Songs Of The Week #51

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

Pigeon, Cheyenne Mize, David Lynch, Speedy Ortiz, & Speed's The Name...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to Songs Of The Week #51!

For those who remain unfamiliar with the Songs Of The Week column, here's what you're looking at:  TCDroogsma has been a devoted fan of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast since its inception.  Droogsy also owns a laptop, has a copious amount of free time, and is plenty opinionated.  Seeing a chance to put him to work while supporting his MP3 indulgence we created Songs Of The Week. 51 weeks later and here we are.

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

To that end, once you're given each song a spin or two feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in our poll to the right side of the page.  The artist with the most votes will receive the validation of winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the highest honor to which a modern musician can aspire.

So, Droogsy... thoughts?

01. Pigeon - Encounters (from the EP Fortunes)

TCDroogsma:

     I knew only one thing about Pigeon before my first spin of "Encounters:"  They're Australian.  Given the track record of Aussies on the SOTD podcast lately (Standish/Carlyon, Alpine), you can understand my skepticism.

     Well, "Encounters" comes on strong with a synth-line that sounds like a bonus game from Donkey Kong Country.  From there Pigeon treads a path that's been thoroughly covered by every synth-pop band from every corner of the world in the last 5 years.  They craft a nice little lovelorn verse, build to a large-scale lovelorn chorus, add a dash of group shouting, and leave us with a keyboard line to dance to.  None of this is to say that "Encounter" is a bad song, but you've heard this song a hundred times before by a hundred different artists except that this one has a saxophone solo.

Final Score: 2.5/5

02. Cheyenne Mize - Whole Heart (from the album Among The Grey)

TCDroogsma:

     Cheyenne Mize is yet another player in an Americana revival (of sorts) coming out of Kentucky.  Frankly, after hearing a few of these artists (Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore being the others), I'm beginning to wonder if this is less a "revival" and more a tribute.  Each of these artists has been described as giving a new take on the genre, but to my untrained ear this all sounds like pretty average folk music.

     "Whole Heart" is not without its charms.  Mize's voice is rich & pleasant, and she delivers the chorus, "I don't know what I'd doooo..." with palpable longing.  Still, if you're not a fan of string-augmented folk music, "Whole Heart" isn't going to change your mind.

Final Score: 2/5

03. David Lynch - Star Dream Girl (from the album The Big Dream)

 
TCDroogsma:

     When I saw David Lynch's name come up in my downloads last week I was filled with a sense of dread.  A couple years back I'd made the mistake of getting very excited when I saw that I'd spend the week with his single "Crazy Clown Time."  Sadly, that track turned out to be seven and a half melody-free minutes featuring Karen O wailing in the background while David Lynch performed what seemed like a David Lynch parody.

     So, with that in mind, my expectations for "Star Dream Girl" were considerably tempered.  Fortunately, "Star Dream Girl" shares almost nothing with that hot mess of a track.  Lynch stays in his lower register and sounds like he's channeling a rockabilly AM radio station from the 60's.  This being Lynch, the lyrics involve an unseen cast of characters "coming from all around, flying down that wide highway" to see the titular girl. With just one verse (which gets repeated) and a chorus implying eternal mystery ("Every night they come to dream of her, star dream girl"), "Star Dream Girl" hits is mark as deftly as "Crazy Clown Time" missed.

Final Score: 3.5/5

04. Speedy Ortiz - Tiger Tank (from the album Major Arcana)

 
TCDroogsma:

     It took exactly three seconds for me to fall in love with "Tiger Tank."  At that three second mark we're treated to snarl of guitars that sound like a long lost outtake from In Utero.  As somebody who was known to blast that album when he was mad at his parents (I know, I'm a living cliche), I was firmly behind Speedy Ortiz.

     Thankfully the band makes good on those first 12 bars.  Lead singer Sadie Dupuis tosses off the kind of beautifully indifferent melody that bought mansions for Liz Phair & Stephen Malkmus while the band works up the kind of racket that makes me wonder why anybody on Earth would start a synth-pop group.  The band augments a smart-hook with a stop/start formula that implies somebody in the band was a big fan of Bush's "Greedy Fly."

