Of Montreal Tour Dates

2/26 — Wellington, NZ – San Francisco Bath House
2/28 — Perth, AU – Perth International Arts Festiva
3/3 — Sydney, AU – Manning Bar
3/4 — Brisbane, AU – The Zoo
3/5 — Melbourne, AU – The Hi Fi
3/7 — Golden Plains, AU – Golden Plains Festival
3/10 – Osaka, JP – Club Quattro
3/12 — Tokyo, JP – Duo Music Exchange
3/15 — Singapore, SG — Mosaic Music Festival / Esplanade Theatre
4/13 — Carrboro, NC — Cat’s Cradle
4/14 — Baltimore, MD — Sonar
4/15 — New York, NY — Music Hall of Williamsburg*
4/16 — New York, NY — Music Hall of Williamsburg*
4/17 — New York, NY — Music Hall of Williamsburg*
4/19 — New Haven, CT — Toad’s Place
4/20 — Boston, MA — Paradise
4/21 — Boston, MA — Paradise
4/22 — Philadelphia, PA — Trocadero
4/23 — Covington, KY — Madison Theater
4/24 — Columbia, MO — The Blue Note
4/25 — Norman, OK — Norman Music Festival
4/26 — Memphis, TN — Minglewood Hall
5/24 — Quincy, WA — Sasquatch Festival
6/13 — Manchester, TN — Bonnaroo
* w/ Janelle Monae

Asobi Seksu on Tour

Mar 02 Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa
Mar 03 Toronto, ON @ El Mocambo
Mar 04 Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room at Crofoot Ballroom
Mar 05 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Mar 06 Bloomington, IL @ Illinois Wesleyan U.-Young
Mar 07 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Mar 10 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Mar 11 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Mar 13 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Mar 14 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubador
Mar 15 San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
Mar 19 Austin, TX – SXSW @ Scoot Inn, 6pm
Mar 20 Austin, TX – SXSW: Polyvinyl showcase @ Habana Calle Patio 6, 1am
Mar 21 Austin, TX – SXSW: Filter Magazine party @ Cedar Street Courtyard, 2:30pm
Mar 22 Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
Mar 23 Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
Mar 24 Memphis, TN @ Young Avenue Deli
Mar 25 Atlanta, GA @ Eyedrum
Mar 26 Chapel HIll, NC @ Local 506
Mar 27 Baltimore, MD @ The Ottobar
Mar 28 Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
Mar 29 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Mar 30 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
Apr 02 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: Beware

Usually, a promo CD arrives here as the full album, with promo cover and a press release. Beware seems to represent a new phenomenon though. Each of the thirteen tracks contains not one but two spoken interjections, reminding your humble reviewer that ‘this is a promotional copy of Beware. These soundbites cut across the music on the album just whenever it starts to get interesting. A little distracting, a little frustrating.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy sounds a little frustrated too. For almost a decade, he’s been producing some quality alt.country music and is well known on both sides of the atlantic. But it somehow hasn’t gone quite the way it should for this maverick auteur. The flm soundtracks, the glossy teen dramas, the lucrative car adverts, the video game inserts, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy hasn’t quite cracked it yet and Beware has all the hallmarks of an angst-ridden confessional, doubtlessly inspired by his own personal and professional (I suspect mostly professional) frustrations.

Starting with “Beware Your Only Friend” the sound of the album is firmly on the edgier side of mellow. Guitars are strummed loudly, and the backing vocals assume a strident quality alongside some atmospherically insistent fiddle playing, while Billy’s lyric isn’t in the mood for any apologies “when each new colour round you takes some of your life/that’s when I get angry, an hour before my fight” (my transcription, the promo contains no lyric insert). Obviously, there’s been an argument.

