Stamen and Pistils – Towns

This Washington, D.C. based group brings us an interesting and quirky sound with their sophomore release and follow-up to their experimental debut End of the Sweet Parade. With a more inward approach, the band attempts to strip down their sound and refine it somewhat with their latest effort. While it may be more stripped down and yet polished at the same time, the quirkiness remains in these folk tunes and Raul Zahir De Leon’s vocals shine throughout.

Towns opens with “Second Hand Valise”, featuring acoustic guitar and organic vocals. Slowly some electronic strings and light drum sweeping enters along with a few simple piano keys. While the song is simple, the few electronic touches help provide unique details along with the atypical vocal style. This was immediately my favorite track on the album.

“Quiet Country” is male/female folk-pop duet that features guest vocalist Mikal Evans. The deeper male vocals of Raul Zahir De Leon blended with Evans’ whiny alto are an interesting mix. While it is not the typical blend, the two tones provide an sound that I find enjoyable. De Leon also shows off his vocal range while usually singing in more of a lighter, whiny fashion than this bassy one.

Quirky high-speed talking being played back in reverse opens “A Death in Ronkonkoma”, a bluesy song with a dark side. The piano layered under the guitar strumming could give anyone chills. Meanwhile “An Elegy For Thee” feels like a simple, stripped down folk tune with good guitar work but includes a hint of electronic background noise washings that keep it from being too traditional.

“Hands Washing Water” is another of my favorites with De Leon once again showing off his deeper vocal range and it feels influenced by Velvet Undergrounds’s “Venus in Furs”. The lyrics here are not varied, in fact it really just consists of “My hands wash the water clean”, but instead the focus here is on the darker mood the dirgy music provides.

What I enjoy most about Towns is that Stamen and Pistils don’t pack every inch of its music with too many details and unnecessary embellishments. Instead, they keep it simple and know just how to set the mood using only the necessary instrumentation. Whether it’s simply a guitar and some electronic noise for texture or piano and drums, the duo keep it simple and don’t over do it. This is a balance that few bands know how to achieve and Stamen and Pistils do it well.

Interview with Filligar

Meet Filligar: Four young men with a lot to offer, both musically as well as intellectually. Born and raised in Chicago, Mathias brothers Ted and Pete, both 21, and caboose Johnny, 19, along with longtime pal Casey Gibson, 21, reflect on their music, touring, songwriting, and more. After going to school, playing hockey, and discovering their love of music together, they formed Filligar, and achieved some success locally. All three Mathias brothers attend Dartmouth while Casey studies at Hamilton. They balance busy schedules and tough classes, but still make time to write quality music that can appeal to anyone. Here’s what they had to say.

DOA: How long you have been playing/ playing together? You have clearly been tight for years. How do your friendships with Casey and the fact that the rest of you are brothers affect the way you work together as a band?

Pete: We’ve been playing together for seven years now, although oddly it seems like a lot longer than that. The four of us are all really very close (of course, three of us are brothers and so it’s hard not to be “close” when you live in the same house). But even Casey is part of the family. When he comes down from Madison he stays at our house. He has no reservations about going into our fridge and eating our food (Casey’s favorite beverage is Canfield’s Sparkling water), which I believe to be a sign that he feels comfortable and considers our house a home away from home. (And I think that’s great).

DOA: What things cause the most friction and how do you work it out?

Pete: Well, I think that we’ve been together for so long now that we’ve already fought about everything there is to fight about. Also, we’ve gotten into the habit of watching “rock-umentaries,” like the Metallica documentary or Wilco’s “I am trying to break your heart.” Watching these big bands have the same arguments that we have is therapeutic in a way… makes us feel as if friction between bandmates is just part of the process. Sure occasionally one of us will storm out of the band room, but we have never had any prolonged feuds (knock on wood) because at the end of the day we have to sleep under the same roof. When you sleep under the same roof, you have to resolve your problems.

DOA: Tell me about the progression from Filligar, through Succession, I Guess, to your most recent, The City Tree. All of these were released in a relatively short period, but, especially on your second two, there are some distinct differences. Elaborate on what has changed.

