Archive for 2005

Study Your Mouth Movements

Solex + Maarten Altena Ensemble “Go Easy on the Fun Fund” – Elisabeth Esselink has flirted with jazz sounds on every Solex record, but for this recording for Konkurrent’s In The Fishtank series, she got to collaborate with a full ten piece jazz ensemble. The results are not very far off from the typical Solex sound, but with a looser feeling and more expressive leads. On this particular track, Esselink’s vocal cadence recalls Kim Gordon in spoken word mode, but no one could ever confuse her bright, girly voice for Gordon’s guttural tone. (Click here to buy it from Midheaven.)

Dr. Dog “The World May Never Know” – At this point in time, there is hardly a need for more 70s soft rock pastiches, but when a song as lovely and agreeable as this comes along, it’s easy to forgive the glut of bands out there trying to write their own Fleetwood Mac and Todd Rundgren songs. Nice reverb on the drum fills, by the way. (Click here to buy it from Devil In The Woods.)

I Never Knew That Time Could Get So Far Away From Me

Electrelane “Bells” – Video treatment: All of the footage will be shot on a warm, sunny day in a large public park, preferably in the early summer. As the song begins, we see a lot of calm, quiet activity – people strolling, reading, having picnics, lying in the sun. The band ought to be the central figures at this point, if just because it’s their song and they are very attractive people. Scenes should change every other measure, and then every measure once the high-pitched keyboard lead comes in. There should be some hints of sun glare in the footage, but not too much just yet. When the guitar comes in, the editing should cut on the downbeat. The glare of the sun should become more prominent, and the action should be more physical – running, game playing, dancing, swimming. The glare and contrast should increase as the song reaches its climax, leaving us with a blown-out, mostly white or yellow image at the end, and the screen fades to white. (Click here to buy it from the Beggars Group.)

The Constellations “Let’s Face It, Our Kids Are Stupid” -In contrast to the more manic depictions of ADD in recent music (like, say, “Chief Inspector Blancheflower” by the Fiery Furnaces), this song seems to illustrate an inability to concentrate that is less severe and more common. The song shifts back and forth between a lethargic but serene instrumental and a jumpier section in which two vocal parts sung by the same voice compete for attention – one repeating the same thought, and the other chanting letters in a distracting sing-song. That part is catchy and light, but whenever the instrumental part kicks in, it feels like a relief. (Click here to buy it from Dominion Recordings.)

I Count On You, I Do

Elastica “I Want You” – I’m not sure how this one ever fell through the cracks, both in how this song never ended up on a proper Elastica album or single, and in that I never bothered to get a copy of their Radio One Sessions compilation til just recently. There is some excellent material on the collection, including several songs that I’d never heard before, and some raw, energetic versions of some familiar album tracks. During their existence, Elastica took a lot of heat from narrow-minded critics for knicking hooks from other bands (particularly Wire, whose music served as the basis for at least eight songs in their catalog), but the truth is, they were fearless and utterly ruthless appropriationists with excellent taste and a knack for improving upon their source material. The active ingredient in the Elastica formula was most certainly the effortlessly sexy phrasing of Justine Frischmann, who could very well be the most seductive rock singer of the 1990s. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Whomadewho “Satisfaction” – The appeal of this one is fairly straightforward – it’s a cartoonish punk version of Benny Benassi’s recent club hit “Satisfaction” performed by an obscure band from Denmark. From what I’ve read in the paper this weekend, posting this sort of thing makes me “cheeky.” So be it! (Click here to buy it from Limelight Records.)

Houses, Bedsits, and Squats

Scritti Politti “Is and Ought the Western World” – Like a lot of post-punk songs from the late 70s, this sounds almost as though it was recorded in black and white. That sound most certainly suited early Scritti Politti, who were like the musical equivalent of homemade photocopied manifestos dropped along the street. It’s a far cry from where the band would end up, though – only a few years later, they would become a slick, highly produced soul-pop group, with only Green Gartside’s distinctive voice and grad school lyrical obsessions carrying over between the different incarnations. Though much of their 80s material is very worthwhile and interesting, the production style is very dated and has not aged nearly as well as the earlier work, which could easily pass for contemporary arty indie rock. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Moolah “The Hard Hit” – I spent part of my weekend talking to a heavily medicated kid who can’t look anyone in the eye. (He just stares glassy-eyed off over your shoulder.) I’m alone in this house and it’s grey and wet outside. My mind is surprisingly clear. I slept in today, which is pretty rare for me. Under the circumstances, this song feels just about right. Drone, drone, menace, menace. They did this kind of thing so much better in the 70s, didn’t they? It seems so much less selfconcious than say, Mogwai or Godspeed You Black Emperor. Or God help us all, The Album Leaf. This was recorded in New York sometime around 1974. Whatever keyboard they are using on that one main drone, I love it. (Good luck trying to find an official copy of this one.)

