Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Album Of The Week: May 25th-June 1st, 2014


Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of May 25th-June 1st, 2014:


Naptaker - Siestecita

01. Surf Gremlins
02. Shiva
03. Alone
04. Operation
05. Riders On The Squall
06. Outlaw Twist

"Naptaker is the surf trash sonic love child of Sid Alberto and Éric del Baile, conceived in Saint Paul, MN in 2012. Finally, in the fall of 2013, they released a demo called Siestecita EP.

Sam - bass
Eric - guitar
Preston - drums
Andrew - vocals, guitar"


-via Naptaker's Last.fm page

"Naptaker is a trashy blend of garage, surf, psych, stoner, and PFR, with a dash of Romanticism and contrapuntal sensibility."

-via Naptaker's Bandcamp page 

And that, my friends, is the extent of my knowledge of Naptaker.  Well, that and the fact that they have an excellent name.  Shout out, naptaking!

I stumbled onto Siestecita in the same way everybody finds new music these days - by getting sucked into a Bandcamp wormhole.  It started with tweet from Fury Things (if I remember correctly) that led me to the Ecstattic Studio Bandcamp pageBeing new to the Ecstattic Studio page, I started snooping around, eventually coming across Siestecita.  God bless the internet.

Though the EP was released last fall, it's definitely a summertime affair.  Of all the adjectives listed above, "surf" is the one that carries the most weight here.  The six songs here come & go quickly, relying on some surf-tastic guitar work to get their point across.  Like most surf bands, the lyrics skew toward the goofy, but let's be honest, this ain't a record for deep thinking.  Catchy, stupid summer fun.

Siestecita is available as a "Name Your Price" download on Naptaker's Bandcamp page.  Give it a spin.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Songs Of The Week #92: TCDroogsma


(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

Hurray For The Riff Raff, Thievery Corporation, Pink Mountaintops, Spottiswoode & His Enemies, & Little Man...


Well hello again, MP3 fans! Welcome To Songs Of The Week #92!

For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story:  TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.  They're also both opinionated and have access to computers.  Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column.  Over a year later later and here we are.

Unfortunately, this week MinneSarah took the week off due to what could kindly be called "Current-based fatigue."  Trust us, her words were considerably more harsh.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself.  It's free and it's fun for the whole family!

To that end, once you've given each song a spin or two, feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page.  The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.

So... Droogsy... thoughts?


01. Hurray For The Riff Raff - I Know It's Wrong (But That's Alright) (from the album Small Town Heroes)


 
TCDroogsma:

     The story of Hurray For The Riff Raff's lead singer & songwriter Alynda Lee Segarra is a long & winding tail.  She's of Puerto Rican descent, was raised by her aunt in the Bronx, spent her teen years indulging in the punk scene on the Lower East Side, started hopping trains at 17, came out as a lesbian, picked up a banjo, and started writing songs.

     That's quite a journey.  As such, "I Know It's Wrong" has a ramshackle quality to it.  Segarra's vocals bounce along a piano line straight from a spaghettie Western while pedal steel guitars & banjo licks provide some color to the proceedings.  For better or worse, though, "I Know It's Wrong" is a pop song (and not a particularly interesting one).  The melody is catchy, but doesn't offer any surprises.  Lyrically, Segarra's journey has left her with the same problems as all of us: love, lust, loneliness, and the always romantic I'd-break-the-rules-for-you dream.  It's a pleasant enough, but instantly forgettable.

Final Score: 2/5

02. Thievery Corporation - Depth Of My Soul (from the album Saudade) 


 
TCDroogsma:

     From the very beginning, the idea behind Thievery Corporation's core members Rob Garza & Eric Hilton has been to create something that sounded both modern & timeless.  They lean heavily on scratchy samples, insistent vocals, & some live instrumentation to achieve this goal consistently.

     "Depth Of My Soul" continues their winning streak. Turning their focus to something that wouldn't sound out of place in a smoke-filled, stylish club (or, I suppose, a commecial for high-class liquor), they've enlisted Shana Halligan to croon soulfully over strings, piano plinks, & sorta-hip-hop sounding percussion.  The end result is a beautiful, soulful, lyrically vapid song.  Considering that Thievery Corporation has never been about lyrics and more about mood, there's nothing wrong with that.  "Depth Of My Soul" would sound best in one of those aforementioned clubs, where all anybody would notice are the strings, drums, and singing.

Final Score: 3.5/5

03. Pink Mountaintops - Ambulance City (from the album Get Back)




TCDroogsma:

     Pink Mountaintops is the side project of Black Mountain's Stephen McBean.  Despite Black Mountain's penchant for psychedelic rock, Pink Mountaintops are allegedly a "more psychedelic" outfit.

     Whoever wrote that must have missed the memo regarding "Ambulance City."  McBean ditches most of the psychedelic's (though he can't help himself with the vocal reverb) and bangs out a good old fashioned punk rock song.  As far as I can tell the lyrics aren't anything but placeholders (and the fact that the third verse doesn't even contain any vocals speaks to that theory).  Those verses, however, act merely as a buildup to the screaming catharsis of the chorus.  "Ambulance city, station to station!" means something, maybe, or maybe it doesn't.  I don't know.  Frankly, they could have recorded this song in German and it would have been just as good.  Nobody ever said rock n roll had to be smart.

