Album Review: Disappears - Guider

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Chicago's Disappears have already cut their teeth by making a grinder of a debut in Lux. Channeling some incredible noise and drone while blending it with heavy rock star grooves, it sourced lots of what was good and decent in the storied history of indie rock. Within 9 months of Lux, the band must have had some seriously inspired motivation to head back into the studio for Guider. Their are some connections to the previous album, but in general this is a completely new expression of their working theme.

First off, Guider is a full length album in the loosest and the most historical of terms by containing only 6 tracks and clocking in around 30 minutes. However, this band is truly a throwback in it's style and sound. The Disappears always intended Guider to be listened to on vinyl and its songs fit perfectly on that format. "Side A" would be the first five tracks of throbbing basement D.I.Y. that reminds of the experimental churn of no-wave NYC in the early 1980's. Opener "Superstition" sets the tone of Guider with its immediacy. Under two minutes in length, it is the cliffs notes version of their mission, hitting the ground running and even squeezing in a crescendo finish. "Not Romantic" is a more gradual expression that draws in the listener as the muted drone envelops like a void. The next two tracks "Halo" and "Guider" are the album rockers that work in a crisp tempo and intoned chants that never overreach the low production ceiling. Finishing up the first side is the druggy bliss of "New Fast" as an opening act to the epic final track. The near 16-minute expanse of "Revisiting" is the inspired scuzz rollercoaster that was perfected by bands such as Sonic Youth and the now defunct Spacemen 3. There is no beauty or grand guitar solos here, just that aching throb that is best experienced with headphones and some sort of chemical assistance. By the finish, it becomes apparent that Disappears are not about grand gestures but subtle moments that become part of the song's tapestry. Now with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth fame filling in behind the drumkit, who knows what the future will hold for this constantly evolving band.

Disappears are live at the Empty Bottle February 4. Tickets are available here.

Purchase Guider here.

Disappears - Halo


Disappears - Superstition (plus three tracks from Lux)

Echo And The Bunnymen Launch Two Album Tour, Hit Chicago May 17

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The British new wave stalwarts Echo and the Bunnymen are one of many bands still releasing respectable material well into their fourth decade. Forming in 1978, the band's first four landmark albums in the early 80's are often cited as the best and most under-appreciated material from that era. Their most heralded LP from that group Ocean Rain was the subject of the full retrospective concert tour where the band played entire album in proper order. The reception (and ticket receipts) must have been great, because the Bunnymen have decided to do it again for not one, but two full albums at one concert. Their first two LP's Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here will be the subject of a back to back redux tour across the US starting in May. The show in Chicago will be on May 17 at The Vic with tickets going on sale on the January 29 at 10am. Give a listen to a sample from each album below.

Purchase Crocodiles here.

Purchase Heaven Up Here here.

Echo and the Bunnymen - Tracks from the new tour

The Feelies Give Away New Track, Album Out April 12

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As reported in a very excited earlier post, The Feelies are dropping a new LP in 2011, breaking a 20 year hiatus. In fact, I was so excited that I was inspired to write an ode to their oft overlooked 1986 album The Good Earth. Getting with the new millennium, the band has finally leaked a new track as well. "Should Be Gone" is quintessential Feelies featuring their melodic jangle, folksy lyrics, bouncing beats and bass and a free-form guitar solo that doesn't miss a step after three decades of music. For the dedicated fan, this track is like coming home again. The album Here Before will be out on Bar/None Records on April 12, with pre-order details coming soon.

Listen to the track below and right click to download it here.

The Feelies - Should Be Gone

Low Readies New Album, Live EP Available For Download

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The reigning champions of slo-core, Duluth MN trio Low, have been shattering hearts with their sonic bloodletting for almost two decades. There is nothing more delicate, yet seething with pain than this band at their most focused. After 4 years of quiet, the band has released some information on the new album. Entitled C'mon, the LP will set sail on April 12 via Sub Pop. A brief synopsis of the recording with a track list is given here.

Although there is no teaser track available from the upcoming album yet, the band is giving away a 4 song live EP from a 2009 concert at a church in The Netherlands. Listen to the entire EP by hovering your mouse over the picture and clicking for some Internet magic. Also, for your listening enjoyment are two tracks from their two most recent albums. Hopefully, this can tide you over until the winter thaws.

Purchase Drums & Guns here.

Purchase The Great Destroyer here.

Low - When I Go Deaf (from The Great Destroyer)


Low - Murderer (from Drums & Guns)

Times New Viking Premiere New Song, Video, Album Out April 26

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Columbus, Ohio three-piece Times New Viking made a lot of noise, both figuratively and literally, with their 2008 debut on Matador Rip It Off. Opting for lo-fi distortion to take the front seat over their simple garage melodies, they deftly caused the indie powers-that-be to appropriately swoon. They quickly released a follow-up Born Again Revisited in 2009 that smoothed over the rougher edges and revealed a confidence in the band's mission. After a label switch, much touring and extended studio time, the public was given the first taste of their latest work. The new LP, Dancer Equired, will be out April 26 on Merge, but the first available track and video "No Room To Live" is ready for listening, watching and downloading here.

