It’s Hard To Tell The Parents Apart From The Children

My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site. This week: The Big Sleep, Justice, and Page France.

The Rogers Sisters “Money Matters” – The Rogers Sisters are a brave band, willfully jumping into the fire by opening up for Sleater-Kinney on their final tour, playing to audiences who are practically melting in overheated rooms while anxiously waiting for the headliner, and no matter how well they play, their set is a distant memory by the time S-K finishes their encore. They definitely put on a strong show in NYC, or at least played well enough for me to reconsider The Invisible Deck yesterday. I’m sort of baffled as to why I originally took a pass on that album; at least half of the songs are exactly the sort of 90s-style indie rock that I normally go for — strong hooks and harmonies, punky spirit, guitar noise that errs on the side of impressionism, singing that falls somewhere between Kristen Hersh and Kathleen Hanna on the indie girl vocal spectrum. It’s true that I’d definitely prefer the band if the guy never sang at all, but he’s not that bad, and Jennifer Rogers is especially great, both as a guitarist and as a vocalist. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Space Cowboy “That’s What Dreams Are Made Of (MTV) (Alan Braxe remix)” – Extended to nearly 400% of its original length by Alan Braxe to the point that it actually better resembles Space Cowboy’s previous singles, this mix drifts along in a blissful haze for several minutes before getting to its first verse. The lyrics are sung from the perspective of an aspiring pop singer, and addressed to an older pop star that inspired them when they were watching MTV back in 1993. It’s almost too sweet and naive, but it’s so incredibly true in how the sentiment is verbalized. There’s this weird mixture of awe and ego and ambition and vulnerability, and the song gets totally lost in those emotions. It’s as though they made a song out of some stray soundbite from American Idol, but weren’t trying to make fun of the earnest contestants. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)

Elsewhere: NPR’s All Songs Considered has the entire Sleater-Kinney show from last night in Washington, DC as one big downloadable mp3 on their site. It’s a good show, but nothing on the previous night in terms of energy and song selection. But hey, “Burn, Don’t Freeze!,” “Buy Her Candy,” and “Little Babies” were played, so that’s pretty cool.