     Now, I admit it's not totally fair for me to criticize the "Americana Revival" above when Speedy Ortiz is hardly reinventing the grunge-pop wheel.  Had I grown up on Car Wheels On A Gravel Road rather than Razorblade Suitcase I might feel different.  However, that wasn't the case and this is my column.  You get what you pay for.

Final Score: 4/5

05. Speed's The Name - Circles (from the album No Planets Exist)

TCDroogsma:

     Hmmm... a synth-pop band from the Twin Cities.  Call me crazy, but I can't help but get the feeling I've done this before.

     Sorry, I'd like to tone down the snark, but I've just heard so many of these songs that it's almost unfair to the artists.  The indie music world's been saturated with songs like "Circles" in the last year that it's difficult for me to even differentiate which ones are great and which ones are average at this point.

     According to their Bandcamp page Speed's the name describes themselves as "progressive indie rock and accessible pop.  "Circles" gives the "progressive" label some weight right away as the vocals hit immediately and then unfold a melody throughout the duration of the verse.  The lead singer sounds like he's aiming for Dave Gahan or Nick Cave, but he lands a lot closer to Brandon Flowers.  He may take that as an insult, but I mean it as a compliment.

     It's appropriate that the chorus of "Circles" opens with the line, "No planets exist when you don't believe in circles..."  Speed's The Name's pro-circle agenda makes sense considering they're hardly reinventing the synth-pop wheel.

Final Score: 2/5
 
Well there you have it, folks!  Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and filed away!

As always, please remember that neither Newest Industry nor its 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" on Facebook is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.

Album Of The Week: August 5-August 11, 2013

My Album Of The Week for the week of August 5th-August 11th, 2013:

Desdamona & Big Jess - Digiphenom

A few weeks back I played Desdamona's "The Source" on a Flatbasset Radio episode.  That's a nice jam that I've been sitting on since '07 and, considering it's overall message that, "love is the source, love is the light," I thought it would be appropriate to play it the same week the gay marriage bill was signed.

Well, when I play songs on the podcast I try to tweet the artist and let them know that I've played one of their songs.  I do this for two reasons: First, it gives the artist an opportunity to tell me if they're not OK with me playing one of their songs on a free podcast.  Nobody has refused yet, which is nice.  To be completely honest though, I have no idea why they'd disapprove.  Sure, the podcast is free, so the artist doesn't make any money off it, but, the podcast is free.  I don't make any money off of it either. There's no sponsors, the website doesn't have any advertisements, literally no money changes hands.

The second reason I tweet the artists is because they're retweets bring a huge amount of traffic to the website.  Again, this isn't for any financial reason, it's just nice to know that people are checking out the site & the podcast.  Considering each podcast takes roughly four hours to write & produce, even a little boost in people checking it out helps me feel like it's worth the time.

ANYWAY... When I tweeted Desdamona that I'd played "The Source," she was not only kind enough to give it a retweet, but she tweeted me back and told me that she'd have some new music out soon and that it would be cool if I played it on the podcast.  Now, technical difficulties have prevented me from recording a new podcast in a couple of weeks, but I was able to download her new free EP Digiphenom.  It's Desdamona on the vocals and Big Jess (of Unknown Prophets) on the beats.  According to MPR the two are working on a full-length project, but until then Digiphenom is a nice EP to spend a week with.

It's a free EP, so if you'd like to download it follow this link. Quick disclaimer though, that link will take you to Carnage's download page.  I was actually trying to download the new Carnage & Desdamona EP, but if you click on their Double Dysfunction EP you'll end up being e-mailed Digiphenom.  Why? Couldn't tell ya.  It's good though

Songs Of The Week #50

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

CocoRosie, Tricky, The Love Language, SOKO, & Food Pyramid...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to the 50th installment of Songs Of The Week!

For those of you who remain unfamiliar with the SOTW column, here's what you're looking at:  TCDroogsma has been a devoted follower of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast since its inception back in January of 2007.  He's also quite opinionated, owns a laptop computer, and has ample free time.  Seeing an opportunity to indulge his MP3 addiction & put him to work we created this Songs Of The Week column.  Fifty weeks later and he's showing no signs of slowing down.

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 please take a moment and cast a vote for your favorite Song Of The Day in our poll at the right hand side of the page.  The artist with the most votes and the end of the week wins the validation that comes with winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the greatest height to which a modern musician can aspire.