The initial striking quality on the track is, well, the quality of it. Rather than having your ears scrape away the layers of fuzz to get to the indie pop, Times New Viking left it behind so you can relax and let the simplicity creep over you like sunlight popping out from the clouds. The accompanying video, however, is anything but simple. Looking like a moving picture version of found art, the director incorporated over 40 artists to animate and collage the video with striking works that compliments the awkward beauty of the song.

Right click to download "No Room To Live" here.

Purchase Born Again Revisited here.

Times New Viking - No Room To Live

Album Review: Wire - Red Barked Tree

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The overwhelming influence Wire has had on music over the past 3 1/2 decades is immeasurable. When compared to other bands from that era who also tilled the rocky fields that cradled the seeds of punk rock, Wire was always considered singular and set apart in their efforts. From their inception in 1976, Wire was an outfit that pushed past the two chord manifesto, who changed tempo while most opted to only play fast, chose detailed artistic strokes where most punk bands scoffed at the notion and sang about cerebral ideas and ambiguous moods when everyone else went for the obvious and easily recited rallying cry chorus. Their first three albums Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154 are considered the Holy Trinity of Brit-punk by laying the groundwork with short, meaty, hook-laden anthems then building new structures on that established foundation with synthesizers, dark vocals and that oft shunned element of melody. In 2011, they still butter their bread with that aesthetic and show no signs of doing anything different.

Red Barked Tree is Wire's first full length since the 2008 LP Object 47. With the band now whittled down to a 3-piece, the new effort has all of the signposts of a Wire album: angular guitar, metronomic drums, stern emotionless vocals and cryptic song titles and lyrics. That impersonal feel is most evident in the opener "Please Give" where Colin Newman pleads for his opposition to take their knife out of his back with all of the passion of an audio reading of the phone book. The next track "Now Was" is their strongest reflection on their original sparse and pointed style, featuring a double time march and a monotoned rant. "Clay" feels grandly automated, like the world's largest pocket watch, patiently ticking each moment of a steely beat and guitar in seemingly perpetual action.

They can still showcase their punk rock battle scars on the appropriately monikered single "Two Minutes" and the extended grinders "Smash" & "Moreover" where it only takes a bit of pedal fuzz to breakup the slick, yet commonplace production. This is the biggest hindrance on Red Barked Tree, where these eleven songs of buzzing, twitching energy are often smothered with an MOR radio format sheen. Tracks like "Bad Worn Thing" and "Adapt" source the version of Wire reincarnated in the eighties where ethereal keys weave through heavy guitar strums. Yet the nagging smoothness of some of the more reserved tracks seems to have the innate intention to mix nicely next to the latest John Hiatt single. This is a shame because Red Barked Tree is more than a band of eventual pensioners clutching at the final straws of their decorated past. It is muscled and true to Wire's nature without a hint of phoning in another flimsy album to fit into their final chapter. (Hi, Rolling Stones!) With a career that has survived losing a key member and two lengthy periods of their history spent in hibernation, Wire has every excuse to falter. But that wouldn't be very punk rock, would it?

Right click to download "Two Minutes" here.

Purchase Red Barked Tree here.

Wire - Red Barked Tree (full album)

Lykke Li Previews Another Track, Remix From Forthcoming Album

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The Swedish chanteuse Lykke Li grabbed some early attention for her forthcoming LP Wounded Rhymes with "Get Some", an intense little number where her lyrics take the role of a lusty lady of the evening. (Read my post and listen to "Get Some" here.) Now with the March 1 street date approaching, the listening public is graced with another gift in "I Follow Rivers". The sultry track is flecked with idiosyncratic percussion and a rhythm suited for belly dancing. She coos seductively throughout, pledging to follow her affections to the depths of the ocean. It is another aggressive number with sensual overtones from a woman who has locked into a powerful voice for her upcoming release. As a bonus, a remix featuring house piano and a driven tempo is given below as well. Although the sped-up mix takes the seduction out of her voice, the result has her sounding a lot like Stevie Nicks. Depending on who you are, that might be a good thing.

Pre-order Wounded Rhymes here.

Right click to download "I Follow Rivers" for free here.