Final Score: 3/5

04. Spottiswoode & His Enemies - No Time For Love (from the album English Dream)




TCDroogsma:

     I'll throw this out here right from the jump:  If you're going to give your band a name as stupid as Spottiswoode & His Enemies you're already starting with one strike against you.  It's not personal, but the same rule has been applied to poorly named bands in the past (The Magnetic Zeroes, TuNe-YaRds, etc...) and typically strikes two and three come quickly.  Sorry, Spottiswoode.  Blame your peers.

     To their credit, "No Time For Love" is nowhere near as bad as anything Edward Sharpe or Merrill Garbus has put their name on (then again, it's nearly impossible for anything to be that bad).  The band aims for both epic & personal with this piano-based stomper and, for the most part, hits the mark.  It's smartly devoid of universe-conquering declarations and insufferably specific details.  Rather, it's an ode to sacrificing some personal happiness in the name of spending that time trying to create something bigger.  I can't help but think that's subject matter Spottiswoode & His Enemies are familiar with intimately.

Final Score: 2.5/5

05. Little Man - Medicinal (from the album Original Face)




TCDroogsma:

     It's been two months since Little Man last appeared on SOTW, which means we're long overdue for another track.

     With "Medicinal" (his SIXTH SOTD track), Chris Perricelli sticks with the same formula that has built up his following in the Twin Cities.  While I can't help but suspect that his dogged adherence to playing clever, T. Rex-inspired pop has also led to a glass ceiling of sorts for his popularity, there's just no arguing with his hooks.  "Medicinal" was released as an SOTD track the same week that Minnesota legislators OK's marijuana use for medicinal purposes.  Whether that was a move by Perricelli or the jackasses running The Current is unknown to me, but considering how "har, har, this will be clever" the whole thing seems, I'm willing to blame MPR.  Nobody likes pretending they're clever more than those folks.

     But I digress... "Medicinal" is either an ode to marijuana in the same "no, it's about a significant other" way that Paul McCartney's "Got To Get You Into My Life" is or, in our post-everything world, it's a clever turn of ideas and is really a love song that people would initially think was about pot.  I'm not smart enough to figure out which is which, but given Little Man's previous work, I'm just going to assume it's about weed.  Doesn't really matter. Smart, snappy, hooky... It's everything you want from a Little Man single.  See you in another month or two, Chris.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Well there you have it, MP3 junkies!  Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & filed away!

As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR.  We're just music fans with laptops and a bit too much time on our hands.





For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio






For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.

Newest Industry Presents - Flatbasset Radio: Episode #37


(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

When I start to feel that pull, turns out I just pulled myself...



For those of you who are unaware of the Flatbasset Radio format, here's what you're looking at: TCDroogsma is our resident MP3 junkie. As you've probably noticed in his Songs Of The Week column, he's not always the most positive music fan. In an effort to prove that he is, in fact, a fan of music, we give him an hour each week to play the songs he's digging and talk a little bit about them. Once he's recorded his podcast we put it right here on the website for free to stream and/or download!

This week's episode finds TCDroogsma throwing together an episode for the Memorial Day weekend.  He decided to steal an idea from his nemesis The Current and play three song blocks from three of his favorite artists.  Along the way he confesses that he's not working too hard on this one, tries to get a sponsorship from "whoever makes falafel chips," celebrates an icon's birthday, discusses just what's going to be written on his tombstone, triples down on the podcast's second-ever request, goes on "a" Weezer rant, but not all of his Weezer rants, puts on for his old minivan, shouts out his parents, and celebrates the 20th anniversary of "The Blue Album" by explaining how a Weezer track laid the blueprint for the rest of his life.

You can download the podcast for free by clicking the episode's title or stream the episode by clicking on the Mixcloud player below.



Flatbasset Radio: Episode #37


01. Morrissey - Sister I'm A Poet
02. Morrissey - Jack The Ripper
03. Morrissey - A Song From Under The Floorboards
04. Beastie Boys - An Open Letter To NYC
05. Beastie Boys - The Sounds Of Science
06. Beastie Boys - Pass The Mic
07. Weezer - Pink Triangle
08. Weezer - Photograph
09. Weezer - Love Explosion
10. Weezer - The World Has Turned And Left Me Here

There you have it, music fans!  Enjoy!




For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  Previous episodes of Flatbasset Radio are archived on his Mixcloud page.  Stop by Flatbasset Radio's Facebook Page & give it a "Like" if you have the time.

For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.          

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Album Of The Week: May 19th-25th, 2014


Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of May 19th-25th, 2014:


Howler - World Of Joy

01. Al's Corral
02. Drip
03. Don't Wanna
04. Yacht Boys
05. In The Red
06. World Of Joy
07. Louise
08. Here's The Itch That Creeps Through My Skull
09. Indictment
10. Aphorismic Wasteland Blues

Confession: I've never heard Howler's debut America Give Up.  Despite the fact that shambolic, hooky, garage rock is pretty much the greatest thing ever (and the fact that I did love the song "Told You Once"), I just never got around to it.  I'm sure I will eventually.  In fact, having given World Of Joy a few spins now, I find myself more curious than ever to go pick it up.