Johnny: For every CD we try to make music that ultimately we like to listen to. In the City Tree we’re all a year older and have different tastes and styles than the year before. Likewise, we hope to improve the musicianship. In terms of sound, I don’t know, I think Succession, I Guess is more pop while The City Tree focuses less on that and more on making music that hopefully gets better the more you listen to it.

DOA: What would you like to do more of musically on your next album? Is there anything in the works right now?

Casey: Personally, challenging myself is an important part of writing anything. That being said, there are three overlying things we’re focusing on, both as individuals and as a group, in our newer compositions. First, new compositions are more involved musically, meaning anything from more effects and digital aspects to pedal tones and subtle nuances. Second, we’ve come to favor a strong sense of rhythm. Radiohead and Electric Light Orchestra are good examples of groups that can dress up (or down) songs, while stressing heavy rhythm over anything else (starting from the bass and drums and moving up from there). Anything that gets a foot to tap or a person to dance is effective. The last thing that we’re really concentrating on stressing are our vocal harmonies. I have a little staff paper book full of pages of three and four part harmony ideas.

There are always works in progress. The City Tree had about 10 songs cut from it only weeks before we went into the studio, so we still have those. Johnny and I have been exchanging recordings from school this year too, so there is a lot to look forward to. We’re not sure when we’ll next have the opportunity to record, but there is a possibility we’ll cut a short E.P. sometime later this year.

DOA:I am a huge Wilco fan, and I have also heard the same about you. In what ways has other bands’ music impacted the way you approach songwriting or your sound? On a lighter note, what are some current favorites on the iPod? What are some of the best shows you have seen?

Johnny: When we’re trying to communicate an idea sometimes we’ll list bands that have the kind of feel we’re going for. It’s a good way to put everyone on the same page. Of Montreal’s new CD O Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer. is great. The band that opened for them on tour, MGMT, also a just released a CD that I’ve listened to a lot. In Rainbows, of course. Best Show: Flaming Lips by far. Daft Punk Alive 2007—didn’t see it in person but the live recording is incredible.

DOA: Chicago is a great town for music. How have your Chicago roots affected your music?

Pete: Well when you live in one place for your entire life, it’s only natural that such a place will find a way into your music. If you listen to lyrics especially, any good Chicagoan may pick up on subtle lyrics to the city. For example, “Yanni Walker” is about the well known Walker has, as the lyric says “A handlebar (must)stache and a flowing hairdo.”

DOA: Outline for us how a song is “born.” Who does what when you guys are writing? Is it completely collaborative? When do you find is the best time and way to write songs?

Johnny: There’s no real formula to it. A song can from anywhere. The only thing that is consistent is that the final product is usually much different than the idea. That’s what makes it fun—everyone adds their own style. The best time to write songs is when you have nothing to do. Unfortunately, we rarely ever are all together in the same room, so a lot of times one of us will record an idea on the computer and send it over the internet. That way we have time to listen to it and let it settle, so when we are together we can sort of hit the ground running.

DOA: My favorite Filligar song is “Trepador,” with “All the Same” as a close second. Do you have favorites among the songs you have written?

Johnny: My favorite song to listen to is probably “The Observatory.” The working title for the song was “Kaleidescopes” and that’s sort of what I think of when I hear it. My favorite song to play is “Yanni Walker”. I always have fun playing that song.

Pete: My favorite song is “Purple Gum” because the song is one progression, no repeats, no chorus. From my standpoint as the percussionists, it’s also fun because I start of on the Djembe (West African hand drum) and then move into the kit, which is fun for me.

Ted: My favorite song is “Sunflower Kid”.

DOA: You briefly described how you write songs when you’re away at school, but delve into it a little more. Your lyrics are one of the most interesting things about your songs, for example, on “Venice World’s Fair,” “All the Same,” and “The Observatory.” Filligar definitely has a way with words. Where do you come up with this stuff?

Johnny: I guess we sort of draw from everywhere—from the news to having bad eye-sight. I like to take conventional things and try and put it in a way that’s unconventional but more precise. There are plenty of different ways to say, “I love you” or, “I hate you.” Or a song can come from a story. “James Alan and the Fire” is about the arsonist who burnt my aunt’s house down.