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers


Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers (The Magician Remix)

Kid Sister Releases Mixtape For Free

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The music of Chicago's pride and joy Kid Sister has been a fixture in clubs and parties all over the world by virtue of a trademark swift and smooth delivery with her sassy tongue always firmly planted in her dimpled cheek. Touring incessantly since the release of her 2009 compilation of new tracks and previously released singles Ultraviolet, Ms. Sister found the time and inspiration to concoct a new single "Kiss Kiss Kiss". This track is the centerpiece on the new mixtape (courtesy of Nick Catchdubs) and, by the way, is absolutely free with the submitting of an email address above. Highlights of the thirteen track party starter include the Green Velvet collab "Everybody Wants", the big beats on the Laidback Luke remix of Do!Do!Do! and the old skool feel of "Don't Stop Movin'". To reiterate: Listen to and download "Kiss Kiss Kiss" below and grab the entire mix above. For free, for realz.

Purchase Ultraviolet here.

Kid Sister - Kiss Kiss Kiss

Album Review: Tapes n' Tapes - Outside

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Back in an innocent day and age I like to refer to as "mid-aughts", there was a little band that could from my hometown of Minneapolis who romped through the blogosphere on the wings of a sweet EP and new tracks that referenced all that was good and pure in indie rock. That band was Tapes n' Tapes and the tracks in question were the ingredients that concocted the 2006 album The Loon. It was a soup-to-nuts indie masterpiece that gave as much as it took with quirky numbers that benefited from a stripped bare production that highlighted jittery hooks and abstract lyrics. As is an inevitable commonality for the excitedly and preemptively hyped, the rubber band snapped for Tapes n' Tapes on the next album Walk It Off where an overblown sound (courtesy of the recording style of Dave Fridmann) often clouded their reserved nature. The story now careens into the release of the third LP that for most bands follows the narrative of the "crossroads album". Smartly opting to return to independent production and a self-release on their own label Ibid, will Tapes n' Tapes bounce back and rise or perhaps surpass the great heights of their debut hit or meander back into the pack in this increasingly disposable era of music?

Of course, my lead paragraph just tipped my hand. If Outside was extreme, either to the good or bad, my preface would have either praised or damned their efforts. Instead, we have flashes of past greatness coupled with indiscriminate filler. The opening track "Badaboom" sets a promising tone with an insistent drumbeat and a swelling guitar that teases between the crescendos and finishes with a tempo change that sways until the abrupt finish. The next tracks "SWM" and "One in the World" are only knee-deep pools of quick, sassy grooves that fail to break through their catchy, glossy veneer. Tapes n' Tapes regain their footing on tracks like "Nightfall" whose darker feel, horn bleats and plaintive cries build into an restrained but satisfying finish. They get cryptic again on "Outro" by oddly placing the track with this name in the middle of the album. The beginning waltz shuffle entices, but plugging in a exiting guitar solo that rings with a big finish says much more than words could have.

Outside's big single "Freak Out" is the standout track that literally yanks the listener around like a marionette with a jangling riff and fearless stomp. (Read my initial song review here.) In the rest of the album's second half, Tapes n' Tapes lace the tracks with the noisy clatter that was the poison that killed Walk It Off. Luckily on Outside the lessons have been duly learned as the tracks are mostly salvaged by some quality writing, intriguing twists and buoyant energy. "Hidee Ho" creeps up like a Loon outtake and startles with both phonic and instrumental outbursts that have "concert highlight" written all over it. "On and On" chugs along with heavy keys and simple vocals and splinters in the end with a satisfactory dissonance. By the end of Outside, it is obvious that Tapes n' Tapes have become, through all tribulations and touring, a much more cohesive musical unit. However, rather than choosing a definite direction to travel on Outside, Tapes n' Tapes went back to their homebase and stayed put, releasing an fine yet loose collection of songs that only faintly remind fans of their previous soaring heights.

Purchase Outside here.

Listen to the entire album Outside at Spinner for a limited time.

Tapes n' Tapes - Freak Out (download for free by clicking the down arrow)


Tapes n' Tapes - Badaboom

Jamie xx Remixes Gil Scott-Heron, Album Out February 22

To kick off my long holiday hibernation from blogging, I decided to take left turn. Instead of wiritng about the hottest young talent for the new year, I am listening to the reworking of last year's release by a 62 year old. Gil Scott-Heron has been at it for over 4 decades and his 2010 album I'm New Here honored and continued his great lineage in the annals of funk, rap, soul and hip-hop. Enter Jamie Smith of The xx to add his remixing skills to the master's vocals and make a whole new piece of art. The new collaborative entitled We're New Here has a street date of February 22 on XL Recordings.

The first track was the deconstruction of "New York Is Killing Me", a thumping stepper with bewitching elements creeping into the mix. However, the latest taste comes from "I'll Take Care of You" whose sweet ache has been replaced by house piano and bass rumble coupled with sparse guitar stabs. It balanced in its graceful joy and ageless longing. Just beautiful.

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Purchase I'm New Here here.

Purchase the first two singles from We're New Here here.



Bonus: If you are not familiar with this icon, check of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and prepare yourself...