So, Droogsy... thoughts?

01. CocoRosie (w/Antony Hegarty) - Tears For Animals (from the album Tales Of A Grass Window) 

TCDroogsma:

     CocoRosie are several years into their career now and I still have no clue what to make of them.  On paper, I should vehemently dislike this band.  The back story of creating the band in a Paris bathroom, the needlessly graphic lyrics, their affiliation with "freak folk..."  All of it should add up to "terrible."

     And yet, every song I hear from them contains something intriguing.  With "Tears For Animals," that something comes in the form of the Antony Hegarty coming on like indie rock's Akon to deliver a hook that keeps the song from going to far down the rabbit hole.  Hegarty's voice cuts through the needlessly quirky vocals of the Casady sister like a siren and the group is smart to lean on him for the song's appeal.

     Again, I've never been a particularly big fan of CocoRosie, but with a savvy bit of outsourcing they've turned "Tears For Animals" from just another CocoRosie song to something that's surprisingly enjoyable.

Final Score: 2.5/5

02. Tricky - Nothing's Changed (from the album False Idols)

TCDroogsma:

     Growing up a 120 Minutes fan in the 90's, I'm somewhat familiar with Tricky's early work.  The dark textures, the trip-hop emptiness, the nearly overwhelming British-ness of his work are all lodged firmly in my brain somewhere.

     On the other hand, growing up a punk rock fan in the 90's, I would be lying if I said I was jumping on that bandwagon.  To put it plainly, I didn't keep up with the work Tricky was doing between Maxinquaye and now.  That's why it was quite refreshing the first time I played "Nothing's Changed," literally, it's as if nothing changed.

     "Nothing's Changed" skips along on the same mix of shuffling percussion, dramatic strings, and half-afraid vocals (courtesy of Francesca Belmonte) that I expected when I saw Tricky's name turn up in the list of songs for this week.  "Nothing's Changed" retains that tough-to-nail down British-ness that kept Tricky in my brain all these years while still somehow sounding just a bit ahead of our times.  It's possible that we're just never going to catch up to Tricky.

Final Score: 3.5/5

03. The Love Language - Calm Down (from the album Ruby Red)

TCDroogsma:

     The Love Language is a scrappy-poppy band out of North Carolina signed to Merge Records.  Just giving "Calm Down" one spin and it's pretty clear that lead singer/songwriter Stuart McLamb grew up listening to Merge Records head man Mac McCaughan's scrappy-poppy band (and American treasure) Superchunk.

     "Calm Down" is a strange, snotty beast.  I've been listening to it for a whole week and I can't figure out if it's a pop song being sung by a guy who doesn't want to be singing a pop song or a punk song that's been fleshed out and dressed up.  The crystal clear pop of the instruments meshes well with the the shouted, victim-blaming refrain of "You won't let me calm down!" which, despite sounding a bit "this is everybody's fault but mine!" actually makes for a strangely empowering line, especially in the final third of the song when McLamb is so not-calm that only a tangle of guitar can adequately prove his point.

Final Score: 3/5

04. SOKO - First Love Never Die (form the album I Thought I Was An Alien)

TCDroogsma:

     The first time I listened to "First Love Never Die" I spent 60 seconds becoming vaguely enthralled.  The song has a weird, almost reggae-ish vibe to it for that first minute.  The guitar work is pleasant, the organ warming, and the drums sound like their being played from under a comforter on a sofa.  As someone prone to romanticizing seemingly trivial things, SOKO's cooing, "I feel like walking, do you feel like coming?" was an invite that couldn't refuse.

     Over the course of that first verse, which covers the subsequent walk and conversation, it's clear that SOKO is speaking with the the titular "first love" for the first time in a while. She delivers the lines "Now your hair is long, and you look so thin... you're always so pale, but something has changed, you're almost a man..." with an amount of warmth & surprise that's almost unfair.