DOA: You go to a prestigious school and seem to be a studious, academically motivated bunch. With a song about fruit flies in Biology class, Filligar does not fit the mold for typical rock band. How do you respond to that?

Johnny: Hopefully we don’t fit. Hopefully we’re a little weird. Music is a more fun, different form of schoolwork. It’s all the same in the end—you have to buckle down and work at it. School’s pretty miserable, but it forces you to learn something new every day—which isn’t so bad.

DOA: Out of recording, playing shows, or writing, which is your favorite? Why?

Johnny: Playing shows. When you’re recording, you’re usually trapped in a stuffy is booth and you have no idea what the listener thinks of what you’re doing. For live shows it’s different. It ceases to be about the performer or the audience and becomes just a bunch of people in a room listening to music. It’s the strangeness of the experience that’s cool. Writing music is fun too. The best would be to have a bunch of people with us in the basement when we write songs.

Casey: Recording is definitely gruesome. Live shows are great—they give you the opportunity to play your instrument like you would play your air guitar in your bedroom. As long as I make sure I’m hitting the right keys, I try to have as much fun by moving around as possible.

DOA: The age-old question, and by far the most groundbreaking: Favorite Chicago sports team?

Unanimous: White Sox. Hawk and DJ.

DOA: What other activities at school are you involved in beyond academics and Filligar?

Johnny: I play hockey and am in the Dartmouth Cords.

Casey: I’m an IM sports phenomenon—I have championship t-shirts for hockey and softball. I’m also in Hamilton’s Oratorio Society.

Pete: I am in the World Music Percussion Ensemble at Dartmouth in addition to a few other Contemporary Music Labs. I am also the MVP for my fraternity’s IM hockey team, which is saying more about how bad by fraternity brothers than anything.

Ted: I am a tenor in the Dartmouth Gospel Choir.

DOA: What was it like spending a summer at Chicago’s famed Gravity Studios recording The City Tree?

Casey: It was an incredible experience. Everyone really cares about what they’re doing and they’re all extremely talented professionals. But more than that—they’re just really nice guys. It was fun to hang out with them for a couple of weeks. They taught us a lot. Definitely helped shape our sound and give us some direction for the future.

DOA: The first time I heard your music was at a show, and I immediately dug your music. Lucky for everyone, there is a tour in the works for this spring and summer. What’s planning a tour like, and what goes into it? Where are you going to play?

Johnny: Planning a tour is a real pain. You have to be very persistent—sort of like a salesman—always making calls, checking to see whether the venue’s received a press kit, getting good responses, getting shut down. It’s cool to see it all unfold though. Right now, we’re scheduled to play shows in New York City and a couple of colleges. Also, we might be doing some promotional shows.

Casey: It’s hard to do, and I think we’re still figuring it out for ourselves. A lot of times, places won’t take you if you haven’t played in that city before—one of those “previous work experience required” conundrums. We’re doing pretty well though, and being on the road is more fun than anything else we do.

DOA: Fast forward a few years: what would like to see happen to Filligar after college?

Casey: Hopefully, we’re able to gain a modest following by the time we get out of college. I’d love to be able to play shows and just do music for a couple of years, trying to gain some buzz—doing what MGMT or Vampire Weekend’s doing. That would be ideal. Trying to postpone adulthood.

Die! Die! Die! – Promises, Promises

Youthful exuberance, teenage angst, darkness behind the curtains – “A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E.” – the embodiment of punk. The definition of punk can become messy of you try to build past the basic essence, the spirit. Punk was not about simplistic three-chord blues, sped up to a maniacal pace, punk was not about safety pins through your ears and nose or really the antics of the paparazzi puppets (hence Sid Vicious). Andy Warhol was a punk. He was pure DIY aesthete – and look at his art, a blatant F.U. to the consumer and the critic, simultaneously through the simplification of a human aspect – greed. But, Andy Warhol is not who’s at hand, neither are the bands who might get name dropped in reference to the band at hand – alright, I will indulge myself: Wire’s loose guitar, Violent Femme’s loose production (god, how I eat it up every time I hear this sound pulled off), and every punk/(post-)hardcore band’s youthful swagger all make up part of Promises, Promises by Die! Die! Die!.