In My Room With The Curtains Drawn

Yo La Tengo “Tom Courtenay (Georgia Version)” – At their best, Yo La Tengo mask their potent emotions with a stoic affect, lending a consistently low key vibe to their work, along with a quiet subtext of repression. Ira Kaplan in particular always seems to be slightly embarassed by his heavier feelings, insisting on framing everything in the context of the everyday and burying his often whispered vocals under the squall and drones of his guitar. Their emphasis on the nuances of domesticity is rarely found in rock music (particularly in rock music that can actually rock), and has wisely become the band’s general niche over the years. (Well, that and the penchant for obscure cover versions.)

“Tom Courtenay” is one of the band’s most impressive songs, and is rightfully featured on their new career retrospective, Prisoners Of Love. It appears twice in the set – the first is the album recording, and this is the alternate b-side version featuring drummer Georgia Hubley on vocals rather than Kaplan. This take on the song manages to be even more low-key than the original, which struggles to smother its lovely melodies and lonely nostalgia with loud feedback and a diffident lead vocal. I’m sure that someone out there can and will one day record “Tom Courtenay” will all the passionate emoting that Yo La Tengo are holding back, but I suspect that it would not work as well, since their aloof restraint rings so true to a song about memory and distant longing. (Click here to buy it from the Matador store.)

KaitO “Nng (Demo)” -Fluxblog exclusive! This is a demo for a song that will appear on the forthcoming new KaitO album on SpinArt. On this track, the band sounds as relentless and urgent as ever, but the guitars seem to have been replaced entirely by the sound of very disagreeable computers. (Click here to visit the official KaitO site.)

Dodging The Wrath Of God

Della Reese “Compared To What” – There’s a lot of protest music from the Viet Nam and Reagan eras that ring true today due to their vagueness or because they are about political situations analogous to current events, but this song, with lyrics written by Eugene McDaniels, is so specific to the current American political climate that it seems like it could have been written yesterday. Della Reese changed the original lyrics slightly, softening some of the harsher lyrics and downplaying the line about abortion, but the performance is still quite vitriolic and intense. This is a selection from Soul Jazz’s new Soul Gospel compilation, which (like virtually everything else put out on that label) is of uniformly high quality and decked out with informative, well-designed packaging. Highly recommended. (Click here to buy it from Soul Jazz.)

Sunship (featuring Warrior Queen) “Almighty Father” – This is very disorienting, but in a pleasurable sort of way. The ragga vocals zoom along over a broken beat backing track that sounds like it’s been reduced to slow motion, creating this odd effect that is kinda like being half-asleep on a rollercoaster. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Turning Into Something Of Another Kind

Tanya Stephens “Need You Tonight” – When this single first came out, I passed it over in favor of Ce’cile’s “Rude Bwoy Thug Life,” which was also based on the Cure Riddim. At the time, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me to feature two songs with essentially the same backing track. “Need You Tonight” didn’t stand much of a chance up against “Rude Bwoy,” but that’s no comment on its quality. That Ce’cile song is probably one of the top 20 or 30 best songs that I’ve ever posted on this site. The Cure Riddim is essentially a remixed version of The Cure’s “Close To Me,” and with or without Robert Smith’s lyrics, the music can’t help but to convey a strong sense of romantic anticipation. Tanya Stephens runs with that general theme, but darkens the tone by making her version about anxiously planning an adulterous rendezvous. (Click here to buy it from Germaican Records.)