I realize it's not especially creative to compare World Of Joy to a Replacements record, but the similarities are inescapable (at least on the first half).  From the album art (which recalls Hootenanny!) to the style & substance of the songs ("Drip" is essentially "Tommy Got His Tonsils Out"), the debt is clear no matter how much Jordan Gatesmith may say otherwise.

Keep in mind that I don't mean that as a criticism.  Twin Cities bands have been trying to capture that magic-in-a-bottle formula for years to wildly varying degrees of success.  With World Of Joy Howler nails it.  The first batch of songs are snotty, self-destructive, and an absolute ball.

(Quick note for Smiths fans:  It's well known that Howler is on Rough Trade and that singer Jordan Gatesmith is dating Johnny Marr's daughter.  That doesn't make it any less curious to see noted Morrissey foil Geoff Travis' name in that "Thank You" notes.  It does, however, make it pretty funny Gatesmith sings, "You don't have to listen to The Smiths if you don't wanna..."  Clever guy, that guy.)

The second half of the album is where Howler really makes their case for a career that outlives the buzz.  The title track skews shoegaze in the style of The Horrors.  "Louise" sounds like very late era Replacements.  "Here's The Itch That Creeps Through My Skull" is easily the highlight or the lowlight of the record depending on just what it is you want out of Howler.  It's a mid-tempo pop song (complete with some sparkling, ahem, Marr-esque guitar work) that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Singles soundtrack.  It's a genuine high water mark for the band and an exciting moment for anybody who wants Howler's career arc to be more Replacements than Tapes N Tapes (for the record, I love TNT. We're talking career arcs here, people).

Anyway, that's what I've taken away from two spins.  I'm sure the record will reveal plenty more over the course of the week.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Songs Of The Week #91: TCDroogsma


(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

Saintseneca, Wye Oak, Marissa Nadler, Sharon Van Etten, & Black Diet...


Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to Songs Of The Week #91!
 

For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story:  TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.  They're also both opinionated and have access to computers.  Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column.  Over a year later later and here we are.


Unfortunately, this week MinneSarah took the week off due to what could kindly be called "Current-based fatigue."  Trust us, her words were considerably more harsh.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself.  It's free and it's fun for the whole family!

To that end, once you've given each song a spin or two, feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page.  The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.

So... Droogsy... thoughts?


01. Saintseneca - Happy Alone (from the album Dark Arc)


 
TCDroogsma:

     I'd never heard of Saintseneca before being given "Happy Alone" this week.  According to the internet, Saintseneca is the brainchild of band leades r Zac Little, who writes relatively sparse folk songs and then builds a world around them with the rest of the band.

     "Happy Alone" definitely seems to fit that mold.  Lyrically, "Happy Alone" sounds like some lonely singer/songwriter type of shit (though the line, "to presuppose this precipice could be scaled by any one of us..." deserves credit for its unique ridiculousness).  Fortunately, Little's lament/desire to be alone is relegated to the background while the band works up an indie rock storm around him.  The drums hit hard, the piano pounds, there's a welcome little synth swirl post-chorus to give the song some character, I think there's a woodblock in there somewhere... The band really does a great job off turning what was likely an insufferable demo into a pleasantly swinging spring jam.

Final Score: 3.5/5

02. Wye Oak - Glory (from the album Shriek)


 
TCDroogsma:

     I've stumbled across a few columns lately that have made a big deal about how Wye Oak is moving away from guitar music on their new album and venturing more toward left-of-center R&B.  Those columns then went on to discuss whether or not this was a good thing, whether or not guitar music was dead, and whether or not this "indie R&B" moment has passed.  As you can see, it was a super busy week for people with nothing to write about.

     None of that mattered much to me, as I don't know any Wye Oak songs.  As far as I know they've always played bouncy, keyboard-heavy indie pop.  Maybe "Glory" loses something without the context of their style change, but to my ears it sounds like a fine, if inconsequential single.  Singer Jen Wasner is desperately trying to write "smart" lyrics, but ends up with a chorus that begins, "And in the telling of the story I lose my way inside a prepositional phrase..."  Gripping stuff.  Nice groove, though.

Final Score: 2.5/5

03. Marissa Nadler - Drive (from the album July)




TCDroogsma:

     I think it's a real testament to level of fatigue instilled in me by listening to all these Current SOTD tracks that a song that is merely a woman with her acoustic guitar (no bed of keyboards, no unnecessary dance grooves, no vocal yips) can seem so refreshing.

     Nadler begins the song lamenting a career that never began.  "17 people in the dark tonight, familiar faces behind the cellular lights..." probably describes the view from the stage at hundreds of shows each night, musician's dreams crashing coldly into reality.  On that note, Nadler takes to the road with an organ, a pedal steel guitar, & her own echo as co-pilots.  "Nothing like the way it feels to drive..." is a universal truth, delivered here with both optimism & sadness, an open road promising no answers but, thankfully, no questions either.