“You Can’t Hurt Me Now” has Billy and his band moving rapidly towards mainstream country territories, until a chirpy xylophone solo and a mariachi trumpet break add the sense of finely tuned eccentricity that places Billy and others like him quite securely on the fringes of Nashville. “My Life’s Work” is possibly the song that the album could centre around more coherently, a downtempo ballad that lays bare Billy’s collection of regrets and half remembered mistakes; “this morning we found no love at all / I bust a hole in the ceiling”, a lyric that gains a certain chill quality when delivered in a hoarse whisper. The overall mood is definitely somber, across tracks such as “Heart’s Arms” and “You Are Lost”, and it isn’t until the deftly picked intro of “There Is Something I Have To Say” that the mood lifts slightly, although this owes more to musicianship than to the song itself, a vignette of implied threat and despair backed with what sounds like railroad sounds in the background, and this thoughtfully constructed piece of Sam Shepherdesque theatrics is also the shortest track on the album. ‘”I Am Goodbye” sounds a bit more cheerful, a line-dance stomp with a funky guitar break that’s oddly out of keeping with much of what surrounds it.

If Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy ever felt the urge to record a good-time energetic alt.country album that we could actually polka to, then the means are certainly at his disposal. The lighter moments on ‘Beware’ are however resolutely undercut by the air of downbeat torment that songs such as “You Don’t Love Me” and “Death Final” bring to the table. Ultimately, it’s the combination of thwarted ambition and lack of proper recognition, which is apparent, that prevents Beware from ever fully taking flight as a listening experience.  Maybe it’s the apostrophes, Billy.

The Quincy Blaque Trio – Uneasy Listening Music

Where did Quincy Blaque and his trio come from? This man with the secret agent-sounding name has formed one of the most impressive new bands of the past five years under everybody’s radar.

Uneasy Listening Music is exactly what any artist would want out of a debut record. Well, huge sales and tons of money would be nice, but artistically, the Trio has met every criteria for a great album. This record has so many different voices, yet each sings clearly. Tracks like the standout ‘The Drunkening” have this grizzled, murkiness normally found on Tom Waits albums. The song’s drunken haze bubbles thick, with raucous, yet strangely calming drum rolls. Other tracks like “We’re Too Slow” and “Early Warning Signs” have this British glaze to them, in vein of Elbow and Coldplay. “Far Enough” drones with a stuttered tempo and Quincy’s soothing voice reassuring himself that “life is too sweet it’s always not what it seems / it looks hard to fake / fall asleep in your dreams / that’s not far enough away”. And, in what may be my favorite track, “No Visible Scars”, the Trio cooks this tremendous, rising riff that feels like it is going to explode, but instead, tapers off with a slow whisper, only to rip right back up at the close.

The Quincy Blaque Trio have not only hit everything on the map, but they’ve done it with consistent and outstanding quality. I can’t really get a handle on it, I don’t want to rush it, but this is certainly an early contender for the best album of the year. If this is their jumping off point, I can’t wait to see what heights they’ll achieve.

The Hermit Crabs – Correspondence Course EP

Glassgow, Scotland’s The Hermit Crabs are an indie-pop band, pure and simple. But as pure as their music is, the brilliance of it is that it’s not so simple. This is not a lo-fi affair, as so many bands have done before with pretty vocals, a poppy beat, and some simple guitar. There’s plenty of lush instrumentation here, a nice mix of acoustic and electric guitars, and excellent production, giving each song – even the simple and pretty ones – a rich luster.

The band’s new EP opens with a blissfully pure dose of pop. “About You Before” features gorgeous female vocals, a light rhythm, some stirring violin, and just a hint of retro-minded guitarwork that gives the song an instantly classic feel. The title track is a bit more creative, reminding me of some of the 80s pop bands like Aztec Camera and The Field Mice until a nice little guitar solo comes in, grounding it nicely in modern pop. “Turn the Clock Back” is the requisite slower song, a kind of hip-swaying slow, while “I Don’t Know How” brings back the head-bobbing pop feel with lo-fi pop sensibility: guitar, drums, and vocals are all you need.

Matinee has proved time and time again that the indie-pop genre is universal. It doesn’t matter where the band is from – if the talent is there, you’ll enjoy it. Fans of light, poppy music will enjoy The Hermit Crabs undoubtedly, but what makes this band so unique in its instrumentation and production will surely give this band an even wider audience. Nice stuff, and a nice development from the band’s debut full-length.

Three Second Kiss – Long Distance

Three Second Kiss methodically scramble post-rock, post-punk, math, and noise rock on their new LP, Long Distance. Their challenging chops and rhythms don’t go down smoothly. Rather, they test conventions and ultimately make for an interesting listen, though not a fully enjoyable one.

