August 20th, 2008 1:09pm

The Quintessential Brainwave

Gang Gang Dance “House Jam” – It’s probably a good idea for the Gang Gang Dance to tighten up. Their previous records have had interesting moments, but generally suffered from sounding a bit too much like a drunk Siouxsie Sioux fucking around with an even more inebriated Banshees at soundcheck. The voice and the aesthetic was there, but the discipline was not. “House Jam,” despite its annoyingly generic title, finds the group embracing hooks and stronger grooves, but not at the expense of their loose, quasi-mystical vibe. It’s almost as if they remembered that the word “dance” was in the name of their band and decided to make good on that promise. (Click here for the official Gang Gang Dance site.)

Death Vessel “Jitterkadie” – The first time I ever heard Death Vessel, it was at a live show that was really more of a social event, and so I went a while before noticing that the singer in the band was male and not female. When I heard Death Vessel’s new album for the first time, the memory of that revelation was not present in my mind, and so I got to do that mental double-take a second time when I looked over the liner notes. Now that I have a greater familiarity with his music, I can hear the masculinity in Joel Thibodeau’s voice, but it’s just a trace in his androgynous tone. While it is true that his voice has a sexless eunuch quality, there’s a gentle purity to the music that is rather appealing, if only in small doses. “Jitterkadie” is particularly lovely, and stands as one of the best songs to come out of Sub Pop’s recent fixation on extreme folk-pop coziness. (Click here to buy it from Sub Pop.)