Final Score: 3.5/5

04. Sharon Van Etten - Taking Chances (from the album )




TCDroogsma:

     Further proving my point that there just wasn't anything happening in the indie rock world last week, Pitchfork put together a lengthy column on the deep emotional resonance of Sharon Van Etten's songs of love & longing.  After reading the article I went back and listened to "Taking Chances" again just to see if I'd missed anything.  Turns out, not really.

     Credit where its due, though.  Most of the lyrics are a jumble of nonsense ("When you love all of you, they know all of you" "Turn on the charm, call to response now..."), however, Van Etten hits a moment of brilliance on the plaintive, simple chorus, elongating "Even I've taken my chances on you..." with a sense longing & regret" as an electric guitar shows up to give the lyrics a dash of anger.  The rest of the song is dressed up quite well instrumentally, but doesn't really go anywhere.  Still, most songs don't have a transcendent moment.  "Taking Chances" has a fine one.

Final Score: 3/5

05. Black Diet - Nothing To Say (from the album Find Your Tambourine)




TCDroogsma:

     Black Diet appears to be 2014's Next Big Thing here in the Twin Cities.  Frankly, after years of Lizzos & Messersmiths & Southwires, I couldn't be happier.

     As I understand it, the idea behind Black Diet is a combination of garage rock & R&B.  If that's the goal, "Nothing To Say" hits the nail on the head.  The songs chugs along on some low-fi drums & cooo-ing girl group harmonies, but the star of this show is singer Jonathan Tolliver.  The energy of "Nothing To Say" is high, but Tolliver spends the track channeling Lou Reed singing Motown's Classics.  Lyrically, he sticks to Reed's straightforward "there was a chair, I sat in the chair" style.  "I got real drunk & said some things that I really didn't mean, and now I'm hear alone wishing you would pick up the phone, I'm lonely, I'm horny, I wish I had you girl."  It doesn't get much more Blunt than that.  That's kind of the point though.  Tolliver stays relatively deadpan, only breaking his nasal, conversational tone to to sell the chorus.  This matter-of-fact style gives the song a charm all its own.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Well there you have it, MP3 junkies!  Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & filed away!

As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR.  We're just music fans with laptops and a bit too much time on our hands.






For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio






For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.


Friday, May 16, 2014

Newest Industry Presents - Flatbasset Radio: Episode #36


(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

I think I'm on another world with you...


Hello again, free music fans! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #36!
 
For those of you who are unaware of the Flatbasset Radio format, here's what you're looking at: TCDroogsma is our resident MP3 junkie. As you've probably noticed in his Songs Of The Week column, he's not always the most positive music fan. In an effort to prove that he is, in fact, a fan of music, we give him an hour each week to play the songs he's digging and talk a little bit about them. Once he's recorded his podcast we put it right here on the website for free to stream and/or download!


In this week's episode TCDroogsma is flying solo yet again.  Along the way he laments the Wild's loss to Chicago, explains his absence by admitting he's a very tired guy, celebrates the anniversary of a classic hip-hop album, mispronounces some more artists' names, gets skeptical about The Replacements hometown show, confesses to being a very simple man, celebrates Twin Shadow going "full R.E.O. Speedwagon," claims that "sometimes the world needs more big & stupid," plays the first ever request on the podcast, gets a little bro-mantic, makes his peace with great Brit-Pop wars of the 90's, and celebrates one of his favorite band's greatest records.

You can download the podcast for free by clicking the episode's title or stream the episode by clicking on the Mixcloud player below.

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #36




01. La Sera - Losing To The Dark
02. Big K.R.I.T. (w/A$AP Ferg) - Lac Lac
03. Badly Drawn Boy - My Friend Cubilas
04. The Replacements - Another Girl, Another Planet
05. Supperbell Roundup - Come In Through The Side Door
06. Nas - Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)
07. Twin Shadow - To The Top
08. Luna - Lovedust
09. Gang Starr - Moment Of Truth
10. Timber Timbre - Black Water
11. Blur - End Of A Century

There you have it, music fans!  Enjoy!




For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  Previous episodes of Flatbasset Radio are archived on his Mixcloud page.  Stop by Flatbasset Radio's Facebook Page & give it a "Like" if you have the time.

For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.      

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Album Of The Week: May12th-18th, 2014


Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of May 12th-18th, 2014:


Atmosphere - Southsiders

01. Camera Thief
02. Arthur's Song
03. The World Might Not Live Through The Night
04. Star Shaped Heart
05. I Love You Like A Brother
06. Southsiders
07. Bitter
08. Mrs. Interpret
09. Fortunate
10. Kanye West
11. We Ain't Gonna Die Today
12. My Lady Got Two Men
13. Flicker
14. January On Lake Street
15. Let Me Know That You Know What You Want Now

I shouldn't have to say too much about this one.  If you live in the Twin Cities you're probably well aware of this album's existence.  For what it's worth, however, it seems like this album has come with the least amount of any Atmosphere record since the boys finally broke through with Seven's Travels.  Maybe I just haven't noticed.


