
Martha Wainwright - I'll Be Seeing You (from The Aviator)

Martha Wainwright's offical website. Her self-titled album is available from Amazon and the iTunes Music Store.

Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll on 03.08.06 at 10:36 PM | Comments (1), TrackBack (0)

Tapes 'n Tapes

A horrible name, oblique and nonsensical lyrics, just really stupid stage names, and an amalgation of rock influences are enough to turn me off of any band at first sight. Could it be hate on first sight, or merely an allergic reaction? Compound that with playing five or six New York shows in a row (their first time in the city, no less), and every show with music bloggers packed in like so many sardines, swooning and swelling, and it's nearly a recipe for disaster, over-Internet-exposure, and a hype-explosion. Garnering a Pitchfork Best New Music for a months-old album is just icing on the cake, then.

And yet The Loon by Tapes 'n Tapes survived being neglected, tossed to the side by me in a moment of annoyance. Their blender of Pixies meets Beach Boys meets Wire meets Pavement appears banal and nondescription upon first listen. Oh no, I say, not another band aping the same influences, stealing the same chug-chug-chug chord progressions, imitating the same vocal mannerisms. Enough with this herky-jerky nonsense, pretty harmonies, earworm-inducing choruses! But The Loon gets under your skin and stays there, with a little proto-punk, and a little post-punk, holding on with spiny teeth from the surf-inspired licks of the tense, frentic, driving "Insistor." The bombast of "10 Gallon Ascots" is balanced perfectly by the gentle jingling of bells and the plaintive Frank Black-esque vocals. Not to mention that the band's musicianship is bolstered by a multi-talented keyboardist/horn player and an obviously talented drummer stolen from music school.

The band is young and still finding their bearings, and grappling with the onslaught of rabid fandom. And yet, the live show spins, rocks, and sparkles at times, yielding the epithet of "moments of awesome!" from my showgoing friend. The Minneapolis-born Tapes 'n Tapes successfully ride the same indie rock train as other bands by adding in unexpected frills and accompaniments that only float to the top after repeated listens: a little garage-rock here, a Television impression there. So go, I implore you, catch them while they're still young and bright-eyed and energetic and amazed at the crowd response; the potential is staggering. It's not the second coming, but it's a fine time nonetheless.

Tapes 'n Tapes - Insistor
Tapes 'n Tapes - 10 Gallon Ascots
Tapes 'n Tapes - Buckle

Official web site for Tapes 'n Tapes. Buy The Loon from their web site. They play Friday, March 17 at 1:00 a.m. at Latitude 30.

Shadows tags:tapesntapes.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 03.08.06 at 12:19 AM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

Maneja Beto

When I moved to Austin, I never thought I'd see a band like Maneja Beto -- true purveyors of that unique genreless masala of sounds and influences known as rock en espanol -- come out of this city. Los Angeles, maybe, or Mexico City -- but Austin? Coming from a Far West Texas border town, where traditional Mexican music and rock y pop all blend into a comfortable melange, Maneja Beto's actual sound was no surprise -- as a matter of fact, it seemed long overdue. Cafe Tacuba and Ozomatli are on the same wavelength -- rock en espanol with a political bent. But it's Maneja Beto's synthesis of traditional Texican music, the darker and sentimental edges of 80's English pop favorites Joy Division, The Cure, and The Smiths (which honestly, aren't so far from the same emotions behind traditional Mexican music), and Afro-Cuban rhythms that makes their music such a unique proposition.

Maneja Beto takes the purest form of Tejano music -- the conjunto -- usually played, in this day and age, by a dance band featuring accordions, synthesized percussion, and other modern instruments along with traditional Mexican guitars like the jarana huasteca and huarpaguanera -- and turns the genre on its head. The band transforms the synths and guitars (from lead singer Alex Chavez and Nelson Valente on lead guitar) into something a little more on the 80's dark Britpop edge and brings a rhythm section to rival that of No Wave darlings ESG or some of the "exotic" Afro-Cuban-infused orchestras of the 50's and 60's: Bobby Garza on timbales, Patrick Estrada behind the drum kit, and Will Schultz on bass.

Emotionally, the band's original songs hearken back to the heartbreak of the traditional Mexican ballads, but brings them up to date -- touching on immigration issues and other aspects of the border culture that are becoming more familiar to the rest of the world due to the current political climate. Alex Chavez's gorgeous, emotive voice is perfectly suited to carry the band's heartwrenching ballads and love songs as well as their signature New Wave covers (including Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and the Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime") that could only come from musicians equally beholden to the traditional and the modern.

Just as the title of their album so succinctly puts it: Para que las paredes no se aburran -- so the walls don't get bored -- be they walls of cultural borders (ideological or political), or merely the walls of your own dreary existence, which could probably do with a fresh coat of bright paint -- Maneja Beto would only be too happy to assist you with a little elucidation or renovation.