     Now, not only do I romanticize the trivial, but at any point during the day it's a safe bet that I'm drowning in nostalgia.  Those first 60 seconds were more than enough for me to love "First Love Never Die," but the 61st second treats us to a time-change sent from god above.   The drums skip a beat like they're mimicking SOKO's pulse as she lays her feelings bare, "Four years and I still cry sometimes... first love never die.."  It's a moment both thrilling and soul-crushing.  SOKO goes on to craft a lovely portrait of two conversing and though we never hear her former love's side of the conversation, the song ends with the appearance of horns like the embrace from a "former" love who will never truly live up to that adjective.

Final Score: 4/5

05. Food Pyramid - Dexedream (from the album Ecstasy & Refreshment)

TCDroogsma:

     I was genuinely thrilled when I saw that I was going to get to review a new Food Pyramid song in SOTW #50.  As you've probably noticed, I reference them in nearly every time I review an instrumental track.  I'm no superfan or anything like that, but their crisp, clean drum loops and mostly-bare adornment held a real appeal to me as I was starting to move away from my indie rock- & hip-hop-centric taste.

     "Dexedream," then, is the natural progression of that style and frankly I'm not totally convinced this is a good thing.  Sure, the song still rides some consistently looping drums to great effect, but the drums have been pushed a bit further into the background rather than being one of the major players.  "Dexedream" finds its mood in the form of some muzzled guitar work and vocal line that sounds like a ghost haunting the apartment next door.

     In keeping with their previous work, the song pushes past the six minute mark.  The difference between "Dexedream" and what I was expecting is that it doesn't really add up to much.  All the sounds you're going to hear in the song have turned up by the 2:00 mark and they never create any tension by dropping out or reappearing.  The Food Pyramid that I knew before had a vaguely minimalist bent.  "Dexedream" is more like a collage.  Again, it's the next logical step for the group, but it just doesn't cut very deep.

Final Score: 2.5/5

Well there you have it, folks!  Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and 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 little 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 upon 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.

 

Most Played Albums: July 2013

My most played albums of July, 2013:

via Last.fm

Album Of The Week: July 29-August 4, 2013

My Album Of The Week for the week of July 29th-August 4th, 2013:

Paul Westerberg - Stereo

I've been a fan of Paul Westerberg's solo stuff for quite some time and I'll be the first to admit that his solo catalog doesn't contain a lot of variety.  Pretty much every album is filled with mid-tempo, most acoustic indie-folk.  Each album is good for one or two pretty good singles, some great "kiss-off" lines and that's about it.  To be completely honest, if Westy was just another singer/songwriter type and not "the guy behind The Replacements" I probably wouldn't have given his albums near as much time to grow on me.

However, he is the guy behind The Replacements and being able to follow his career from the early 80's up through today has been a richly rewarding experience as a whole (even without much variety).  Stereo is one of those albums that I've had for years but hasn't received many spins.  Frankly, it's just about the most mundane of the Westerberg solo albums I own.  80% of the songs on this one don't even have bass or drums, just some guitars and Westerberg's nasally singing.  Whenever I'd try to listen to this one casually I'd find myself checking out halfway through because each song pretty much sounded like the last one.

Fortunately, that's why I do these Album Of The Week things.  Albums that seem drab or mundane tend to reveal themselves if you're willing to put in the time.  Spending a week listening to this one first thing in the morning will (hopefully) bring the differences in each song to the forefront and give the album a bit more color.  Hopefully.

Newest Industry Presents: Flatbasset Radio - Episode #18

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

My family knows I only iron once a year...

Hello again, free music fans! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #18!

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!

In this week's edition Droogsy gets sweaty, explains why Liam Gallagher is a "Capital 'R,' Capital 'S'" Rock Star, puts an alt-rock icon on blast, admits that an appliance is his best friend, celebrates an album's twenty-year anniversary by struggling with the concept of time, plays Tom Gilbert's theme song, implores us all to embrace the big, stupid, cornball single and much, much more !

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #18 by Tcdroogsma on Mixcloud

Here's how Episode #18 plays out:

01. Beady Eye - Flick Of The Finger
02. Run The Jewels - Sea Legs
03. Edison - My Modesty, Your Venn Diagram
04. Open Mike Eagle (w/Busdriver) - Degrassi Picture Day (Hellfyre Jackets)
05. Pixies - Bagboy
06. Loudman - Ghana
07. Sage Francis - Zero (Update)
08. Down By Law - Air Conditioner
09. Bad Religion - American Jesus
10. Dessa - Icing Burns
11. Treetop Flyers - Things Will Change
12. Sugar Ray - Someday

For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry reviewing new tracks in our weekly Songs Of The Week column. Previous episodes of Flatbasset Radio can be found at TCDroogsma's MixCloud page.