This veteran band from Bologna, Italy, sound tight even when they sound messy. This crafted clatter comes punching and piercing through speakers cleanly thanks to Steve Albini’s production. Instruments have a raw, live, and straight-from-the-cabinet sound, a sound other producers should envy. Three Second Kiss’ style resembles Don Caballero and June of ‘44.

Like those bands, Three Second Kiss can make abrasive dissonance, spastic rhythms, and off kilter riffing into rock music. Their experimental leanings are harnessed and made to scramble in relative unison. Beneath the cacophony are tight structures that seem to happen partly out of chance but mostly from method. But, on Long Distance, that structure isn’t always sound and is often compromised by the vocal.

Track two, “I’m A Wind”, is the album’s first winner and shows the band’s strengths. The bass punctuates the drums with precision while the guitar challenges this union before getting back on the same page. “Inexorable Sky” is a clear favorite and probably the album’s most accessible track. It kicks off with the rhythm section’s slow, head nodding groove. The guitar rolls through its hammer-ons, pull-offs, taps, and bends. The spoken vocals are overshadowed by the guitar because the six string tells a far more vivid story with its unique personality. Two tracks later, the subdued intro of “Dead Horse Swimming” breaks under the slow slamming of a tom drum. The guitar builds a riff around a few bending notes crammed between quick string taps. Like all the riffs on Long Distance, this one comes in fits, starting and stopping and adjusting until it teams up with the bass and drum. But, again, the vocal fails and then it fails again when the band tries a few, short harmonies. Over its nearly five and half minute run, “Dead Horse Swimming” takes on several rhythm changes without breaking momentum. This may be the only song in which the rhythm changes more than the guitar riff.

But the other songs don’t fare as well as these three. Often, the abrasive side of Three Second Kiss outshines the band’s talents. Parts and combinations feel forced, and the frequent change ups take away from the music more than they add to it. Arguably, the weakest link is the vocal. The singer often uses spoken word, and this approach shrinks in the glaring colors and textures weaved by the jutting riffs and rhythms. When he tries to sing, it gets better. He even tries for a David Yow style that comes close. But the fact is that he is not a very good singer, and his nasally voice doesn’t have the tone or personality to work with the other instruments.

Musically, there’s a lot to like about Long Distance. The guitar is a crafty force matched by the taut and toned rhythm section. The bass and drum kit shines even when playing the straight man to the wiley, unpredictable guitar. Sometimes the sound grows on you, lets you share in that nervous quest for harmony. But it can be a rough journey, and the promised land must be sweet for it to be worth the effort. On Long Distance, it usually isn’t.

Quatre Téte – Art Of The State

Progressive Punk is an interesting combination of music. It juxtaposes the most complicated genre of the last forty years with the simplest. Musically, it has tricky rhythms, fast guitar playing, complex arrangements and a lot of energy. Vocally, it is extremely basic and routine, seeming to exist just to fulfill the expectation of having a singer. If this sounds appealing, Quatre Téte’s new album, Art Of The State, should be right up your alley.

Formed in Chicago, the trio consists of guitarist Mark Bartak, bassist Becka Joynt and drummer Rick Lane. Showing a sense of humor about their music, they describe their work as “A Math professor on cocaine wrestling a chimpanzee in a burning plane about to crash into a volcano.” I would describe it a middle ground between At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta, but without the hypnotic melodies and emotive vocals of Cedric Bixler Zavala. And of course, the guitar work of Omar A Rodriguez-Lopez is a lot more unconventional. Still, Art Of The State impresses despite its derivativeness.

Even though there are many bands out there that sound like this, you have to respect their musicianship. All three members of Quatre Téte are very skilled at playing their instruments and their ability to play around so many notes and shifting time signatures is remarkable. That being said, Quatre Téte also fall victim to a lack of diversity within their formula. They never change timbres or drastically shift dynamics, which results in a half hour’s music that sounds largely the same throughout. Essentially, you may remember a riff or rhythm but have trouble remember where exactly it comes on the album.