Maneja Beto - Son De Amor
Maneja Beto - A Ver

Maneja Beto's official website; you can hear more songs there as well. Buy para que las paredes no se aburran from Austin's independent music stores or online at CD Baby. The band plays Wednesday, March 15 at 11pm at Opal Divine's Freehouse, and has a number of free show appearances scheduled as well.

Shadows tags:manejabeto.

Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll on 03.07.06 at 11:44 PM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

John Vanderslice

I can never quite explain what John Vanderslice's "sound" is like to someone. Yes, it's indie rock, but when compared to the easy two-word subgenres that are thrown about these days, Vanderslice's music is like a square peg trying to fit into a dozen round holes.

So what can you expect? First off, top-notch songwriting with the requisite catchy hooks, memorable melodies, and touching lyrics. The songs are overflowing with strange, organic, non-traditional, unexpected effects, off-kilter song structures, and passages that are never grounded in conventional ways. You expect him to zig and he zags; instead of a left turn and then a right turn, he'll make a few U-turns, get on the highway, and take a shortcut down an alleyway or two. His songs encompass huge, complicated landscapes of sound, encompassing continents at a time; after all, he counts off "1, 2, 3, 5" in the horn-filled, joyous anthem like "Keep the Dream Alive."

As a master of the studio (apt because he also owns and runs Tiny Telephone studios in San Francisco), he creates tiny masterpieces of richly detailed pop songs but done only as he can do them. Each one is distinctive and stamped with his unique signature, visible a mile away. His albums are filled with storms of fascinating sounds, concentrated on oddball subject matter like speed labs, lost rabbits, time travel, family hierarchies, bird hunting, and more. Listeners are drawn into his fantastical, cinematical, warped realities, filled with mysterious sounds, spooky chimes, scattered voices and crashes, yet completely deliberate and as polished as ever, from the hip-hop-influenced "Me and My 424" or the gorgeous, lush "From Out Here" or the driving, throbbing rocker "Speed Lab."

Vanderslice's work is often epic and grandiose without trying to be explicitly difficult, sneaking gears and locks into otherwise accessible rock songs. For me, John Vanderslice scratches an itch I barely even knew existed.

John Vanderslice - Pale Horse
John Vanderslice - Me And My 424
John Vanderslice - From Out Here
John Vanderslice - Speed Lab
John Vanderslice - Big Band Stars
John Vanderslice - Dear Sarah Shu
John Vanderslice - Keep The Dream Alive

John Vanderslice's official site. Buy Pixel Revolt from iTunes Music Store or Amazon. He plays Thursday, March 16 at 8:00 p.m. at The Parish.

Shadows tags:johnvanderslice.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 03.07.06 at 2:41 AM | Comments (3), TrackBack (0)

The Organ

Normally when one thinks of cramming five girls and gear into a van and putting a show on the road, bands like The Donnas, Sleater-Kinney, or even neumetal trainwrecks Kittie come to mind. Brittle, haunting gloom-cookie post-punk pop is the last on the list of expectations, but it's what The Organ deliver.

"If I pay you five dollars would you try to make my band?" Katie Sketch pleads in the opening line of "Basement Band Song," and it's the earnestness of her lyrics and delivery that keep The Organ treading just on the safe side of syrupy. Hearts are fragile, and Miss Sketch offers her own, her vocals wringing the best from Morrissey and Robert Smith, but never falling into the self-indulgence that marked both The Smiths and The Cure. It's this fragile accessibility and faithful rendering of the collective new wave past that garners The Organ's endless (and unfair) comparisons to bands like Interpol and Placebo, but the crispness of The Organ's sparse instrumentation and the clarity of Sketch's voice call to early New Order moreso than to The Organ's contemporary peers.

That The Organ are still working hard in relative obscurity in this era of looking back is what's surprising. With the 2002 release of Sinking Hearts and the 2004 release of Grab that Gun (produced by The New Pornographers' Kurt Dahle), The Organ seemed poised to ride on the wave of New York, albeit on the far western fringe being from Vancouver. But the seemingly inevitable didn't happen beyond steady buzz from the indie-est of indie press, even after tours with The Wedding Present / Cinerama, The New Pornographers, and The Dears. A timely move to Too Pure records, ensuring worldwide distribution in time for renewed interest in almost-goth stylings and what Little Miss Rock'n'Roll likes to call "swirly guitars" could be exactly what The Organ need.

The Organ - We've Got to Meet
The Organ - Brother
The Organ - Love, Love, Love
The Organ - No One Has Ever Looked So Dead

The Organ's official website is here. Buy Sinking Hearts and Grab that Gun from Amazon. The Organ play the Mint Records showcase at Nuno's on Thursday, March 16 and the Too Pure showcase at Ruta Maya on Friday, March 17.

Shadows tags:theorgan.

Posted by Last Girl to the Party on 03.06.06 at 8:30 AM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness

(We featured this artist last year; here's a muchly updated reprint of that same entry.)

