Album Of The Week: "Dark And Low" by The Person & The People

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of May 8th-14th, 2016:

The Person & The People - Dark And Low

01. Paranoid And Sleepy
02. Ideal Situation
03. Hot Summer Nights
04. Sleep All Day
05. Leaving
06. I've Seen This Place
07. Until The Morning
08. Since You Loved Me
09. Go Back Home
10. Tonight
11. Misbehaving

(The Person & The People by Katie Essick)

Folks, it's been a crazy couple of weeks to be a music fan. We've been treated to new releases from Beyonce, Drake, Museum Mouth, Aesop Rock, Fog, Radiohead, James Blake & Chance The Rapper within the last 14 days. The Stone Roses put out new music for the first time in decades. Lush reunited. It's all been a goddamn whirlwind and it's not even summer yet.

However, for me, all of that has been gravy, because I've been looking forward to this new The Person & The People record for weeks. They've appeared in this AOTW column twice before and both times I've been pleasantly surprised by what they've brought to the table. Debut EP Zen And The Art Of Popular Music was an intriguing debut, mixing solid hooks with some jazzy guitar work. Second full-length LP What A Drag found the band eschewing the guitar work for a Superdrag-meets-Superchunk style hook-fest. It ended up being my 8th most played album of 2014 despite the fact that it came out in December of that year.

All of which brings us to Dark And Low, their second full-length for Land Ski Records and, relevantly, the always important third full-length. As any student of pop music knows, the third album is always the one where a band has to make a leap of some kind. Bands that are in it for the long haul often make a definitive statement on their third album (think The Queen Is Dead, Parklife, Sebadoh III) where as history is littered with bands who couldn't make the jump (Intimacy, anyone?). It's not a hard and fast rule, obviously, but it's worth remembering in this instance.

Before even pushing play on this one I knew it would be a departure for the band. Opening track "Paranoid & Sleepy" is listed as 6:19 minutes long, making it the longest song in their catalog. And they've chosen it to open the album.



Rather than take their sound in a radically new direction, however, "Paranoid And Sleepy" finds the band revisiting the guitar work of Zen, combining it with the hooks of Drag, and then blowing the whole thing out widescreen. The claustrophobia of their last album is nowhere to be found. If that record was Superdrag-meets-Superchunk, Dark And Low is Superdrag-meets-My-Morning-Jacket. Everything from the guitar work to singer Nick Costa's hooks to the vaguely ELO-ish background vocals all have their own plateaus to stand on as the band builds up this mountain of an opener, climaxing with a three minute twin-guitar solo that rivals "Impossible Germany" as one of the great guitar moments on my iPod.

Guitar histrionics aside, when Costa sings, "I know I bring you down, and I don't blame you, 'cause I'm such a bummer," he's essentially providing his thesis for the record. When his voice returns to open "Ideal Situation" he describes a desire to move to the mountains without telling anybody, taking "some legal drugs," and melting into the carpet as that ideal situation. However, in the second verse, his focus has shifted. Now he'd like to live in the city, get a decent job, and have some kids. The root of this indecisiveness? A significant other. One whose affection he desires so greatly that all of his desires are placed against how she would react to them. Don't let the hooks fool you, this is not a healthy approach, and Costa spends the rest of the record reckoning with his insecurities.

"Hot Summer Nights" finds Costa volunteering to just be friends over a welcoming mid-tempo groove. The pace picks up on "Sleep All Day," a brilliantly catchy ode to drunken jealousy. Where these songs could be read as laments of the heartbroken, the emotional fulcrum of Dark & Low is in companion songs "Leaving" & "I've Seen This Place."



"Leaving" puts to bed any doubts as to just how Costa ended up in this dark space. Though the music is driving, it takes a back seat to the distraught & disoriented Costa who can't come to terms with the loss of someone. Whether this is friend, family, or companion isn't clear, but when Costa opens the second verse with "hair down to his toenails" describing this person as "a ghost from a movies, a frightened mouse" it's clear that whatever this event was, it has left him in struggling (which, in turn, certainly reframes the seemingly trivial trials of the album's first half as yet more snow in an avalanche of struggles).

"I've Seen This Place" picks up from there. "I get by, but hell, man, I sure have to try..." lets us know that Costa's moving on from whatever that traumatic event was, but it's a crawl, and it isn't being done easily or happily.

