Let’s Not Speak Of This Again

Clue To Kalo “User To A Carrier (By The Sister)”

Each of the songs on Clue To Kalo’s forthcoming album Lily Perdida examine the title character from the perspective of other people in her life, yielding a complete picture of a person out of often conflicting fragments of information and contradicting experiences. It’s a clever idea, though the odd density of the lyrics can make the broader themes about identity and community a bit difficult to engage without following the lyric sheet in the album’s booklet. The music is quite another matter, as its best songs roll on with lovely, breezy melodies that often follow the winding curves of English folk, and are executed with the style and grace of Elliott Smith and early Belle & Sebastian. The vocals can get a bit too thin at times, but when it snaps together, the reserved performances suit the tone just fine.

Buy it from Mush Records.

A few notes on last night’s Indie Karaoke show hosted by Andrew WK, and featuring Ted Leo and the Pharmacists:

1) Andrew WK and Ted Leo are both, as my friend Chris notes, unequivocal forces for good in this world. Young rock musicians would be wise to follow their example of marrying positive energy and solid principles to artistic craft and everyman appeal rather than to end up like, you know, this.

2) Ted Leo and the Pharmacists’ new material is very strong, probably their best work since Hearts of Oak. Yes, it basically sounds like Ted Leo music, but it’s sharp and immediately catchy, and the song Ted described as being like “black metal dancehall” is a clear winner.

3) There were some really wonderful performances in the karaoke set. Much respect to the guys who did the Outfield song, “Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap),” and “Minor Threat,” but it’s safe to say that the obvious highlight was this awesome woman named Abigail who absolutely killed it on “Respect.” She was just astounding, and had enough charisma, confidence, and vocal power that if she doesn’t already have a band of her own, she’d better start one right away.

4) Of course, there were some lame performances as well. Look, I know it’s mean to be overly critical of karaoke performances and that Andrew WK would probably not approve of me saying this, but if you’re going to get to the venue super early to sign up for a song, you should be prepared to sing it, and have heard the song at least once in the past ten years. Anything less, particularly in a scenario in which a lot of people would’ve liked to sing but didn’t get the chance because it was first-come first-serve, is just insulting to everyone else in the room. Specifically, I am talking about those two assholes who did “Dancing With Myself.” They should be ashamed of themselves.