Unfortunately Quatre Téte, like almost every band that plays this type of music, would be better without the vocals. It is clear that the focus is on the music, and the rebellious voice only takes away from it by being somewhat annoying and average. It seems that almost every punk singer has this sound, which is comparable to a lower pitched version of Iggy Pop via The Stooges’ “Search and Destroy.” If Quatre Téte focused on the songwriting and melodies, the vocals would be necessary (but would require improvement of course). But Art Of The State is not about that, so why even include it? The best moments come when there are no vocals and the band is just jamming.

Like so much similar indie music, this album is both good and bad. The band has a talent for creating intricate, attention grabbing compositions that constantly change, but it all kind of sounds the same, not to mention like dozens of other artists. Plus, the vocals add nothing and merely distract. In the end, Art Of The State is an LP that you will respect and enjoy while it’s on, but could easily forget and find another act with the same sound.

King of Conspiracy – “Youth Against the Empire” CD Single

King of Conspiracy is a three-piece band from Paris, France who make time in London, England. By that I mean the trio seems to spend a lot of time in the UK. I don’t know much about the current punk scenes on either side of the Channel, but this is one young group that should be gathering fans with lightening speed.

Energy abounds even though there are only two songs to explore. “Youth Against the Empire” starts off with a funky intro before exploding into…punk-funk? dance-punk? art-punk? I’m not sure exactly what to call it, but it’s all of these things and more. The pace is frenetic, but the rhythm surprisingly catchy. The only thing you may not love is the vocals – something grates on me a bit about the vocals on “Youth Against the Empire”. However, the vox on the second track, “Chinese Rings”, are a bit more subdued and end up making this my favorite song of the pair. The style is fairly similar, but there’s definitely more of an alternative, progressive vibe at play. 

King of Conspiracy conjures up images of clubs and bars all across Europe filled with drunk, sweaty twenty-somethings out having the time of their lives. Good on them! Globally, fans of dance-punk—or anything leaning toward the funkier side of the spectrum—should check out this mini-release.

Interview with The Lolligags

Hi Leslie and Ryan!  I’ve spun your latest EP, Out of Perversity Join Hands, and I love the whole kit ‘n’ caboodle of your ultra-catchy and darkly glossy electro-dance pop sound (I can’t get “Merry Go Round” out of my head and it’s been weeks!).  Leslie, your lively vocals resemble a playful and teasing Siouxsie Sioux with crisply layered, exclamatory vocals and cuttingly macabre lyrics popping out of Ryan’s jaunty, spinning carousel of deeply buzzing and squelchy synths and snappy beats. 

Delusions of Adequacy:  What’s the story behind how you two met and decided to form this band?

Leslie:  Ryan and I met in 1992 at a college radio station in Panama City, Florida.  We were both volunteer dj’s there and liked a lot of the same groups.  We became best friends shortly after that and spent most of our time together and talking on the phone until Ryan’s mom would make him hang up on me!   We formed a band called ‘Bumbletree’ which was kinda riot grrrl, but of course it never saw the light of day.  Over the years we continued to work on different musical projects with other people and finally found our way back to each other and making music we both love.

Ryan:  I lent Leslie a Morrissey fanzine when I first met her, and she returned it to me the next week having read it from cover to cover.  So I knew immediately she would be a loyal friend who also loved Morrissey!!  We were destined to make music together; it just took a long time for it to happen.

DOA:  Did you hit upon your sound right away, knowing what you wanted to create from the get-go, or did it take some time to become The Lolligags? 

Leslie:  I think of Ryan as my other self.  He knows my mind better than anyone and there is a certain kind of chemistry that we have which makes it a perfect setting to write and make music together.  It didn’t take any time to come to this sound, it was very natural.  We want the same things and enjoy bouncing ideas off of each other and are inspired, intrigued and moved by the same things.

Ryan:  Leslie is very impulsive by nature, and the most brilliant things come out of her mouth without much forethought.  I, on the other hand, have to labor over every chord structure and each line of lyrics and make sure the melodies we have are absolutely the most catchy that they can be.  It’s the tug of war between craft and being off-the-cuff that I think formed our sound from the beginning.