How do they do it? This is not their debut, Die! Die! Die! had a self-titled album prior to Promises, Promises but it sounds so amateur in a wonderful way. Promises, Promises sounds like Die! Die! Die! had a few drinks, loosened up a bit, casually walked into the studio, grabbed some instruments, did what they came to do, and back to the bar they go. The production sounds so tinny that they seem to be screaming from their house down the street, locked in their room. With every listen, the album becomes more intense; starting off simplistic and in-your-face. Typical punk. Give it some room to breath, take some steps back, let time take its course, then come back. The sounds of guitars being murdered, screeching and howling on “Blue Skies,” lying just behind the questioning of “What about the future? So much for blue skies. What about the future?!” The infectious, simplistic drumming on “Blinding” is about as hard for me to forget as the girl who is the subject of the song. The droning rhythm guitar and lead guitar freak-out on “Britomart Sunset,” pushes Promises, Promises past your typical punk expectations.

Promises, Promises is a lot more mature than you would think; every drum roll, high hat clink, feedback frenzy, and unpolished, seemingly unintentional noise is actually the intentional and highly calculated. The stop-start post-hardcore sound achieved by Die! Die! Die! can not just be thrown together, it takes a dedicated band with a lot of touring and practice. Punk is only derivative and simplistic on the surface. Art-punk, post-punk, hardcore, alternative, slap whatever label you would like on it; I’ll stick to youthful, captivating, raw, and memorable as my descriptors.

Fabonacci – Exits EP

The Exits EP is an unassuming, self-released 4-track EP from UK quintet Fabonacci. Driven by the piano as well as elements of electro, this rock music offers a little something extra. The album begins with the hypnotic beats of “Projected Thoughts,” and then the surprise hits: the lead singer has a phenomenal voice, one that sounds more like a polished pop star than someone from an indie rock band. In a world where the guy from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, with a voice so uncommon it’s a wonder the music manages to actually sound pretty good, these flowing, sweet, vocals are out of the blue.

Fabonacci has drawn comparisons to early Radiohead, and this debut album merits those comparisons. What the album lacks in production, Fabonacci makes up for it in quality, shown best on “Too Late,” easily the strongest track on the album. The songs are emotionally charged, haunting, and not overdone. The vocals are accompanied by simple guitars and drums. Exits is certainly something different, and Fabonacci is currently out with a newer release, Boundaries, which offers more content and better production. This band is still working to establish a wider fan base, but with music this interesting, it probably won’t take too long.

The Shake – Kick It

Some bands like to drop everything in their respective lives to cut an album together. Others choose to continue their ordinary, everyday lives and prefer to leave the rehearsing, performing and in turn, recording, on the side. This can have several effects in both positive and negative manners. With The Shake — a snappy, eccentric quartet from New York City — they have chosen to continue their studies in school while doing the “band gig” on the side. On their debut, Kick It, the band offers some catchy, solid garage rock, very reminiscent of the 60’s.

Songs like “Princes & Kings” (an obvious Kinks homage) and “Manic Boogie” deliver some involved guitar work that is equally riveting and up-tempo. John Merkin and Eliad Shapiro are childhood friends that formed the band together. They then recruited Jeremy Stein and Andrew McNellis into the band. They pride themselves on declaring that each member brings something unique and different, in terms of music, to the table but you would never be able to tell by the sound of this short (Eight songs — with one bonus track — at 27 minutes and change) debut.

This is rock at its most basic and purest form. The guitars scratch and bite with ferocity, the drums kick and jump with energetic fills, the bass is loopy and peculiar and the singing is abrasive, in your face and aggressive. The opener, “Frequency,” is a token example of this, complete with its dramatic beginning of contrary motion chords, menacing guitar line and vocal harmonization. After this drastic introduction, the band kicks in to a fierce, jagged song that delivers on all cylinders.