Another Austin band that is on the up and up, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness are blessed not only with a memorable name but lots of high hat and hypnotic bass, tempered by echoing vocals, swirling guitars, and anguished keyboards. Their dark-wave rock may be influenced by Joy Division, but they're got a lot more life in them than other similar bands and I could lose myself in "When You Go Out" for hours at a time, with my eyes closed, lying on my bedroom room. As Last Girl to the Party says, it's hard not to drop the I-bomb ("Interpol") when talking about this band, who have become one of Austin's finest, but ILYBICD (as the kids are wont to call 'em) are more than just an Interpol clone.

Their brooding, atmospheric rock slides and grooves across the dance floor and between crowded rooms of well dressed hipsters; in their self-titled EP I complained that the songs weren't allowed to breathe and the band was focused on not overstaying their catchy hooks, steady backbeats, and mesmerizing guitar lines. Well, consider all of my worrying for naught, as their spine-tingling debut album, Fear Is On Our Side is all I could have asked for, and more.

Some albums are tailor-made for cross-country roadtrips or dance parties or painting the town red. Fear Is On Our Side is another beast entirely. On Fear Is On Our Side the songs stretch and breathe, and rush to fill up all available space, seeping in like a beautiful, poisonous gas. It recalls eerie dark nights and cloud-filled skies: intimate, poignant, and elegiac; it's an album I would hesitate to listen to in bright sunlight. The delicacy and beauty of the songs demand a careful eye, a steady hand, and hush tones of voice, as we are peering at all of the intricate nooks and crannies under museum glass. The melancholy throb of "According to Plan" seems like something out of a dream with its velvety soft vocals and lilting melodies, almost too familiar, while lead singer Christian Goyer croons like he and I the only two people in the room. And it's not all gloom and doom from here on out. Although the band's stock in trade is "dark, darker, darkest" with nods to the Cure and Echo and the Bunnyment, I should also note that the five-piece band put on an amazing live show, with musicianship that stands well above the indie rock pack. Live, the songs rise and expand from moody, touching rock to an all out wall of sound; ILYBICD are masters of the slow burn and the eventual, perfectly executed, gorgeous, white-hot rush of a backdraft.

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - According to Plan
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - Lights
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - At Last is All
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - When You Go Out

Official web site of I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness. Fear Is On Our Side is out tomorrow on Secretly Canadian. Buy their self-titled EP from iTunes Music Store or Amazon. ILYBICD play Saturday, March 18, 11:15 p.m. at Emo's Annex.

Shadows tags:chosendarkness.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 03.06.06 at 12:08 AM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)

We Are Scientists

(We covered this band at last year's festival; the following is a highly updated reprint.)

We Are Scientists are a New York trio via California who make grin-inducing pop-rock. I caught them by accident at a headlining gig at CBGB's and was blown away by the fullness of their sound, a full wall of rock composed of pure rock'n'roll energy. They've got maddeningly catchy hooks, impossible-to-ignore rythmns, clever wordplay ("Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt"), and, of course, great hair, a prerequisite of being a band from Brooklyn, it seems. They're a band that seems to be composed of the hippest of the hip, but without losing their sense of humor or fun.

If I were a cleverer person I might describe them as the danceability of Hot Hot Heat meets your favorite pop-punk band as a teenager, crossed with the charm of The Thermals. How does a three-piece band manage to fill out the whole room and get the entire crowd moving and grooving? Is it their toothy smiles, debonair stage banter, or red-hot intense performances? I have no idea.

Over the course of a few years, they've gone from straight up power pop (consider the perfection of "Selective Memory") to a more beat-oriented sound, with tons of hi-hat, matched harmonies, and dance-ariffic basslines, but while also still retaining a refreshing, never-too-serious approach. With several self-released EPs to their name, played SXSW last year to a full and enthusiastic crowd of New Yorkers and various music industry luminaries, one of whom was a certain BBC DJ, who became a champion of the band. We Are Scientists ended up signing with Virgin Records after the conference, and found themseles embraced by UK radio, catapulting them to stardom with the release of the ultra-catchy With Love and Squalor, one of my favorite records from last year.

By now, you've probably heard of the band, after they became the new blogger's delight, their mugs plastered all over the streets of Manhattan. They've graduated from an early Wednesday showcase at the Hard Rock Cafe to playing a 1:00 a.m. showcase at the Fox and Hound. Although SXSW is usually a chance to catch up-and-comers before the rest of the world finds out, and We Are Scientists are no longer a well-hidden secret, I might just pop over Saturday night at 1:00am to celebrate one of those bands entered Austin a year ago as nobodies and now are international, rising stars.

We Are Scientists - Cash Cow
We Are Scientists - Inaction
We Are Scientists - Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt

We Are Scientists' official site. Purchase With Love and Squalor from iTunes Music Store or Amazon.

Shadows tags:wearescientists.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row on 03.05.06 at 11:02 AM | Comments (0), TrackBack (0)