 



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 & legit way to support the blog.

Songs Of The Week #49

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

Jonny Fritz, Boards Of Canada, Sonny & The Sunsets, Susanne Sundfor, & First Communion Afterparty...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #49!

For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the deal: TCDroogsma has been a devoted fan of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast since its inception back in 2007. Droogsy is also kind of opinionated and has a lot of free time. As such we figured we'd put him to work reviewing the songs given away each week. 49 weeks later and he's still doing it.

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 the songs a spin or two we encourage you to cast a vote for your favorite Song Of The Week in the poll to the right side of the page. The artist with the most votes receives the validation of winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.

So, Droogsy... thoughts?

01. Jonny Fritz – Trash Day (from the album Dad Country)

TCDroogsma:

     Back in May I reviewed Jonny Fritz's song "Goodbye Summer" for Songs Of The Week #40.  Admittedly, I was not a fan.  I gave that track a final score of 1.5/5, calling it, "A pretty standard country rave-up could have legs if there was a story to be told, but really, "Goodbye Summer" sounds an awful lot like a genre exercise and not much more."

     You can imagine, then, that I wasn't particularly excited about reviewing another Fritz track just two months later.  Based on "Goodbye Summer," I assumed I was in for another character sketch-type track that was heavy on details but slim on purpose.  Fortunately, I was way off the mark.

    
     Over a low-key shuffle Fritz crafts three succinct verses in "Trash Day."  In the first he laments that he forgot to take the trash out and that his woman will be upset with him.  In the second he explains that his neighbors never forget to take their trash out, they never fight, and, "I hate them."  In the third he reminds himself that tonight is the night that he needs to take the trash it.  Cleverly, he ends each verse with a refrain of "Oh my god..." delivered with varying levels of sadness, anger, & resignation.

     What Fritz does so brilliantly in "Trash Day" is sum up the exhaustion of the little things in life.  The small responsibilities that serve to cause the cracks in a person's whole life.  He smartly ends each verse with snarling guitar solos that somehow manage to capture that anger better than any lyrics ever could.  As a lament on the mundane pressures of being a regular dude in America you won't find many better songs than this one.

Final Score: 4/5

02. Boards Of Canada – Reach For The Dead (from the album Tomorrow's Harvest)

TCDroogsma:

     A few years back I dated a girl who was a big Boards Of Canada fan.  She tried desperately to get me to appreciate their first somewhat iconic album Music Has The Right To Children.  At the time I was even more pop-oriented than I am now and the sparse, glitchy album held absolutely no appeal for me.

     Well, as the years have passed it seems that Boards Of Canada and I have met somewhere in the middle.  As I mention here frequently, I've developed a much deeper appreciation for the mood & structure of instrumental music.  For their part, with "Reach For The Dead" BoC has left behind any vocals or "found sounds" and left me with a very moody, slow-burning instrumental.

     After spending a week with "Reach For The Dead," I can't help but think that, much like Marijuana Deathsquads' "Wade" a couple weeks back, it makes a lot more sense as a piece of a larger album.  Taken on its own it comes off a bit meandering.  Still, it's nearly impossible to listen to the song and not feel the sense of dread that they were no doubt aiming for.  It takes nearly two minutes of bass drum & static his before a synthesizer line finally starts to break through the mist, but as it comes closer and closer to the fore it brings with it the energy of a chase moving from suspicion to a brisk walk to a dead sprint.  I've no idea what's suppose to chasing me (or what the literal harvest of the album's title implies), but it seems terrifying.

Final Score: 3.5/5

03. Sonny & The Sunsets – Void (from the album Antenna To The Afterworld)

TCDroogsma:

     Growing up a fan of punk rock I never had much time for anything that could be considered "psychedelic."  That whole late-60's, early-70's sound, with its instrumental freakouts and acid-damaged lyrics did nothing but annoy me.  To this day I still hate The Doors.