One of the drawbacks on here is that you have to wonder what they could have crafted if they focused only on the music. They are certainly a talented set of musicians and as a separate entity, some things are left desired. “Outcasts” with its The Clash guitar intro certainly starts off well but ultimately, the rest of the band comes in too late in the song. When they do jump in, its marriage is clever but the song is lost. This is minimal because the next song, “8 O’clock,” features some terrific keyboard playing by Shapiro as he covers everything from jazzy improv to classical lineage; it makes the entire song so much better.

This is definitely a band to be on the lookout for because they certainly have the musicianship, influences and a radio-ready, hit single in “Let Me Take You Far Away” ready for the taking. The aforementioned song is a true treat because the band encompasses all of their strengths — harmonization, good keyboard work, quirky guitar playing — to create a song that is simply awaiting the mainstream. And with Kick It, The Shake certainly have a great beginning to their career.

Katie Jane Garside – Lalleshwari: Lullabies In A Glass Wilderness

KatieJane Garside first captured the music public’s attention as the frontwoman of Daisy Chainsaw, with her wide-eyed, wild-haired, insane persona, all done up in deconstructed shift dresses, flowers in her hair, clutching a teddy bear, all manic panic, flailing away at shows, shouting out her distressed vocals to the brink of a breakdown, displaying her bruises, both physical and emotional.

After Daisy Chainsaw went under, KatieJane continued musically with her (glam, punk, blues, lullabies) band QueenAdreena (which also features Crispin Gray, who was a key member of Daisy Chainsaw), with the songs (musically, vocally, and lyrics-wise) alternating between erotically-charged fireworks and a more contemplative innocence. Most recently, KatieJane (a multi-faceted artist, if there ever was one) has started up the band Ruby Throat, mining the low-key, ghostly, alt-country sound.

KatieJane’s solo album Lalleshwari: Lullabies In A Glass Wilderness is a collection of her 4-track demos and, as such, sounds a bit unfinished, like a dress with the stitching showing, but it works as a bridge between the softer songs of QueenAdreena and Ruby Throat. KatieJane takes a breath and calms down on this 16-song album, delving into subjects that are familiar to her based on her work in previous bands, foremost that of broken ‘baby dolls’, lost children, lovers’ deaths, and the destruction of relationships.

This album is neither sweepingly angelic or devilishly tormented – it’s more of a creep through the wild weeds, but it’s worth it for fans of KatieJane Garside’s work. She retains her ‘little-girl-lost’ vocal delivery on many tracks, but also adds different touches to some of the songs, including deep space sounds on “darkangel”, and exotic strings and low vocals on “lost upon the flame”. Some numbers, like “Marybell (rides into town on pig)”, wouldn’t be out of place on Ruby Throat’s debut album, The Ventriloquist.

This album starts off with the experimental “genica pussywillow”, all loops of bright, glass-blown notes, a languorous, warped, carousel-like sound, and KatieJane’s high-register, expressive vocals being played slowly in reverse, so that the meaning to the lyrics cannot be divined.

That intro leads the way to “roadkill”, with KatieJane singing high and prettily against a human beatbox (akin to Bjork’s work on Medulla), attenuated keyboard notes that hover in a minor key, and a triangle that brightly tings at regular intervals. There is a hint of background static throughout the song, but the emphasis is on the sweetly warbled vocals, which are echoed and doubled on the verses, and, on the chorus, are accompanied by her high-flying, wordless wanderings, as she innocently delivers the killer line “Mother pick the pieces up, broken child…one who lost her right to roam.”.

KatieJane goes the gritty, swamp-blues route on “lesions in the brain”, her sing-talking vocals coming off gravelly and hoarse against a repeated loop of measured, but thumping drum beat and picked, acoustic guitar. She’s in story-teller mode, unspooling a yarn about two lovers, one of whom might be crossing that sane/insane threshold (“I heard a knock and the door was ajar and I opened and there was no one at all…lesions in the brain and I’m going insane this time…”). Then she crosses that threshold and takes on the persona of the “insane” one, her vocals devolving at one point into squawking chicken noises – and only KatieJane can make that sound frightening, and not silly.