DOA:  Cool band name by the way!  I love the play on words (well, the play on the one word), which reflects the enticing, carnivalesque tone of your music – and your love of sweets.  Is it just you, Leslie, who is a connoisseur of all things sugary, or are you, Ryan, a sugar addict as well?

Leslie:  I run a business that is based on miniature desserts that look and smell like the real thing, so I am obviously into those things.  Ryan and I love baking and eating real sweets though.  Ryan is quite the baker!  

Ryan:  Leslie inspired my obsession with bread pudding.  For a while I was scared to make a cheesecake, but I’ve baked a few now.  I’m ready to tackle a chocolate souffle soon. 

Leslie:  Sadly the name just fell out of my head.  There was no real thought.  A friend asked what we were called and it rolled off my tongue.  I wish I had said “spring form pan”.

Ryan:  It’s a perfect example of the sickly sweet contrast that we love the songs to have.  Both the ‘lolli’ and the ‘gag.’  And a perfect example of Leslie’s impulsiveness saving the day once again.

DOA:  You have two EPs out, the aforementioned and most recent Out of Perversity Join Hands, and also Wired.  What is next for you in terms of The Lolligags?  Are you working on your debut album?

Leslie:  We are currently working on a full length!

Ryan:  A very big feat for us since Leslie lives in Athens and I live in Nashville.  We’ve adjusted our recording procedure a bit, so hopefully it will work out very nicely.  EPs worked really nice for us at first because four or five songs take a long time when you don’t live in the same city.  But we have some plans up our sleeves.

DOA:  The Out of Perversity Join Hands EP is out in limited quantities and of the seven songs, two are older tunes remixed by Andy Gonzales (the thumping beat and distorted guitar line of “Kitten, Come Over”) and Dan Gellar of Ruby Isle (the blippy electronica beat of “My Mascara”).  How did you hook up with those two guys?

Leslie:  I had been listening to a demo of Andy’s album and fell in love with it, so we asked if he’d be interested in remixing “Kitten, Come Over.” We love what he did.  We’ll be working with him more in the future.  Wait and see!

Ryan:  And I have loved Dan Geller’s group I Am The World Trade Center for a while.  We played a magical show at GO Bar in Athens one winter, and Dan was the DJ between the different acts.  Our friend Pierre said that we should ask him to remix a song, so I went up to him and asked if he would screw with one of our songs, and he said he’d love to.  I guess we’ve learned it never hurts to ask!

DOA:  I hear the dark delight of Siouxsie Sioux in your vocal delivery, Leslie, that recall the Siouxsie and The Banshees songs like “Candyman” and “Peek-A-Boo”.  Am I totally off-base here or is Siouxsie one of your influences?  What other singers do you admire?

Leslie:  Siouxsie is clearly an influence.  I grew up singing her songs, but I think she and I just happen to sound a bit alike.  I get that a lot, and it’s always flattering.  But I don’t aspire to be the next Siouxsie Sioux or to sound like her.  

I am really picky when it comes to music groups.  I rarely get into anything new.  I love Brian Eno and Depeche Mode and Goldfrapp!  I love Alison! We like crazy things we stumble across.  Cheezy 80s stuff…. Den Harrow is hot!

DOA:  Ryan, some reviewers have mentioned that your sound reaches back to the New Wave style of the 1980s, with the synth-driven base, and while I can hear that as an influence, your songs don’t sound stale or dated at all, but instead come off as punchy and refreshing.  Is that what you’re going for or do you want to dig deeper into the music of the MTV generation on future songs?

Ryan:  That is so nice of you to say!  We like the vintage 1980 synth sounds mixed with our own twisted song structures.  There are loads of songs from the 1980’s that I cannot bear to listen to.  

DOA:  Ryan, what instruments do you utilize on most of the songs?

Ryan:  On Out Of Perversity Join Hands we used a couple of synths, and I played bass guitar for the first time on a recording, and a tiny bit of electric guitar.  

DOA:  One song masterfully deviates from the electro-pop template on your Out of Perversity Join Hands EP, ”All the Deer Daughters” with its slower, drawn out violins, tolling bell, and more pensive singing from Leslie.  Who did you get to do the violin part and did you craft the song in this mold because of the more melancholy lyrics, or did you consciously want to try a different style and then come up with lyrics to fit the song structure?