Tahiti 80 “Changes” – Okay, so now we know what Phoenix would sound like if they became obsessed with the Neptunes. This track is utterly immaculate 00s pop, and seems almost like a musical tribute to two or three years ago while still sounding like it could be from two years from now. The voice is thin but pleasant, the beats are crisp, the hooks won’t let go. Unsurprisingly, people in Japan love this song. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

I’m Here To Sing A Song About Privilege

Nouvelle Vague “I Melt With You” – Though most of the Nouvelle Vague album is a pleasant novelty (80s new wave and punk hits recorded in a bossa nova style, perfect for your next dinner party), they pull off something on their version of Modern English’s “I Melt With You” that is rather similar to what the Scala Choir did with The Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself.” Essentially, they rescue a beautiful love song from I Love The 80s kitsch and Burger King commercials by toning down the intensity and putting the focus squarely on the lyrics and melody. I’m sure that over the years, this song has appeared on countless mixes made for crushes and romantic partners, and that at least half of those people put the song on to express the sentiment of this version – cuddly, low-key sexiness rather than epic romance. In one of the most adorable ad libs that I’ve ever heard, the singer deflates the song’s most bombastic line (“I made a pilgrimage to save this human race”) with a smirky “yes I did!” that brings the lyric back down to earth without disrespecting the earnest ambition of that verse. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Stephen Malkmus “Pencil Rot” -“Pencil Rot” starts off the new Malkmus album with a keyboard riff that sounds like it got lost on its way to the auditions for Blueberry Boat. It’s a move that makes me wonder whether he’s actually influenced directly by The Fiery Furnaces, or if I’ve been right all along, and they just sound a whole lot like him. The similarity to the Furnaces is limited to the keyboard sound on this track though, as the song takes off in another direction once the guitars kick in. It’s sort of like a warped, less predictable version of “Dark Wave” from Pig Lib, with odd lyrics about being tortured by a villainous alter ego named Leather McWhip and crawling (and dancing) to the top of the “human shit pile.” It’s fairly representative of Face The Truth as a whole – familiar Malkmus songwriting spiked with a bit of experimentation in arrangement and production. At this point, the guy can’t help but to be himself, so he’s wise to shift his focus to texture rather than attempt an awkward reinvention. (Click here for the not-particularly-useful official SM site.)

Melinda and Melinda – Speaking of artists who can’t help but be themselves and ought to avoid reinvention; Woody Allen’s new film wisely avoids the severe flaws of his previous picture by sticking to his regular formula to the point of self-parody. Anything Else was a thoroughly mediocre romantic comedy brought down further by Allen’s profound cultural disconnection from anyone under the age of 30 to whom he is not currently married. Though it is important to come into any of his films ready to suspend disbelief, Anything Else pushed the limits of what a viewer could rationally expect of the interests of 20somethings played by Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci. Allen’s artistic and philosophical obsessions haven’t changed much since the mid-70s, and that isn’t such a problem in terms of what he wants to say in his art, but since he uses his characters as mouthpieces for his own tastes and views, he ends up coming off as oblivious to cultural changes and doomed to anachronism.

Melinda and Melinda is focused on characters in their 30s and 40s from a uniformly wealthy and well educated background, so the cultural signifiers make a bit more sense, even if the film seems more like a mid 80s period piece rather than something taking place in this decade. The premise of the film is that two writers – one specializing in comedy, the other in drama – are giving their take on essentially the same story, and the film cuts back and forth between their versions of the events. The drama is heavy and occasionally over-the-top, and very much written as a parody of earnest tragedies. In contrast to the comedy, which includes some of the funniest material that Allen has produced in years, thanks in part to the performance of the currently unstoppable Will Ferrell, it seems rather like Allen wants the viewer to walk out of the theatre thinking “wow, comedy is so much better than tragedy!” I get the sense that this is on some level intentional, and that Allen is defending his legacy against the criticism of self-righteous dramatists. That insecurity is obviously warranted by a film culture that elevates drama and generally disrespects comedy, but it’s somewhat unseemly when it becomes the subject of a film.

Do Some Ab Crunches, Pack A Bag Lunch

I Hate You When You’re Pregnant “Tanning Booth” -I’m not quite sure what to make of this little oddity. It’s a super-catchy funk song about getting fake tans set to a slap bass groove straight out of Seinfeld by a dude from Arizona who looks like this. Depending on your demeanor, you may or may not love having the words “tanning booth, tanning booth, you’re my best best friend in the whole wide world” running through your head for the rest of the day. But it will happen, so be careful. (Click here for the official I Hate You When You’re Pregnant site.)

Four Tet “Smile Around The Face” -It may not always seem like it, but I really do try not to be too repetitive in how I describe the music on this site. I’ve fallen back on variations of “it sounds like happy” many times in the past, primarily because that seemed to be the most accurate way to frame the music, but now I feel like I’m just being hacky when I do that. I want to say something else about this song, but no matter how much I think about it, it all keeps coming back to “it sounds like happy.” And it does. It sounds just like happy. Clearly Four Tet knew this was the case when they put the word “smile” in the title and put it on a record called Everyting Ecstatic. Happy happy happy. Enjoy. (Click here to buy it from Pure Groove Records.)