“Marybell (rides into town on pig)” is another disquieting, story-telling song with ominous lyrics, thumping drum beat, acoustic guitar strum (that gets more intricate on the chorus), and an unchanging, mid-tempo pace. It comes off a bit drab after the previous tune, mainly because KatieJane sing-talks in a plain tone and isn’t her usual expressive self.

The hushed, ghostly lament “awaiting you” is of the PJ Harvey mold, solemnly hung with alternating, minor notes of a harpsichord sound and two disembodied vocal strands, one in a plainer in tone, and one that is higher and slightly echoed, as KatieJane sings “I swim the lake…I’m holding on, I’m still awaiting you”.

“Darkangel” darkly dazzles with its slowly sloping, deep-space booms and sprinkled-star sounds and slightly static, aero-vocals (“So incomplete when we sleep in deceit”) that are high and light on the verses, more straightforward on the chorus, and in sing-talking mode throughout.

KatieJane muses in a light, but melancholy tone on “sleepslikewolves”, a simple number with slow, plain guitar strum and cello notes.

The low-key vibe continues on “gaslight”, with xylophone-like notes played in a three-note loop, and vocals that are upfront, but whispered into the mic amid a background hiss of static. The song isn’t that cohesive and it rambles sans build-up (no verse, chorus, verse structure here), but KatieJane doubled vocals lines shine through, with one warbling tone wending around the other, plainer tone, and the tune finishes with a cold, spinning metal disc sound.

“too busy sinking” has an unsteady beat, with drawn-out accordion notes and KatieJane’s vocals sounding grainy and distorted as she emotes against the ploddingly-slow music. Her expressive vocals are the pull here, with her higher plaintive delivery on most vocal lines, and a lower register on the doubled vocals of some verses.

There is a fuzzy background sound in “puppylove”, as drawn-out keyboard notes and a human beat-box fill out the space, while KatieJane, in sweetly innocent mode, sings clearly and in a high register (sailing upwards on the ends of phrases) about her “Puppy sweet he licks my feet he keeps my hair oiled nice and neat…”, although the listener is to take it that the character is referring to her lover, and not an actual puppy dog.

“For you i hold my breath” is an introspective, dark, alt-country number that features KatieJane’s breathy, ethereal vocals, which aren’t typical of that genre. Fingers can be heard brushing over the strings of the strummed guitar as KatieJane lightly, but plaintively, sings “For you I hold my breath, for you I get undressed”.

The next song, “lost upon the flame”, is simply stunning, done in a totally different style than all that has come before, with its hypnotic, sinuous loop of low-sounding, Middle Eastern-tinged areo-guitar, and KatieJane’s vocals light and bird-like on the verses, but then changing to such a deeply low register on the chorus that it doesn’t even sound like her (maybe it isn’t?!).

The dynamically inert “subterranean values” is filled with an annoying, repetitive loop of a five-note run of a ‘telephone-blip’ sound, amid a ‘train-passing-by’ sound, and the verses have hushed, whispered vocals with KatieJane talking under some of them.

KatieJane reverts back to her ‘damaged princess’ incarnation (“She a princess in a ripped dress, lost little baby doll, got an angel for a witness, lady luck save us all”) for “In the birdcage part.1″, as the beginning music-box tinkle and crystal shard notes dissolve into a darker, carousel-ride vibe with booming, but unsteady drumbeat and KatieJane’s vocals coming into focus from a distance as she sighs “a baby breathed inside me, I’ve grown inside out…the mirror knows how to shame me”.

The lament “Justoneday of endlesslove” has so much empty aural space in it, with slow, ‘plunked-water-drop’ keyboard notes, and KatieJane sounding ghostly with her distant and slightly echoed wordless vocals emanating mournfully from the void, that it’s difficult to know whether the song is continuing, or has finally ended!