Ryan:  We thought that song would be a nice centerpiece for the record since it’s so different from the other upbeat songs.  Leslie gave me that bass melody and the chorus melody, and it just turned into a lovely sad song.  I thought it would be a bit twisted to write the song from the point of view of a deer in love with a hunter who by nature must shoot her.  Do animals frown on their own kind falling in love with humans?  

Cole Causey from the Athens Symphony was gracious enough to play the violin part.  I adore orchestration and how a few tiny violins can make a song sound so big.  Well, that and reverb.  We hope to have a bit of strings on the full length record as well.

DOA:  The vivacious snap, crackle, and pop of your music belies the fact that your lyrics can be quite bleak and twisted.  Who writes the song lyrics and why did you choose a story-telling vibe for your songs – or maybe it’s not all stories, maybe it’s personal too?

Leslie:  We both write the lyrics.  I usually start them off by recording myself singing out my frustrations and venting about things that bother me or scare me or just affect me in a negative way.  I sing whatever comes out

Ryan:  And she sends those ideas to me, and I listen to them again and again.  I take my favorite parts and add some lyrics and some music and try to picture the whole song.

Leslie:  We like to write about things that scare us a bit.  We have a song that we are working on now that is really violent.  Neither of us are violent and dislike scary movies and things of that nature, so it was really hard thinking of singing these things.  I wouldn’t want anyone thinking we are closet sociopaths, but I really don’t want to go about singing songs of candy canes and marshmallow fluff!  

Ryan:  The songs on the full length will be more about personal conflicts.  People we can’t stand.  I’ve always had fun coming up with lyrics that I think would sound great coming out of Leslie’s mouth.  Don’t let her act of innocence fool you.

Leslie:  Oh please.  I’m quite wimpy and live in la la land most of the time.  It’s good to have Dallion Lollihag as an alter ego!  Her balls are so much bigger than mine!

DOA:  What are your live shows like?  I’ve heard that candy peanuts have been known to be thrown to the audience and that you have various props onstage.  Do you feel like you take on a different persona while you’re playing live?  Leslie, do you feel that you do this on record too, as opposed to everyday life? 

Ryan:  We haven’t played too many shows since we have to time the travel plans just right.

Leslie:  We have some light boxes which are nice and I like to throw candy to the kids, but it has to be something soft that wont hurt anyone!  I did throw gingerbread men once which was fun!  I’d like to fill things out more and make things more festive, but in time.  

Ryan:  Everyone loves catching a candy peanut because no one can really figure out what they are.  And why do they taste like bananas?

Leslie:  I am definitely a different person when I am on stage.  I think most performers are.  I am kind of shy and anti social in real life.  I rarely leave my house.  I like my comfort zone and solitude.  It’s always hard for me to get on stage because I tend to be hard on myself, and I always worry about not being able to hear myself very well.  But after two drinks It shuts those thoughts up enough for me to enjoy myself and then the next morning I look at myself in the mirror as ask myself what the hell I just did!  

DOA:  Leslie, I couldn’t help noticing online that you are quite the “crafty” person!  Not only are you one-half of The Lolligags, you also have your own web site that features items that you’ve hand-crafted, and you do illustrations on commission as well.  Can you tell us more about your site and what the link is?

Leslie:  I have been making scented dessert jewelry for around 5 years now.  I am a fan of Strawberry Shortcake and when I was a kid would collect the miniatures!  They smelled so delightful and always thought that was really cool.  When I started making my little treats I thought it would be fun to scent them and figured out a way to do it.  So the waffles smell like waffles and the cupcakes smell like cupcakes and so on.   I started illustrating a few years ago and really never consider myself artistic at all, so it’s funny that people actually pay me to do illustration work for them!  I am really proud of my work, but so strange how it all happened!  I mainly started drawing and designing things for myself.  Packaging for my jewelry and business cards and such.  Then I started being asked to design things here and there and it just went from there! Most of my drawings have a cute and creepy vintage feel to them.  I love vintage children’s books and am inspired by Eastern European folklore.  I have some vintage books from Russia that are just amazing!  Very inspiring!