    
     Fortunately over the last seven or eight years the retro-ideas of psychedelic rock have mated with the stripped down energy of good old punk rock.  Bands like King Khan & The Shrines & The Black Lips have managed to craft a new, exciting sound out of two genres that were pretty much running on fumes.

     Enter Sonny & The Sunsets.  Taking a cues from both Syd Barret & The Dead Milkmen, "Void" comes on with a sort of casual immediacy.  That's not a term that's easily describable, but opening a song with lines like, "When I look into your eyes... though you're trying hard to hide... you know it's a funny kind of sad joy, I see the void..."  Much like the term "casual immediacy, those opening lines are the kind of lines that make no sense yet are immediately relatable.

     Sonny & The Sunsets spend the rest of the track building on the template laid out over that first.  More passionate vocals, more fuzzed out guitar, & some hoots and hollers continue to build the song before it finally comes to brief climax of an organ solo.  On its surface it seems like none of this should work, but that was true of mixing those aforementioned genres from the very beginning.  "Void" is a great summer single that should appeal to anybody who enjoys guitar rock, hooks, and just a bit of "WTF?"

Final Score: 4/5

04. Susanne Sundfor – White Foxes (from the album The Silicon Veil)

TCDroogsma:

     "White Foxes" stands as my introduction to Susanne Sundfor and my first impression was that she sounds like Fiona Apple.  While, a bit of Google searching turned up that not only do their share a sound, but Sundfor created stir during an award acceptance speech in her native Norway claiming, "I am first and foremost an artist, not first and foremost a woman."  That's not quite, "This is all bullshit," but the sentiment is certainly there.

     "White Foxes" opens with an atmospheric low end hum before Sundfor's voice cuts through the noise, claiming clearly and aggressively, "Poses, poses... that's all you are to me.... Roses, roses, that's all you're offering me..."  Clearly, this is an artist with no time for moral victories or trivial awards.

     The song builds with piano and further impassioned vocals until Sundfor let's loose with a chorus of, "You gave me my very first gun, I'll go out and hunt, with white foxes..." With a line like that it's hard not to view the metaphorical "gun" as one of the spotlight afforded to her via one of those trivial awards, the metaphorical "hunt" a feminist demand.

     Of course, it's entirely possible that I'm missing the point and than these aren't metaphors at all, and that Sundfor has a stable of white foxes she brings with her while hunting.  Given the barely concealed anger of the song that's an intriguing concept.  Regardless, being compared to Fiona Apple is certainly a compliment and not one that I would dole out casually.  Sundfor's passion is clear as a bright, Norwegian winter morning.

Final Score: 3.5/5

05. First Communion Afterparty – Jesus Told You (from the album Earth Heat Sound)

TCDroogsma:

     My knowledge of First Communion Afterparty is not particularly extensive.  I've seen them live a couple of times and, via it's appearance as a Song Of The Day, am very familiar with the song "Twenty-Five."  When they turned up on the MPLS landscape a few years back they were met with plenty of deserving hype.

    
     As I've lamented many times before, the Twin Cities used to be awash is precious, arty, keyboard-pop bands.  Don't get me wrong, it still is, but a couple of years back their wasn't really anybody just turning up their guitars and creating a racket.  That's why FCAP was such a breath of fresh air back then.  These days, however, the pendulum has swung back towards the middle and the city is once again populated with shaggy-dog rock n roll bands.  Unfortunately for FCAP competition hasn't seemed to cause them to bring their sound up to the next level.

     "Jesus Told You" is a fine tune, make no mistake.  The shoe-gaze guitar drone & boy/girl spaced out vocals are still a unique sound in the Twin Cities.  Unlike, say, Sonny & The Sunsets up above, FCAP doesn't look to take an old sound and give it a new twist as much as they just want to embrace an old sound and bring it back.

     Not to bring up Marijuana Deathsquads again, but FCAP suffers from the same problem that's plagued that band for years: finding a way to take a sound based far more on texture, repetition, and volume than hooks and put it to tape.  Both of these bands are awfully close to cracking the code, but neither is quite their yet.  I'm certain that in a venue like 7th St. or The Turf Club "Jesus Told You" is an epic, chest-rattling tidal wave.  As an MP3 single it loses that extra oomph.

Final Score: 2.5/5

Well there you have it everybody! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and 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 playing the songs he loves while hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio

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