Yeah, that's a little heavy for just the first half of an album. Fortunately, TPATP dust off a song that's been in the works for at least a year in "Until The Morning," stepping back of the lyrical precipice and reminding us that a chiming guitars and good hook have redemptive power. "Since You Loved Me" is a piano-heavy lament to a former long-term lover residing in that terrible place where neither person has changed their mind about breaking up but neither is convinced it was the right move and trying to rectify those conflicting ideas would upset their current comforts to the point that it's probably not worth it. With it's Beach Boys harmonies, it's an anthem to manageable discontent, which makes it very nearly the most depressing moment on the album.

On "Go Back Home," guitarist Sam Sanford makes good use of his lone vocal lead on the album. His softer voice is nice counterpoint to Costa, which makes opening line "I wish my friends would die before I do..." sound a lot more playful than it should. "Go Back Home" also features the brilliant return of the dynamic guitar solo, somewhat absent since the opening, and it's brilliant. For power-pop, this is a pretty heavy album, and this solo provides a sort of flying-V-on-fire moment to lighten the mood.

Oddly, for an album that lays so much on the table lyrically, it almost feels like there's a scene missing as the band closes the record with "Tonight" & "Misbehaving."

On "Tonight," Costa concedes "I don't believe in anything..." before staying in, getting drunk, offering a half-hearted invite to somebody, before eventually deciding he doesn't need to see that person tonight. It's the sound of a man who's made his peace with the fact that most things are out of his control. He's letting the stress of whatever occurred in those earlier episodes go, relatively content with the fact that there's nothing to be done about them now. In fact, he seems to find a bit of wonder in that knowledge, when he sings "if you get bored we can find a bar, I'll end up staying out late, but I always do, and it really isn't all that far," Costa's dismissing the day-to-day anxiety of life, seemingly amused by the realization that his decision will not actually have any real world consequence outside of whether or not he gets enough sleep.



He takes that concept to a logical conclusion on "Misbehaving." "I can't try to understand your emotions, a person is gonna feel what they're gonna feel..." he sings, a far cry from the man who spent the first couple of songs on the album trying desperately to understand someone else's emotions. "I can't wrap my head around what you've been going through, all I know is my love for you is real," he sings, offering up unconditional love before concluding "I could understand if you don't want me."

I apologize if I'm making this album sound like an emotional slog (or if I'm seeing a narrative where there is none. I've been known to do that). However, after putting out several albums where the hooks were placed front and center, the open nature of Dark And Low is just begging for a deeper reading (also, the album's called Dark And Low). Honestly, as a fan of The Person & The People, I find this to be a fascinating album. The sugar-rush of What A Drag has been replaced by more mature songwriting, more interesting structures, crazy guitar solos, peaks, valleys, strikes, gutters... It's a good look for a band who probably could have kept cranking out 3:00 songs and found a steady home on The Current. However, they challenged themselves to open up, think bigger, dig deeper, and make an album that would require the listener to embrace those challenges as well.

If you'd like to check the album out for yourself, head over to The Person & The People's Bandcamp page to download a copy for yourself (just $5!). Head on over to the Land Ski Records page for more info about shows and such.

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.

Album Of The Week: "High & Vibrate" by The Persian Leaps

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of November 8th-14th, 2015:

The Persian Leaps - High & Vibrate

01. The Infection
02. Under The Lilacs
03. Dottie, Queen Of The West
04. Frozen
05. Anthem

Photo Credit: Jason Larkin

First of all, let me apologize for the lack of AOTW posts over the previous few months. I've been very busy. However, even though I haven't been writing posts, I have most definitely been spending lots of time with local albums.

As anybody who follows this blog knows, The Persian Leaps have been friends of Flatbasset Radio for quite some time now. Their debut EP Praise Elephants was an AOTW back in December of 2013 and its follow up Drive Drive Delay was an AOTW almost a year ago exactly.  After putting out a couple of Soundcloud-only covers (including an excellent take on Teenage Fanclub's "The Concept" that became a Flatbasset Radio Cover Of The Week back in Episode #57), here we are with their third EP High & Vibrate.  Considering lead singer Drew Forsberg also runs the successful & prolific Land Ski Records, the fact that EP #3 is ready to roll at all is quite an accomplishment (never mind the fact that its songs are excellent).

The Persian Leaps proved over those first two EP's that their bread-and-butter will always be power-pop. On High & Vibrate Singer/guitarist Forsberg, drummer Michael McCloskey, & new bassist/secret weapon Adam Brunner continue to write immediate, catchy power-pop that is perfectly at home in the Midwestern tradition that stretches back from Cheap Trick to The Replacements to The Promise Ring. However, like those bands before them, they continue to add wrinkles to their sound.

