Future Islands – On The Water

Future Islands - On The Water

By Joseph Rowan

Of all the excellent aural delights that can be found through annoyingly consistent Chicago-based record label Thrill Jockey, Future Islands are one of my personal favourite discoveries, just behind the criminally unknown Trans Am. On The Water, their third full length album, trades the raw and insistent feel of last year’s delightful In Evening Air for a sound that’s much more introspective and morose. It very much channels the sound of British synth pop bands from the early-80s: in particular OMD and New Order come to mind, and both are an especially apt comparison given that Future Islands adopt a very similar synths plus bass guitar set-up. … Continue Reading

Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

Sunset Rubdown were one of those bands that I thought hadn’t yet made an album that truly lived up to their potential. I liked, but not loved, both 2006′s Shut Up I Am Dreaming and 2007′s Random Spirit Lover, but would never count them amongst my favourite bands. Perhaps annoyingly talented front man Spencer Krug was spreading himself too thin through his involvement with Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, and others, I dunno. But once I had heard ‘The Mending Of The Gown’ off Random Spirit Lover, possibly one of my favourite tracks released this decade, I knew Sunset Rubdown could do great things. And, true to my suspicions, in Dragonslayer Krug has not only delivered the best album of the band’s career to date, but indeed what is likely to be one of the great indie-rock releases of the year.

Everything about this album feels bigger, more sure of itself, more ambitious. Even the name is big and bold, and the right side of the rather precarious awesome/ridiculous line. The tracks average out to about six minutes long each and are filled with so much rich instrumentation, so many pure ideas that your first listen will probably be a bit of a blur, albeit a pretty impressive one. Dragonslayer probably isn’t going to immediately grab you and become Your Favourite New Album of the year. At least, not right away. But it will worm itself into your subconscious. … Continue Reading

Classic album: Frank Zappa – Joe’s Garage

Joe's Garage

Frank Zappa is one of those artists whose output is so large as to be almost completely daunting. In my case I was lucky to have been handed Joe’s Garage by a friend and told to listen to it (and not just because I have the same name as the titular protagonist). Having now listened to a great deal more of his music, I now know that the album, as well as being an excellent listen in its own right, is a pretty good Zappa album to start with. Although no album can be truly representative, Joe’s Garage does showcase many of the things that made Frank Zappa such an inspiring and interesting character and musician.

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Muso’s Guide Presents… Ungdomskulen

Ungdomskulen

There are a number of superficial factors one could mediate on when discussing the wonderful Ungdomskulen, possibly the best band to ever come out of Norway.

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All Tomorrow’s Parties vs. The Fans Part II: The Fans Strike Back

ATP

Friday, May 8

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HEALTH, London Corsica Studios

Health

May 7th 2009

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Thee Oh Sees – Help

Thee Oh Sees - Help

John Dwyer, the main creative force behind Thee Oh Sees, and the innumerable variations of their name, has been in quite a few bands, of which the most noteworthy are probably Coachwhips, Pink And Brown and The Hospitals. Thee Oh Sees/The Ohsees/OCS originally started as a way for Dwyer to release his home recordings they’ve slowly evolved into a proper band and, by all accounts, his most serious, straight-forward work and the main focus of his energies at present.

Like the aformentioned Coachwhips Thee Oh Sees draw heavily on ’60s psych and garage rock influences, along the lines of the Nuggets box set, but they also lean towards the poppier end of that decade at times: ‘Meat Step Lively’ and ‘A Flag In The Court’ in particular bring to mind The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Zombies et al. On their facebook page it says, and I quote, “We don’t sound like The B-52′s, stop saying that!”, and while Dwyer’s clipped vocals occasionally remind one of Fred Schneider, it’s safe to say Thee Oh Sees are definitely more indebted to bands like The 13th Floor Elevators than anyone else. … Continue Reading

Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love

Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love

Pink Mountaintops are the kind of band that you can pretty much guess what they sound like before hearing even a note. Apart from the fact that they’re the side project of Stephen McBean of Black Mountain (who clearly doesn’t let a good thing pass when it comes to band names) the contributors on Outside Love, the band’s third effort, have played with a veritable cornucopia of North American underground bands: A Silver Mt. Zion, The Organ, Destroyer, Sunn o))), Whiskeytown, to name just a few.

Thus when the excellently Hendrix-referencing, fuzzed-out bliss of ‘Axis: Thrones of Love’ starts the album, it seems that the other Canadian indie collective haven’t delivered much in the way of surprises. That is by no means a bad thing, since the druggy, wall-of-sound production and the sweet female vocals creating a suitably atmospheric opener, with only the recurring lyric “how deep is your love?” slightly spoiling matters, by creating an unwelcome mental image of The Bee Gees. … Continue Reading

Mr Oizo – Pourriture EP

Mr Oizo - Pourriture EP

Okay, let’s get the obvious point out of the way first. Yes, this is the same Mr Oizo who made ‘Flat Beat’, 1999′s premier meme which gave the world Flat Eric, possibly the best yellow puppet since Sooty. I’m not ashamed to say that I absolutely loved the song at the time, and it was one of the first singles I ever bought. What’s truly surprisingly, therefore, is how good Mr Oizo’s recent output sounds, especially when so many other things I enjoyed in my youth have turned out to be pretty shit in retrospect.

Pourriture bills itself as an EP, but really feels more like something between a single and a sampler for the latest album, last year’s Lambs Anger: the title track is from the album, three other album tracks appear as remixes, and there are two short tracks of pointless filler noise. … Continue Reading

volcano! – So Many Lemons

volcano! - so many lemons

volcano! are definitely a band that lie towards the more avant-garde end of the rock spectrum. However ‘So Many Lemons’ is strangely beguiling in a very strange way, with its slippery guitar line, busy drumming and fuzzy bass synth all creating a most pleasing cacophony.

Also, you can’t help but love a song that features the lyric “I just wanna sucker punch a guy in the face!” as one of it’s first lines, delivered in Aaron With‘s trademark anxious yelp, which bring to mind a slightly more deranged Dirty Projectors.

It’s possibly the most imemdiately appealing thing they’ve done, and a great step forward for interesting rock music. The other tracks on the single are similarly great, especially the world-music sounding ‘Slow Jam’ and the album version of ‘So Many Lemons’ which is hilariously only six seconds longer. I’d not paid too much attention to volcano! before, but this is genuinely exciting, interesting stuff.