Also: Please note that time is running out for this year’s WFMU fundraising marathon. Please support the world’s greatest freeform radio station. WFMU runs entirely on listener donations – no underwriting, no government cash, no advertising or sponsorships. Even if you only occasionally listen to the station online, you should consider putting in at least the minimum donation of $10 to help ensure that the streams and archives remain available 24/7. WFMU is unquestionably one of the best resources for music on the internet, and it’s up to all of us to keep it alive. You don’t have to pay right away, since you can be billed, or pay via credit card or Pay Pal. You don’t even need to make a telephone call – you can pledge online.

And: Here’s a bit of good news.

Wide Eyed And Open Mouthed

Clor “Love And Pain (James Ford Remix)” – Can you believe this band rejected this remix? I don’t know what the original version sounds like, but I almost don’t want to find out since I can’t imagine a rock-band arrangement coming close to the giddy heights of this dance mix. I can keep an open mind, but the nagging doubt remains. (Click here for the official Clor website.)

William Onyeabor “Better Change Your Mind” – Every time William Onyeabor asks a political superpower (as of 1978, anyway) “do you ever think this world is yours?,” he punctuates the rhetorical question with a dismissive “eh” which is invested with a mix of disappointment, frustration, and muted vitriol. This epic psychedelic/afrobeat jam fills in the gaps between many contradicting thoughts and feelings, as it acknowledges on several levels the complexity of the situation that it addresses lyrically. (Click here to buy it from the Giant Step store.)

I Gave All Of My Money Away

Mahjongg “Vaxination” – This song seems as though the members of Mahjongg could not settle on which new wave band they wanted to sound like, so they opted to be all of them simultaneously. The chorus sounds almost like three or four different Human League songs being played at once, with the vocals passing each other diagonally. It’s a minor miracle that this song manages to be as catchy and cohesive as it is. (Click here to buy it from the Dim Mak store.)

Alan Astor “Dragons and Beasts” – Should it be a cause for concern that Alan Astor can be so straight-faced and convincing when he sings a song with lyrics expressing paranoia about dragons? Should it be even more distressing that the song in question is actually kinda sexy? (Click here to buy it from Alan Astor.)

Also: I will be interviewed today on NPR’s Talk of the Nation about halfway through the 3 o’clock hour, New York time. The interview will be live, so hopefully I will not stammer and um too much. Check the NPR website for local stations carrying the show, or NPR stations broadcasting the show online. (An archive of the program is here.)

For visitors arriving as a result of the NPR interview, here are links to the three blogs that I mentioned on the air – Music For Robots, The Tofu Hut, and Benn Loxo Du Taccu, which is the African music blog with the title that I could barely pronounce.

Not Yet Gorgeous Girls

Metronomy “Trick or Treatz” – Metronomy takes the basic lyrical conceit of Ciara’s “Goodies” and goths it up for Halloween with a moody yet thumping track that may as well be a house remix of an Interpol song. The vocals have a clipped, distorted quality that sound almost as though they were recorded via walkie talkie, which creates a feeling of detachment and distance that only makes the song seem more lovelorn and yearning. (Click here to buy it from Holiphonic.)

Populous (featuring Dose One) “My Winter Vacation” – This track seems to drift by, feeling less like a proper pop song and more like a half-remembered lucid dream. I’ve listened to this song several times in the past few days, and I know that there are vocals, but with the exception of a few lyrical fragments, they mostly recede into the background as I focus more on the greater sensation of bliss and contentment of the song as a whole. (Click here to buy it from Boomkat.)

An Echo In My Head

Robyn “Be Mine” – In this anthem of unrequited love, Robyn absolutely nails that sobering moment when one realizes that they will never have the one that they want. In its heady rush of mixed emotions, the song manages to be both understated and histrionic, allowing small moments of muted jealousy and genuine goodwill to fall convincingly between choruses of grief-stricken emoting. The song glides along a backdrop of (I think) synthesized strings and electronic beats, sounding almost like the halfway point between Kylie and “Eleanor Rigby.” (Click here for the official Robyn website.)