My website is www.pancakemeow.com

DOA:  As a fellow sweets-lover, I have to point out that those mini dessert and breakfast foods jewelry you create does look positively scrumptious!  Where does your fascination with desserts and the like come from? 

Leslie:  I think it stems from just loving to bake in general.  When we first moved to Athens we had such a small kitchen space and I was unable to bake, so I think it was an outlet.  I’d just make tiny versions of my favorite things and go to IHOP for the pancakes!

DOA:  I’m showing my age now, but looking at your arts ‘n’ crafts web site takes me back to those good old days of the 1980s when collecting scratch ‘n’ sniff stickers, jelly bracelets, Strawberry Shortcake, and Swatch watches (there was a scratch ‘n’ sniff model!)  was all the rage.  The jewelry charms you make are scented and you have a long, yummy scent menu at your site.  How do you create these food fragrances?

Leslie:  I order base scents and blend them myself.  I have bottles and bottles of scents.  My house smells really strange and fruity.  I don’t really create them.  I was never good with chemistry!

DOA:  Ryan, you’re a more mysterious guy, mainly because I can’t find that much about you online, LOL, so I have to ask, are you working on anything else besides The Lolligags, or is the band your main gig?  Have you been into playing musical instruments since you were a kid?  What is your most fave instrument to play?

Ryan:  I have been playing the piano since I was very little, and thus a large grand piano would be my favorite instrument to play.  I can’t imagine working on any other songs besides Lolligags songs.  Because we both contribute to the songwriting in little bits at a time, our songs take a while to birth and grow.  I simply wouldn’t have the energy or time for any other musical endeavors.  Luckily I am completely proud of the music we come up with, so it’s really all I need.

DOA:  Please list your official web site where we can find out more about the band and can order your tunes.  Thanks so much!

Ryan: Our website is www.thelolligags.com.  The EPs can be ordered from our record label, Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records,www.hhbtm.com, or from Leslie’s Pancake Meow website.

Asobi Seksu – Hush

To the culturally ignorant, Asobi Seksu may sound like the name of a Japanese singer-songwriter or perhaps a Japanese punk band. And though the moniker is colloquial Japanese for “casual sex”, they are in fact a NYC quartet that specializes in fresh-sounding dream-pop with ethereal vocals, airy guitars and hushed indie-rock beats.

The band’s third album, Hush, has the perfect title too, as singer Yuki Chikudate coos in a tranquilizing voice that is heavenly, atmospheric and lush, much like Elizabeth Fraser did with the Cocteau Twins. With the way Yuki sings in both English and Japanese, with an operatic loveliness, one can’t help but think of the unique verbalizations of the Cocteau’s Fraser. The music on Hush also borrows heavily from the sublime sound of the Cocteau Twins with delicate, heavily reverbed and spangly guitars. Combined with airy synth washes and crisp, vibrant beats, the songs have a multi-layered and textural edge to them.

Where Asobi Seksu deviate from the vaporous, atmospheric formula of the Cocteau’s though, is their inclusion of a touch of the Euro-pop sound of ABBA, a glint of the slick bass lines from 80’s synth-pop, fragments of scratchy, acid-pop guitar squalls and even an occasional male vocal part, courtesy of guitarist James Hanna. The result is a refreshing and vibrant take on the celestial shoegazing convention for a more organic sound with less atmosphere and intrigue and more concrete and soaring melodies.

While there are plenty of dreamy, layered soundscapes to delight the ears, they are incorporated into well crafted songs that shimmer with lush and gossamer melodies and catchy beats. There are also plenty of the band’s signature fuzzy, shoegazing guitar swirls as well, only they are toned down a bit and in perfect balance with the sweeping and luxurious ambience.

Hush is an excellent, if not totally innovative, album of jaunty and jangly atmospheric dream-pop that is rich and full and can be enjoyed at low volume as soothing morning music or as engaging rock music blasted at full volume.

Recommended If You Like (RIYL): Cocteau Twins, Delays, Violet Indiana, Mahogany and Rumskib

Recommended Tracks: “Sunshower”, “In The Sky” and “Glacially”

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