Praise Elephants was built on a very clean sound (so much to that I likened them, in a complimentary way, to the Gin Blossoms).  On Drive Drive Delay they sanded off some of the polish, giving the EP an indie punk flavor in sound if not entirely in lyrics (which have always maintained a secretly perfect sort of Midwestern passive-aggressiveness in that regard).  On High & Vibrate they keep those rough edges, but add a surprising, almost mathematical groove to the album.  Give album opener "The Infection" a listen:



As you can hear there, the band's taken their Gin-Blossoms-meets-GBV sound and added a dash of Devo-esque rhythm to it. Sure, the song still gives in to those big, beautiful power chords when it's time for the hard sell, but they're clearly challenging themselves by finding new ways to get to that sweet spot. While I certainly don't know the inner-workings of the band, the addition of Brunner on bass has really given the band muscle. He & McCloskey seem to have found a chemistry that gives these songs a bit more swagger than was found on those previous EP's.

Check out the video here for "Under The Lilacs" and take note of the use of the clipped "uh oh's" that lead up to the chorus:

(Quick Video Sidenote: God, what a gloriously 90's video. The walking/singing shots, the blurred VHS-style shots, the close-ups of the instruments. If, like me, you grew up with 120 Minutes, it should be obvious why I love these guys so much.)

As you can & hear in those first couple of songs, the big, catchy chorus is still what hits hardest. However, those little detours along the way are what keep me coming back for repeated listens.

Now, traditionally the third release from an artist is a make-or-break type of affair. Think Park Life. Think The Queen Is Dead. Think Summerteeth.  However, those are all from three-album cycles rather than this three-EP cycle we have here. Still, Mr. Forsberg, with his keen sense of pop history, takes the time to address the state of The Persian Leaps in closer "Anthem."  "Nobody ever believed it, that guys like us could win..." he sings before heading into a chorus that simply consists of defiant "Uh uh's" and "No way's," both of which are directed at unnamed critics who seem to desire The Persian Leaps to fail.

In a way "Anthem" brings closure to a cycle started on Drive Drive Delay's opener "Firestarter," a call-to-arms to bandmates, fans, or simply to Forsberg himself.  Bringing it all back home on "Anthem," he seems to be taking a victory lap after three excellent EP's, his own record label, & a growing fan base that wasn't built on gimmicks or buzz, but rather, at its heart, on well-crafted, thoughtful pop songs.  In a music industry that's seems to place less and less emphasis on quality songwriting with every surprise album drop and pop-up venue, that's cause for a celebration.

If you'd like to pick up a copy of High & Vibrate for your very own you can head over to The Persian Leaps Bandcamp page. I'd also recommend checking out the Land Ski Records site. They've got an impeccable track record as well as some fantastic stuff coming out in the very near future.

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.

Album Of The Week: "Rudiments" by Edger

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of June 21st-27th, 2015:

Edger - Rudiments

01. Victory Gin
02. Noose
03. Primadons
04. Cautious Optimist
05. Holy Armour
06. Domestication

(Photo via Ellen Lawson)

As you likely know, I'm a huge fan of Land Ski Records.  Drew Forsberg (of Persian Leaps fame) has been working his ass off over the last couple of years to fill his label with smart, hook-happy Twin Cities bands.  He's succeeded to the point that I'll soon be referring to him as Drew Forsberg (of Land Ski Records fame).  Whether it's his own band, the power-pop of The Person & The People or the surf-noir-ish sounds of Murder Shoes, a new release from Land Ski Records has quickly become something I find myself looking forward to with high expectations.

Enter the latest member of the family: Edger.  Hailing from Minneapolis, Edger began life as a two-piece outfit with hardcore dreams.  According to legend, when singer/guitarist Justin Lawson & drummer Nate Bartley got together to begin working out songs they were struck by a bolt of hook-heavy creativity, causing them to seek out a third member (bassist Scott Hefte) and put their hardcore dreams on the back burner in favor of fuzzed out bliss.

As a debut EP, Rudiments is startlingly well-developed.  The band actually reminds me a bit of Is This It era Strokes in the sense that, even though there's a layer of fuzz around everything, the band is locked into a very precise grooves.  Bartley & Hefte particularly stand out in the way they combine to give these songs a strong backbone.  Where the band deviates from that Strokes-ish sound is in Justin Lawson's performance.  Eschewing New York cool (while keeping some of the distortion), Lawson keeps things very Midwestern with his full-throated delivery in the tradition of Paul Westerberg, Davy Von Bohlen, Dave Pirner, and a hundred other singers from fly-over country.