I won't get into too many specifics about this one since I plan on crafting a full review for Newest Industry at some point in the next week.  After a couple listens I'm really digging it.  Admittedly, I wasn't a fan of the "full band" direction" Atmosphere embraced on Blood Makes The Blade Holy & The Family Sign.  As such, my expectations for this one were pretty low.  Fortunately, it seems like they've figured out a much smoother way to integrate the live band sounds with Ant beats.  Again, after a few spins I'm really digging it.  We'll talk more about this one later.

Songs Of The Week #89 & #90: TCDroogsma


(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

Wild Ones, Lyla Foy, Katie Herzig, Dean Wareham, Buildings, Little Barrie, Phox, Eagulls, Future Islands, & Sonny Knight & The Lakers...


Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to Songs Of The Week #89 & #90!
 

For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story:  TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.  They're also both opinionated and have access to computers.  Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column.  Over a year later later and here we are.


Unfortunately, MinneSarah is continuing her sabbatical this week. Without his co-reviewer, TCDroogsma got lazy and took a week off.  Fortunately, taking a week off from reviewing songs didn't mean taking a week off from listening to the songs. He's back this week & making up for lost time with a double-dose of reviews.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself.  It's free and it's fun for the whole family!

To that end, once you've given each song a spin or two, feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page.  The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.

So... Droogsy... thoughts?


01. Wild Ones - Golden Twin (from the album Keep It Safe)


 
TCDroogsma:

     Golden Twin is, as far as I can tell, a five piece out of Portland that consists of four different versions of the same guy and a woman.  They play exactly the type of synth-pop you would expect from looking at that picture above.  The woman goes by the name Danielle Sullivan and she sings adorably in the same style that keeps Caroline Smith in sundresses.  There's some girl-group-style harmonies and a guitar solo to remind you that this a "rock" band, though, in actuality, it's basically just a canvas for Sullivan's vague pining.  I don't really know what "Golden Twin" is about lyrically, but I doubt that's really the point.  Golden Twin isn't trying to re-invent the wheel and, to that end, they're succeeding wildly.


Final Score: 2/5

02. Lyla Foy - Feather Tongue (from the album Mirrors The Sky)




TCDroogsma:

     Lyla Foy entered the indie-pop world under the name WALL.  For reasons I don't really know, she's back now and using her own name (which The Current's SOTD gurus tagged as "Lyla Fox."  Nice work, team).

     "Feather Tongue" is yet another slice of synth-heavy indie pop, which puts it right in The Current's wheelhouse.  Foy constructs a nice, atmospheric world that plays to her strengths as a singer.  The hooks here don't grab you by the headphones as much as they envelope you like a blanket.  While that's pleasant enough, it also leaves you without much to hold onto.  "Feather Tongue" drifts along without ever demanding you sit up and take notice.  It's three and a half minutes drift by like a dream and, like a dream, it's nearly impossible to remember even moments after it's finished.

Final Score: 2.5/5

03. Katie Herzig - Walk Through Walls (from the album Walk Through Walls)




TCDroogsma:

     Katie Herzig is a singer-songwriter out of Ft. Collins, Colorado.  "Walk Through Walls" is a lushly produced slice of synth-pop that glides by like a dream on the strength of some casual hooks and heartbreak.  To quote the legendary Morrissey, "Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before..."

Final Score: 2/5

04. Dean Wareham - Holding Pattern (from the album Dean Wareham)




TCDroogsma:

     To a certain sect of music fans, Dean Wareham is a bit of a legend.  That sect?  Early 30's white dudes who grew up on Galaxie 500 & Luna videos on 120 Minutes and now spend their time writing music blogs that nobody reads.

     And yet, I was still a little disappointed by "Holding Pattern."  From what I've read, Wareham's self-titled album (his first credited simply to "Dean Wareham") is a bit of a mid-life crisis album.  The problem with "Holding Pattern," it seems, is that he pulls it off a little too well.  While rattling off football scores & classic rock bands, Wareham presents himself as a man who's bored and, in his middle age, concerned that their really isn't a cure for that boredom.  While that's certainly a relatable concern, Wareham's defeatism is contagious.  "Holding Pattern" is wrapped up in the kind of guitar solos and everyman hooks that have marked his best work, but delivered with such depressing lyrics, those things almost seem just as expected as stumbling across football scores and Journey songs.

Final Score: 3/5

05. Buildings - Because It Doesn't Matter (from the EP It Doesn't Matter)




TCDroogsma:

     Holy shit!  Guitars?  Yelling?  There's no way the folks at The Current are actually playing this over the airwaves, right?

     In a way, Buildings are exploring the same themes as Wareham.  The difference is that they're younger and angrier about it.  They turn up their guitars and rally against the 9-5 life that inevitably leads to Wareham's mid-life crisis.  Both Buildings & Wareham are summoning their inner Kevin-Spacey-In-American-Beauty.  Both are frustrated, neither offer up solution, but that's not really their job. "Because It Doesn't Matter" is a warning, delivered with passion & a firm belief in the power of rock.