A Song About How You Came Along

Nathalie Nordnes “Join Me In The Park” – Sometimes I am reminded of the high depression/suicide rate in Scandinavian countries, and it surprises me a little bit because in terms of the Scandinavian pop culture that I come in contact with, it always seems like that part of the world is some kind of twee wonderland. Is this tweeness a coping mechanism? Are the depressed people made to feel worse by the standard of joy and beauty in their popular culture? Are they just sad that they aren’t being invited out to the park with girls like Nathalie Nordnes? Do they not hear happy strings in their heads as they walk down the streets? On a scale of one to ten, how clueless am I about Scandinavian culture? (Probably a 4 if 10 is the most informed.) (Click here for the official Nathalie Nordnes site.)

33hz “Crazy All The Time” – I’d like to think that this is more Phoenix and less Jamiroquai, but I might just be kidding myself. Either way, this is a fine bit of smooth, super-clean white boy r+b. I think that these guys are going for more of a Hall & Oates kind of thing, but they end up sounding more like outtakes from that last Justin Timberlake album, which is good enough for me. Enjoy it now before it inevitably ends up in Target commercials or whatever. (Click here for the official 33hz site.)

Keep That Plague From Spreading

Half-Handed Cloud “Let’s Go Javelin!/Ezekiel Bread” – Like their peers in the Danielson Famile and Soul-Junk, Half-Handed Cloud specialize in a sort of twee hippie Christian music that is so odd and non-didactic that agnostic listeners might not even notice the non-secular themes unless they are up on their Old Testamest iconography. The first verse of “Ezekiel Bread” quotes a recipe from the Book Of Ezekiel almost verbatim. This bread is proof to Ezekiel that God provides all the nourishment that humans need, even if He insists that you cook it with your own excrement. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Halcali “Girgiri Surf Rider (Half Rider Mix)” – This song is gleefully noncommital in regards to genre, skipping around to any affect that works at the moment without ever seeming selfconcious or ostentatious. I don’t speak Japanese, so I have no idea what’s going on in the lyrics aside for a few stray phrases in English and the words “surf rider” in the title, but if someone told me that this was a jingle for candies or something like that, I’d probably believe them. (Click here to buy it from CD Japan and here for the Halicali blog.)

All Those Dirty Looks

Louis XIV “Finding Out True Love Is Blind” – Since Louis XIV market themselves as another one of those “REAL rock and roll” bands, and as such will mostly be written up by people beholden to that bad boy mystique, it seems rather unlikely that any of their press will call them out on the tossed-off sexism and casual racism in this song. Just to be clear, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with lust, and I’m not about to get all Laura Mulvey on you and go on about the “male gaze,” but the lyrics in this song cross a line from flirtatiousness to insulting, hyper-objectified misogyny.

The song wants to be the rock and roll equivalent of Raekwon’s “Ice Cream” or maybe a dirtier version of David Lee Roth’s cover of “California Girls,” but it seems more like some smarmy guy at the bar hitting on every woman that walks by, believing himself to be a rakish scoundral when he’s really just a desperate creep. If this song was intended to be sung from a character’s point of view, it would be a brilliant parody, but given the band’s general aesthetic (hot naked chicks are all over their website and album packaging – all skinny white girls, mind you, even though this song pays lip service to variety) and that the lyrics are written from the perspective of a travelling rock band, it just comes across as overcompensation from a band that seems a little too eager to prove their sexuality.

Nevertheless, this is a well crafted rock song; significantly better than the overwhelming majority of their competition in the nu-sleaze rock game. It’s not hard to imagine this tune working like a charm and getting the band laid every day of the week on tour – even if you ignore the lyrics, the song is all sexual tension and strutting confidence. I think that any persona of confidence is a construct to some degree, but not everyone is so transparent in promoting their own myth. (Click here to pre-order it from Insound. The band is playing a show tonight with Tommy Sunshine at Sin-é in NYC.)

A Night On The Town

Junior Senior “Itch U Can’t Skratch” – I love that Junior Senior extend the inclusiveness of their twee party music to people like Bigfoot. Even in spite of that one Beastie Boys video, I can’t imagine that Bigfoot gets out much. He’s probably very insecure about his body, you know? He’s exactly the type of person who needs a happy song that specifically asks him to dance. Come on out of the woods, Bigfoot! It’s time to party. It won’t be a coffee & cake affair, Junior Senior are going to have a DJ and dancing, pizza, chips, soda, everything! (Click here to buy it from Vibrashop.)