Opener "Victory Gin" lays it clear from the jump, with Lawson shouting "They've got me running in place!" over some thundering open chords before the band locks into place.  Single "Noose" shows off the band's rhythm section while Lawson wrangles some hardcore lyrics into the album's most memorable hook.

 
Rudiments ends on two strong notes.  "Holy Armour" stands as my favorite track on the album.  The band hits a propulsive groove while spitting dueling vocals that recall a pop-centric, romantic take on Brand New.  Proving that the band are students of the game, they end the EP with the charming, acoustic "Domestication," an ode to both the combative nature of relationships & the simple joy of clean dishes.



I really can't recommend Rudiments enough.  The Twin Cities are awash in great guitar music right now.  As much as I like scrappy bands plugging in and tearing things up, it's always a breath of fresh air when a band combines that fuzz with sturdy hooks & precise playing.  With repeated spins, it becomes clear that Edger is a band that takes their craft seriously.  Give those tracks up above a listen then head over to Edger's Bandcamp page & pick up Rudiments for yourself.

Album Of The Week: "Murder Shoes" by Murder Shoes

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of April 26th-May 2nd, 2015:

Murder Shoes - Murder Shoes

01. Charlotte Manning
02. Maybe You Can
03. Under The Sea
04. See A Little Louder
05. In Your Bed Or On A Train

Credit: Aaron Fenster

Over the past year or so Land Ski Records has proven to be a haven for local talent.  With releases from The Persian Leaps, The Person & The People, & Deleter under their belt, they've proven that they not only have a keen ear for talent, but more importantly, that they're a label for bands that take their craft seriously.  That's no slight to the dozens of great labels in the Twin Cities (it was just last week that I was singing the praises of Forged Artifacts & No Problem Records), but every album that's come out so far via Land Ski has been well-crafted, well-produced, and professional.  Nothing the label puts out seems "off the cuff," and I mean that as a compliment.

With that reputation in mind, I was thrilled to spend the week with the new EP from local band Murder Shoes.  The description of the band described them as "Surf Noir," a genre that, as far as I know, hasn't really existed before.  After spending the week with the album, I can say that description only scratches the surface of what's going on here.

Consisting of Tess Weinberg on vocals & keyboards, Chris White & Derek Van Gieson on guitars, Elliot Manthey on drums, & Tim Heinlein on bass, Murder Shoes write, at their core, pop songs.  Oh sure, the songs have a bit of that "surf rock" guitar twang to them (especially "Under The Sea"), but unlike some bands, that aesthetic seems to be just a stylish bit of window dressing for finely crafted pop songs.

Opening track "Charlotte Manning" is particularly ndicative of what makes Murder Shoes unique.  The song is a slow-burn opener for the EP that says as much with its empty space as it does with Weinberg's haunting voice or the surf-ish guitar solo in the middle.  Give it a listen:



Weinberg makes her talent evident throughout the album.  On "Charlotte Manning" she sounds like Beth Gibbons.  On "Maybe You Can" and "Under The Sea" she manages to sound like Jenny Lewis.  Along the way the band stays tight & tasteful, making the most of the openings in the songs with catchy guitar fills and never resorting to being, for lack of a better word, goofy (a frequent problem with bands in and around the "surf rock" genre).

Perhaps the most intriguing moment of the EP comes on closing track "In Your Bed Or On A Train."  With Manthey & Heinlein working up a rumble worthy of the titular train and White & Van Gieson working out some descending surf licks, Weinberg spins a tale of heartbreak & anger.  Poignantly, the chorus is a wordless one, consisting only of Weinberg cooing.  It's a clever move that brings the EP full circle from that use of open space on "Charlotte Manning."



While I sincerely recommend checking out Murder Shoes (available at Murder Shoes Bandcamp page), I can't wait to see where the future takes the band.  The members of Murder Shoes have been making music for a long time and, according to interviews, have a vast array of influences.  On this EP they seem to be pulling at the margins of the newly invented "Surf Noir" genre.  Enjoy it before they move on.

Murder Shoes is playing an album release show at the Red Stag Supperclub on May 3rd.  Probably ought to look into that too.

Album Of The Week: "What A Drag" by The Person & The People

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of November 24th-30th, 2014:

The Person & The People - What A Drag

01. I Get Weird
02. Unwind
03. Vitamin C
04. Don't Fear The Richard
05. Give Me More
06. What You Do
07. Human Blimp Sees Flying Saucer
08. Brooklyn
09. Wrong Way
10. Year Long Drought
11. NYC FREAKOUT
12. Run

For the second week in a row here at Planet New Basset I'm dipping my toes back into St. Paul's bustling power-pop scene.