The last song, “handheld spoonfed”, seems like a continuation of the previous one, with just slow keyboard notes and KatieJane sing-talking simply “I’ll put the baby doll to bed, hand held and spoonfed, I stitch her wound…”…

Arthur & Yu – In Camera

Using their childhood nicknames as their band name, the Seattle duo of Sonya Westcott and Grant Olsen delve into a musical style that is not easily classifiable. By blending 60′s style folk-rock, painted with a bit of that era’s psychedelic hue, with modern acoustic singer/songwriter fare and dousing the whole thing in cloud of reverb, it sounds like something you could call new-age folk.

Although the majority of songs on In Camera, the band’s debut and the first ever Hardly Art release, include some nice jangling guitar strumming reminiscent of 60′s psychedelic pop, they lack the edge and freshness of their heritage. Acoustic guitar-based folk melodies and harmonized boy/girl voices are merged with heavily reverbed jangle pop, as flashes of melancholic pop permeate through the haze on occasion, creating a soothing psychedelic ambience.

But even when these ingredients are combined in the proper proportions the tunes remain listless since the arrangements are too bare and most of the songs don’t have enough quaint peculiarities to make them flavorful. The exception being “There Are Too Many Birds” with it’s catchy refrain and lots of cool instrumental effects floating around the charming melody.

Arthur & Yu’s inconsistently brewed blend of neo-psychedelic indie-folk is definitely an acquired taste and the home-recorded, lo-fi production along with uninspired songwriting renders In Camera incapable of being a worthwhile investment of your listening time.

Recommended Track: “There Are Too Many Birds”

Bevel – Phoenician Terrane

Bevel’s relaxed and relaxing take on indie pop borrows from Kings of Convenience and Magnetic Fields. Multitracked violins, or keyboard versions of them, mean to pull at your emotions while the vocals and guitar play along just above them. Drums rarely come into the picture at all. When they do, they’re as unobtrusive as possible: brushes on cymbals or the occasional snare.

Bevel doesn’t announce itself as much as it whispers along. At heart it’s a kind of coffee-shop or bookstore music. Light guitars, some keyboard backgrounds, slow pacing. You might not take much notice were you to walk into a Bevel performance.

“Little Red One” has faint strains of early Felt in its guitar lines and its vocals. The vocals, though, seem oddly unsure of themselves on these songs. Expressions of vulnerability, perhaps, or a stripped-down natural approach to singing in a world of processed and treated and vocoded singing? It could just as easily be a lack of vocal training. I had the same reaction to early Microdisney, where the singing sounded unusual at first, but with Microdisney you had some amazingly put-together lyrics and narratives. Much less so with Bevel.

The music feels thin. By the time Bevel gets to the second-to-last track, “Coronation Day,” it goes for a grander, sweeping sound. And while it’s a decent stab, it just doesn’t quite convey. I’m sure that the 14 tracks on Phoenician Terrane come from a place of earnestness, but they’re either too samey or too insubstantial to hit with much impact. There’s a way to connect with the listener when making this kind of music and I think Bevel isn’t quite there.

Various Artists – The Heavy Metal Box Set

Compiling a history of any genre of music is no easy feat, but the folks at Rhino Records seem to have this sort of thing down to a near science. Perhaps best known for reissuing and expanding the Nuggets compilation they’ve since put together 2 more Nuggets volumes as well as comprehensive sets on seventies punk rock and eighties underground, marking the beginnings of what became known as alternative rock. Now heavy metal gets it’s due in all it’s fist pumping, head banging, Satan worshiping, leather & denim clad glory.

This set, like the No Thanks! The 70‘s Punk Rebellion and Nuggets sets, serve as an introduction to their respective genre. There isn’t anyone who isn’t already aware of The Ramones or The Clash, The Kingsmen or The Standells. And just as with The Heavy Metal Box Set everyone is already aware of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Motorhead. But if not for Rhino putting these sets together I personally would not have come to know Stiff Little Fingers, Ian Dury, Mouse and the Traps, or Los Hombres. Band such as Fastway, Rose Tattoo, and Loudness fall into the category of “who the hell is that?” (Extra points to the latter band who appear in iTunes as LOUDNESS.) Additions of the lesser known serve as further examples of how one form of music can give birth to so many different styles.