Final Score: 4/5

06. Little Barrie - Sworn In (from the album Shadow)




TCDroogsma:

     Oddly, Little Barrie is like Nottingham's version of Minneapolis' Little Man.  Both are named (roughly) for their lead singers.  Both are unabashedly in debt to the 60's world of blues-based power-pop.  Unlike Little Man (who leans heavily on the glam style of T. Rex, Bowie, & Mott The Hoople), Little Barrie takes its cues from The Birds & The Stooges.  The guitar work here is dirty, the hooks dynamic, and the originality nearly non-existent.  No bother, though.  As somebody who's just so goodamn tired of reviewing adorable synth-pop, Little Barrie is a reminder that sometimes you just need to turn up the guitars, write a good hook, and pretend you're a fucking star.

Final Score: 4/5

07. Phox - Slow Motion (from the album Phox)




TCDroogsma:

     Phox is a six-piece out of Wisconsin that's riding high on internet buzz right now (they yet to release a full-length album, but you can purchase their "Live At iTunes Festival" LP on their Bandcamp page).

     Listening to "Slow Motion," it's pretty obvious why the internet is losing its shit over Phox.  It's a charming, dynamic song that puts lead singer Monica Martin front and center while the band around her constructs a canvas of piano pop.  She's clearly got the kind of star power that will make you the biggest fish in the pond that is Madison, Wisconsin.

Final Score: 2/5

08. Eagulls - Possessed (from the album Eagulls)


 
TCDroogsma:

     God bless you, England.  I don't know why your youth are so consumed with saving guitar-based rock n roll, but you're doing a bang-up job.

     "Possessed" comes roaring out of the speakers with a guitar line that's sounds like somebody sped up a My Bloody Valentine record.  Lead singer George Mitchell claims spends the chorus claiming he's possessed and, based on his singing/screaming vocals, he's possessed by the ghosts of Ian Curtis & Joe Strummer.  The whole song is loud, calamitous, and brilliant.  Eagulls wear their influences on their sleeve, but I mean that as a compliment.  Keep up the good work, lads.

Final Score: 4/5

09. Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You) (from the album Singles)




TCDroogsma:

     It's nearly impossible to talk about Future Islands without discussing their Letterman performance so let's just get right into it.

     I was aware that their performance had "gone viral," but I didn't watch it until after I had spent a few weeks with this song.  Frankly, the only reason I watched the performance was because the song itself seemed very vanilla the first few times.  I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

     After watching their performance I can say, without hyperbole, that I was floored.  I was partially moved by the performance itself, which was honest in a medium (indie music) that's as constructed these days as pop music was in generations past.  Singer Samuel T. Herring became an internet star because of those dance moves and honest/cornball gestures, but watch it again.  At the end of the performance he seems genuinely surprised that he's blown away the Ed Sullivan Theatre's audience.  He was just up their doing what he always does.  Which brings me to a second question.  Why did this blow up the internet?  Are people laughing at this performance?  Do people genuinely love it?  I mean, I genuinely love it (and that performance absolutely sold me on the song).  Is a guy just doing what comes naturally with his music (as corny as it may seem) just another joke in a world of indie pop that spends so much time trying to act cool & disinterested that it doesn't know any other way to process that type of performance?

     I don't know.  "Seasons (Waiting On You)" is a very good song being sold by a great frontman.  That's all I know for sure at this point.

Final Score: 4.5/5

10. Sonny Knight & The Lakers - Juicy Lucy (from the album I'm Still Here)




TCDroogsma:

     Sonny Knight & The Lakers is a curious case.  The group has found their long-overdue acclaim thanks to the guys over at Secret Stash Records unearthing some of their lost late 60's songs, cleaning them up, and presenting them to the Twin Cities as part of a lost R&B scene finally getting its due.  They put together some revue-style shows based on these lost "gems" and turned Sonny Knight into the star of the show.  By all accounts the shows were a great time and everybody should thank Secret Stash for preventing these songs from slipping through the cracks.

     However, now we're presented with the question of whether or not we actually need and/or want new music from Sonny Knight & The Lakers.  I mean, part of the appeal of those other songs was hearing them as "lost gems," artifacts from a scene that nearly all of us are far too young to have lived through.  For better or worse, context matters in music far more than people like to admit.  As such, "Juicy Lucy" certainly sounds like it came from that same scene (and, to make that point clear, plenty of ecstatic crowd noise has been left in the recording to make it sound like The Lakers are tearing up a small, secret room).  To my ears, "Juicy Lucy" is a pretty straight-ahead R&B song which, when divorced from that "lost gem" context, is nothing special.  As I've stated dozens of times on this blog, soul music is far from my scene.  I just don't know enough of it to judge these sort of things properly.  As a music fan, however, "Juicy Lucy" doesn't do much for me.

Final Score: 2/5

Well there you have it, MP3 junkies!  Two week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & filed away!

As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR.  We're just music fans with laptops and a bit too much time on our hands.






For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio






For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.





Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Album Of The Week: May 5th-11th, 2014


Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of May 5th-11th, 2014:


Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots

01. Everyday Robots
02. Hostiles
03. Lonely Press Play
04. Mr Tembo
05. Parakeet
06. The Selfish Giant
07. You And Me
08. Hollow Ponds
09. Seven High
10. Photographs (You Are Taking Now)
11. The History Of A Cheating Heart
12. Heavy Seas Of Love

If you've been following along with my AOTW posts you probably know that I tend to stick to Minnesota-based artists.  There are, however, a handful of artists whose work excites me to the point that I just can't wait to spend a week exploring.

Have a look at these Last.fm stats:

Blur - 1,075 plays
Gorillaz - 511 plays
The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - 222 plays

That's just over 1,800 plays for Mr. Damon Albarn in my library. And that's just since 2007.

Anyway, I bring it up to illustrate just how excited I am for Albarn's first official solo album.  2014 is filled with new releases by some of my favorite artists, but I can say with almost complete certainty that Everyday Robots will be the album that soundtracks my year.  All of the work he's done under those names listed above have managed to be both instantly gratifying and rewarding in the long run.  I'll spend this week with Everyday Robots, but I'd be genuinely surprised if I wasn't still discovering little moments on the album one, two, or three years from now.


I'm not just excited from a long-time-fan standpoint.  I've listened to the album a couple of times now (and spoiled my appetite with the stripped down, BBC2 version of "Lonely Press Play" over the last month or so), and part of what makes the album special is that it's relevant to the world around us.  It's not just a nostalgia trip.


Albarn spends the majority of the album struggling with how technology, people, & the physical world relate to each other.  As somebody who spent the majority of his youth in a pre-internet age, I find myself thinking about these same issues as I get older.  Albarn doesn't offer much in the way of answers.  Quite the opposite.  Considering the way the album is peppered with electronic percussion & synth loops, Albarn is essentially conceding that he's not here to fight the flood of technology.  He clearly realizes how foolish that is because A) technology's march is unstoppable and B) technology isn't inherently bad.  He's not going full Jack-White-Records-An-Album-In-A-Phone-Booth here.  Like most of us, he's trying to sort through the questions of real life and virtual life and, like most of us, he's struggling.

Everyday Robots is a thoughtful album from a thoughtful man.  It's no wonder this is the first one he's recorded under his given name.  No other would be appropriate.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Most Played Albums: April '14



The 50 most played albums around Planet New Basset for the month of April, 2014:


(Larger picture indicates more plays)

01. Edison - No Three Men Make A Tiger (90 plays)

02. Rogue Valley - Crater Lake (87 plays)

03. The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams (71 plays)

04. Oaks - Field Beat (56 plays)

05. mk Ultra - mk Ultra (31 plays)

06. All - Allroy For Prez... (30 plays)

07. The Replacements - All For Nothing/Nothing For All (30 plays)

08. Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music... Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop (25 plays)

09. Nas - Illmatic (24 plays)

10. The Raveonettes - Whip It On (24 plays)

11. Supperbell Roundup - At Station Four (22 plays)

12. The Lemonheads - The Lemonheads (22 plays)

13. Flagland - Tireda Fightin (21 plays)

14. Sebadoh - Harmacy (20 plays)

15. Lakutis - 3 Seashells (20 plays)

16. Green Day - Nimrod (18 plays)

17. Superchunk - On The Mouth (16 plays)

18. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs (16 plays)

19. Big Pauper - Beyond My Means (15 plays)

20. After The Smoke - Microwaves (15 plays)

21. Beady Eye - Be (13 plays)

22. Constantines - Shine A Light (12 plays)

23. Har Mar Superstar - Dark Touches (12 plays)

24. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening (12 plays)

25. Weezer - Make Believe (12 plays)

26. Boots - Dust (12 plays)

27. Badly Drawn Boy - How Did I Get Here? (11 plays)

28. Straya - EP One (10 plays)

29. Drake - Nothing Was The Same (Bonus Tracks) (10 plays)

30. Dosh - Powder Horn (9 plays)

31. Metasota - Still Happy I'm Present (H.I.P. 2) (9 plays)

32. Minor Kingdom - Singles (7 plays)

33. Blueprint - Respect The Architect (7 plays)

34. Straya - Demos (7 plays)

35. Blue Ruiin - Demo (7 plays)

36. Imperial Railway - A Young Cliff Diver (7 plays)

37. Damacha - Auspicious Clouds (5 plays)

38. The Hood Internet - Future Seasons (5 plays)

39. G-Side - Gz To Godz (5 plays)

40. Twin Shadow - To The Top (5 plays)

41. The Ashtray Hearts - Old Numbers (5 plays)

42. Killer Mike - The Boondocks Mixtape (5 plays)

43. Glenn Jones - Welcomed Wherever I Go (5 plays)

44. Dinowalrus - Complexion (5 plays)

45. Young Thug - Stoner (5 plays)

46. La Sera - Hour Of The Dawn (5 plays)

47. King Of Prussia - Zonian Girls... And The Echoes That Surround Us All (5 plays)

48. Metro Thuggin - Metro Thuggin (5 plays)

49. Yumi Zouma - It Feels Good To Be Around You (5 plays)

50. Mirror Kisses - Heartbeats (5 plays)

All info via my Last.fm account
Photo via Don't Drink And Root


Thursday, May 1, 2014

Songs Of The Week #88: TCDroogsma


(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

Bad Suns, Pattern Is Movement, Big Scary, Snowmine, & MaLLy...


Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to Songs Of The Week #88!
 

For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story:  TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.  They're also both opinionated and have access to computers.  Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column.  Over a year later later and here we are.


Unfortunately, this week MinneSarah took the week off due to what could kindly be called "Current-based fatigue."  Trust us, her words were considerably more harsh.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself.  It's free and it's fun for the whole family!

To that end, once you've given each song a spin or two, feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page.  The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.

So... Droogsy... thoughts?


01. Bad Suns - Cardiac Arrest (from the album Transpose)


 
TCDroogsma:

     The Bad Suns is a band coming out of southern California that seems to have a real soft spot for early 2000's British music.  "Cardiac Arrest" bounces around nicely due to some solid work of the rhythm section, while lead singer Christo Bowman's elastic voice sounds as if he learned to use it by singing along to The Kooks, Kaiser Chiefs,  etc...  As somebody who was a huge fan of that type of band, this isn't a bad thing.

     However, much like the collected work of The Kooks & Kaiser Chiefs, "Cardiac Arrest," though pleasant enough in the moment, is not particularly memorable.  Despite his claim of "high voltage when we kiss," it's a low-stakes love song (he starts that same chorus by claiming, "I'll try my best..." Gripping.)  "Cardiac Arrest" is a fine, trivial spring single.  Not a bad little number, but nothing special.

Final Score: 2.5/5

02. Pattern Is Movement - River (from the album Pattern Is Movement)





TCDroogsma:

     Heading into this week I only knew two songs from Pattern Is Movement and they were both covers.  Bjork's "Enjoy" and The Smiths' immortal "I Want The One I Can't Have."  I'm not familiar with the original "Enjoy," but their take on Moz's yearning was certainly curious enough to make me excited to hear some of their original work.

     "River" rides a slinky, streaming verse of falsetto & synths that recalls Dirty Projectors before collapsing into a chorus of... well... more synths & falsettos.  Frankly, it's the same kind of song structure that has made millions of dollars for everybody from The Beatles to New Found Glory.  Pattern Is Movement puts their own Philly-white-boy-indie-soul twist on it.  That seems like a mouthful on paper, but they pull it off admirably the first couple times.  The song loses all its steam at the end when they decide to just crash the chorus into the ground and neglect to rebuild it, but up until then PTM makes an interesting racket.

Final Score: 2.5/5

03. Big Scary - Twin Rivers (from the album Not Art)




TCDroogsma:

     "Gonna have to wake up, I don't wanna have to wake up, get up, get changed, game face, I don't want to have to wake up again this morning..."

     That's how we're greeted by Big Scary on "Twin Rivers."  Suffice it to say, hearing that as I listened to the song while walking to work at 5:45 in the morning all week may have given those lyrics some extra weight.  Big Scary wraps those lyrics around some big, shuffling drums & strings that give lend those melancholy sentiments some color.  The rest of the song features some lovely boy/girl vocals, and clattering piano, and a chorus that's big in the same way a Travis chorus is big.  They don't go full Chris Martin, and that suits them.  The whole song takes its cue from those first lyrics and provides enough small glimpses of beauty to remind you that life can be so much more than the daily grind.

Final Score: 4/5

04. Snowmine - Columbus (from the album Dialects)




TCDroogsma:

     Snowmine is a five-piece coming out of Brooklyn with a crowd-funded new album, Dialects.  Just based on that information (and the picture above), you can probably gather what the band sounds like.

     "Columbus" is rich in keys, strings, gospel-esque harmonies, and a great chorus.  There's not much going on in this song that you haven't heard before, but Snowmine seems to be doing it as well as anybody.  Their great trick on "Columbus" is giving all of their ideas space to breathe.  It takes a lot of parts that are easy to dismiss on their own and deploys each with brutal efficiency.  The result is a song that, as you listen, is captivating, and yet leaves almost nothing behind when it ends.

Final Score: 3/5

05. MaLLy - A Long Day (from the album The Colors Of Black)




TCDroogsma:

     I feel like I"m cheating a bit here with "A Long Day."  When it was released as an SOTD track I spent a week with it and, despite the fact that I'm a MaLLy fan, I wasn't too high on it.  I thought the piano was a bit too saccharine while MaLLy's "life is tough" take struck me as a bit too constructed.

     However, since then I've picked up the song's parent album The Colors Of Black.  Given proper context on the album, "A Long Day" stands up as a highlight.  The album is an angry affair, with MaLLy's ire directed almost entirely at the struggle a young, black man faces in America.  By the time we get to "A Long Day," it's clear that MaLLy's not depressed, merely exhausted.  "A Long Day" is the sound of a man who's upset with the world around him, and equally upset with the fact that, despite his best efforts, he's nearly powerless to change it.

Final Score: 4/5

Well there you have it, MP3 junkies!  Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & filed away!

As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR.  We're just music fans with laptops and a bit too much time on our hands.





For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio






For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.