Hopefully some of you remember The Person & The People.  I spent a week with their EP Zen And The Art Of Popular Music during the first week of January this year as an AOTW.  Going back and reading what I wrote in that post I was surprised that I'd closed it out by saying "The Person & The People's St. Paul power-pop party! Alliteration, bitches!"  Way to go, start of 2014 me.

Anyway, I mentioned in that column that I'd found my way to TP&P when their song "I Was Wrong" turned up as a Current Song Of The Day.  That song was a straight-up rocker and I loved it unconditionally.  Curiously, when I went back and checked out Zen And The Art Of Popular Music (the EP that preceded "I Was Wrong") I was surprised to find that the band's sound was less straight ahead power pop and much more expansive.  The band had a habit of winding its way toward their hooks in a way that sometimes made the EP sound longer than its 24 minutes (though "Blue Haze" is a stone cold classic).



At that point I assumed that "I Was Wrong" was probably an outlier in the band's catalog, just a one-off genre exercise.  And yet, here we have What A Drag, an absolute rocker of an album.  Imagine if Superdrag defied all known scientific knowledge and impregnated Sloan. That's where we're at with What A Drag.



On this album the band continues their Benjamin Button-esque trajectory, shedding the jazzier layers of their early work and aiming straight for the pleasure center of the brain.  From start to finish What A Drag is packed with more hooks than a bait shop.  The lyrics range from indignant to saccharine to angry to exhausted, the verses swing, the choruses soar, and the production is clean & crisp.  It's just about everything you could want from a power-pop album.  Take a listen to album closer "Run" up above.  Everything that's great about TP&P is summed up in that 1:45.

What A Drag is available via Land Ski Records and on The Person & The People's Bandcamp page.  I highly suggest you pick it up in time to include it on your "Best Of 2014" lists.

Album Of The Week: "Drive Drive Delay" by The Persian Leaps

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of November 17th-23rd, 2015:

The Persian Leaps - Drive Drive Delay

01. Fire Starter
02. Pretty Boy
03. (Goodbye To) South Carolina
04. Truth = Consequences
05. Permission

Who's ready for some power pop!?!

Hopefully you all remember The Persian Leaps.  I wrote about their last EP, the excellent Praise Elephants as my Album Of The Week almost a year ago. I also played their song "Hard Feelings" as part of a three song local set way back on Flatbasset Radio: Episode #24.  Basically, if you follow the Flatbasset world at all you should know these guys.

Drive Drive Delay is an interesting turn for the band.  Back when I was writing about Praise Elephants I mentioned that the band sounded like the Gin Blossoms and that I meant that as a compliment.  Drive Drive Delay is still laden with the kind of pop hooks that remind me of the 90's, however, Drew Forsberg and the boys have removed a layer of sheen from the proceedings.  Drive Drive Delay is a little bit louder and a little bit more raw than its predecessor.  These texture of these songs has more in common with Guided By Voices or Archers Of Loaf than they do Gin Blossoms.

Now, lots of bands have decided to strip back their sound and take on a more straight ahead punk edge.  What makes this development interesting in the case of The Persian Leaps is that removing that layer of gloss has actually revealed more depth in Forsberg's songs.  Little guitar fills turn up, backup vocals become more noticeable, the drums hit harder, and the songs sound much more like the work of a band firing on all cylinders in the same room.

Forsberg's also grown as a songwriter.  Part of what made Praise Elephants so instantly enjoyable was the way the songs seemed instantly familiar.  Here Forsberg still traffics in instantly hum-able hooks, but also finds more little left turns.  Both "Fire Starter" and "Pretty Boy" are kiss-off tracks delivered with beautifully Midwestern passive aggressiveness.  "(Goodbye To) South Carolina" features an almost deadpan delivery before building launching into all-out guitars on the chorus.  Album closer "Permission" is the most ambitious song the band has put to tape yet.  Taking his foot off the gas pedal Forsberg crafts a mid-tempo rocker that finds its energy in elongated washes of guitar.  Lyrically he turns the tables on the angry guy from the album's opening tracks, riding the song out with the lyrics, "She said, she said, I don't need your permission."  It's a surprising turn to close the album and the best example yet of The Persian Leaps coming into their own.  With two stellar EP's in the bank it's hard not to be excited to find out what they do next.

Drive Drive Delay was released on Drew Forsberg's new Land Ski Records label.  It's available on The Persian Leaps Bandcamp page.  You should really look into it.