Banner Barbados “Since You Caught My Eye” – It’s such a cliche to say stuff like this, but this is like the best bubblegum pop song that the Velvet Underground never wrote. As immediate and loveable as this song is, it’s here as the result of a coin flip – there’s another more intense and romantic song called “My Dirty Secret Is A Divine Dilemma” on the same demo that is equally great. Lucky for you, both songs are available as mp3s on the band’s website. This is a very impressive and fully formed debut; surely some clever label will snap these people up soon. (Click here for the Banner Bardbados website.)

Elsewhere: Teaching The Indie Kids has the utterly essential Kidz Bop version of Modest Mouse’s “Float On.” It’s highly addictive, and arguably superior to the original in the sense that the song is a lot more fun with extremely enthusiastic children singing along and shouting “YEAH!” and “ALRIGHT!” after lines like “I backed my car into a cop car the other day” and “a fake Jamaican took every last dime with that scam.”

You Don’t Nomi

Klaus Nomi “Nomi Song” – Like many documentaries, The Nomi Song suffers for having to make up for a dearth of footage with an overabundance of anecdotal interviews in order for the film to hold together as a historical narrative. The editing is often quite sadistic. The director cuts away from riveting footage of Nomi’s performances for no apparent reason, often just to show some old acquaintance redundantly telling the viewer how strange and brilliant he was. By far, the archival footage of Nomi in action is the best reason to see this movie. Nomi was a living, breathing work of art with a unique, fully formed aesthetic. When the film simply shows him in his series of stunning costumes singing opera, baking pies, on stage as a new wave performance artist, appearing on Saturday Night Live with David Bowie, or just working his robot-alien shtick for the camera, it’s difficult not to be amazed by the beauty of Nomi’s affectations. Since his story is rather brief and slight to begin with, an ideal version of this film would communicate the necessary historical information via minimal narration and allow the viewer to engage with the images of Nomi with only limited mediation. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Sinistri “Black Vamp #1” – This is from an album that sounds like thousands of false starts strung together into awkward, anxious grooves. Throw in some despondent murmurs and a few atonal howls, and it would sound like the lost Jandek funk album. (Click here to buy it from Ear-Rational.)

Something To Shout About

Panico (featuring Crazy Girl) “Transpiralo” – Following the deluge of post-DFA punk-funkers, it’s been hard for me to listen to that sort of music without either feeling very cynical or totally uninspired by the work of half-assed imitators. But this…this is special. This is intense, highly potent stuff. Unlike many of their Anglo peers, there’s nothing stale or monochromatic about Panico. Their music is crackling with manic energy and sexual urgency; full of noise freak-outs, Latin rhythms, and lewd come-ons. The record basically sounds like it wants to fuck you. (Click here to buy it from Tigersushi.)

Kano “Brown Eyes” – UK grime, with Kanye-style pitched-up samples and disingenuous lyrics about romance and love. I love it that so many of the big names in UK hip hop are coming out with these great accessable singles. I don’t think it will be enough to push any of them (except for maybe Lady Sovereign, who could have a great novelty hit with “Random”) into the US mainstream, but I’m sure that it will help build an audience over here. There’s definitely room enough in the hip hop market for a non-lame “alternative”, right? (Click here to visit the official Kano website.)

Smothered In Time

A Frames “Flies” – At first, I thought of the new A Frames record as being the work of a decent “local band” with potential, but after spending some time with the record, I’ve come around to their subtle charms. It’s a lot like what happened for me with Interpol – I discovered that their music was almost ideal to listen to while reading and doing mindless errands because the consistent mood and dynamics never distracted me too much from my task. I know that this may seem like faint praise, but I appreciate music that can function in this way as a matter of practicality. As a result of doing this site, I have become fairly ruthless in how I process records by unfamiliar artists, so it’s a pleasant surprise to me that I can still take my time with some records. The A Frames certainly have their faults – mainly, I would prefer them to either be artier or poppier, because their middle ground seems like an awkward compromise – but at their best, they are both plodding and graceful, and pull off an aesthetic than many less bands never quite nail. (Click here to buy it from Sub Pop.)

The Gays “Fire To Feed (WASTER electro remix 2) – I’m generally not that fond of downpitched vocals outside of “screwed” rap records, but the trick works on this song. The vocals sound both woozy and wild, which is a good match for the track, which feels like a halfway point between goth and acid. The synth washes at the end as especially great, as is the sudden return of the vocals after the fake-out ending. (Click here to buy it from Pinprick Records.)