Heavy metal is also the area most favorable to parody. It is amusing to see the progression from Iron Butterfly to the loincloth clad Manowar. Kiss and Alice Cooper were just kidding when they wore make up but King Diamond is serious! And the ability to poke fun at the genre is apparent with the inclusion of Spinal Tap’s “Big Bottom” and the 4 discs packaged in a cardboard Marshall head replica with a volume know that goes to 11.

Rhino‘s song selections are at the same time obvious yet intriguing. For Scorpions’ “Rock You Like A Hurricane” or Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever” you’re met with “Still Of The Night” by Whitesnake. If you think you know what you’re getting with Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, or Great White, think again. (The Sabbath choice is from the post-Ozzy period, making Ronnie James Dio the artist with the most appearances, not including an interview in the liner notes on how he apparently invented the devil horn salute.)

This is not all to say the set is perfect. No comprehensive history of any genre can ever be complete. Debates will rage as to who should and shouldn’t have been included or why one song over another. On occasion there are omissions due to licensing, which is why the Sex Pistols were not represented on the No Thanks! set. Their metal counterparts Guns N’ Roses go missing here as do to Van Halen, AC/DC, Motley Crue, and LA Guns. Also excluded for whatever reason is Steppenwolf, which since coining the phrase heavy metal, you think would have been included. These are actually easy to look past in comparison to the biggest flaw: the 2:54 single version of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” This is just unforgivable. All 17 plus minutes needs to be available. Five bands contribute songs over 7 minutes long and I know I would be willing to sacrifice Rush’s “Working Man” for all 17 organ soloing drum pounding freaked out minutes of Iron Butterfly. No one can name any of their other songs anyway, just let them, and us, have our moment.

However, where else can you pair Slayer against the bumblebee Christians in Stryper? (To this day “To Hell With The Devil” is one of the funniest song titles this side of Mojo Nixon.) There’s somehow justification in rocking out to Poison as long you follow it up with Megadeth. Yngwie Malmsteen’s “I’ll See The Light, Tonight” is disturbingly good, and who won’t have some fond middle school memories of Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly?“ Metallica gets 2 tracks and rightfully so. Once the opening riff of “Whiplash” kicks off it’s obvious they redefined metal; taking it to an entirely new level, influencing the likes of Pantera and Sepultura, who appear later on disc 4.

A set such as this is perfect for the few of us who were not really the outcasts in high school so much as the unnoticed. We didn’t listen to Kiss or Metallica, no matter how cool their logos were, but we also didn’t listen to Top 40 radio. We had siblings to get our tastes from, be it a older sister with dyed red hair or the brother of a friend that smoked something other than cigarettes. They introduced us to Jane’s Addiction, The Smiths or The Replacements. That’s the beauty of the Rhino box sets, they offer us a chance to catch up on what we missed for whatever reason; they’re like that cool older sibling. As a whole this compilation may not go to 11, but it’s pretty damn close. But beware, as Quiet Riot warns us, “metal health will drive you mad.”

Bring Back The Guns – Dry Futures

Bring Back the Guns’ Dry Futures is a polarizing album because the band screws around with patched-in musical experimentation and mathy riffs only to return to some decent pop hooks. So while a few off-kilter melodies will draw in Pavement, early The Flaming Lips and Toadies fans, many listeners will lose patience fast.

Tracks 3, 6 and 9 are most accessible for those who want a taste; but the same listeners should avoid tracks 1 and 2. The vocal delivery that sounds endearingly at wits’ end on track 3 just sounds annoying on track 1. And abrupt changes make one song interesting and the next song silly.

In fact, much of the “experimental” content just sounds like a temper tantrum. And these manic calculations indicate a lack of musical development in members claiming band roots back to 1999.

But while the noisy tinkering and fussing around doesn’t hold promise for an authentic and fandom-worthy future, for now Brink Back the Guns may be a good enough post-punk fit to turn that frown upside down if just for a little while. So a reluctant recommendation for Dry Futures to a messy mix of post-punkers and early Pavement, The Flaming Lips and Toadies fans. But for most indie fans, pass.

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