Handsome Furs Summer Tour Dates

May 30 Do Division Festival, Chicago, IL
Jun 04 Richards on Richards, Vancouver, Canada
Jun 05 Neumos, Seattle, WA
Jun 06 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
Jun 08 Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
Jun 09 Cellar Door (CA), Visalia, CA
Jun 10 Mother’s Tavern, San Luis Obispo, CA
Jun 11 Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA
Jun 12 Chyno Arts Center, Scottsdale, AZ
Jun 13 Corazon, Sante Fe, NM
Jun 14 Larimer Lounge, Denver, CO
Jun 17 Aquarium (Dempsey’s Upstairs), Fargo, ND
Jul 02 Comerica Cityfest, Detrioit, MI
Jul 03 Theatre Plaza, Montreal, Canada
Jul 05 SPACE, Portland, ME
Jul 06 Great Scott, Allston, MA
Jul 07 Bowery Ballroom, The, New York City, NY
Jul 08 Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Jul 09 Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA
Jul 10 Black Cat, Washington, DC
Jul 11 Ottobar, Baltimore, MD
Jul 13 Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
Jul 14 The Earl, Atlanta, GA
Jul 15 Exit/In, Nashville, TN
Jul 16 Skull Alley, Louisville, KY
Jul 17 Grog Shop, Cleveland Heights, OH
Jul 18 Big Orbit’s Soundlab, Buffalo, NY
Jul 19 Lebreton Flats (Ottawa Blues Fest), Ottawa, Canada
Jul 30 Emmabodafestivalen, Emmaboda, Sweden
Jul 31 Rust, Copenhagen, Denmark
Aug 01 Appletreegarden Festival, Bremen, Germany
Aug 03 Schocken, Stuttgart, Germany
Aug 06 Plages de Rock, Paca, France
Aug 15 Flow Festival, Helsinki, Finland

Clues – Clues

When The Unicorns broke up, the group’s fate was determined for them as one of those bands that many would reflect on with regret and longing. Longing that they never broke up because Nick Thorburn and Alden Penner’s debut is highly regarded as one of the first imperative albums to jump-start the Canadian indie rock scene. Since then, Thorburn has gone on to front Islands and Penner basked in obscurity.

Enter Arcade Fire’s ex-drummer, Brendan Reed, who left the band right before they made it big. And now, Penner and Reed have joined forces to form Clues. As two musicians who may have gotten slighted, their self-titled album is an accomplished and impressive debut.

Seeing as how Penner does most of the singing, Clues recalls The Unicorns debut more than it does any of Arcade Fire’s anthemic rock. “Cave Mouth” does just about everything you’d expect from these two musicians: Penner’s yelps and menacing singing is supported by an even more diabolical guitar and Reed’s booming drums and mallet-led melody. This is spunky, animated, jangly-layered music that is heavy on the hooks and melodies and light on the depth. But with just enough value to evenly balance the dazzle, it ends up being a commendable listen.

Everything begins with the looseness and scatter of “Haarp,” a song that mysteriously and rowdily starts it off. Progressively, shining guitars arrive, drums levitate in terms of volume and attitude and before you know it, the tempo’s increased by forty notches and we’re off to the races. By then, and from here on out, you’re in for a colorful and dramatic battle of the best kind: one that will leave you battered, shattered and begging for more.

The acoustic guitar on “Elope,” along with refined vocals provided by Penner, all add up to be the album’s longest song. Sandwiched in between two of the album’s deeper hitting cuts, it escapes into a warm cove from the banging uproar that is the rest of the album. It’s unquestionably a shift from the “oh-oh-ohs” that are handed off to the guitar on “Remember Severed Head” and a cryptic send-off as Penner eerily asks “Who here, wants to sleep in the dragon’s mouth? Who here, wants to feeeel?”

“You Have My Eyes Now” trances with an array of atmospherics that slowly but surely reach a grandiloquent destination. And that’s harshly juxtaposed by “Ledmonton”‘s mounting pressure of horns and synths that ascend into a vocal rupture of emotion. But even at their most flamboyant, Clues know that the trick is in their riffs and it comes full circle on “Perfect Fit,” with a looming piano and Penner’s singing, “I have seen the most incredible light, in your eyes…so cast away” before the others’ voices commence into a maturation of ominous alarms.

There’s a lot going on here and it all sounds fantastically arranged. Clues is best digested in a full setting because the songs all gel into each other, flowing and streaming into and around each other. And even with all of the pressure, build up and tension that desperately seeks a release or in this case, a resolution, Penner and Reed patiently wait. Its awesome music for sure, hopefully it’s a little bit more reliable than a unicorn is to reappear.

“Perfect Fit” by Clues

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“Remember Severed Head” by Clues

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Constellation Records

Marty Willson-Piper – Nightjar

Marty Willson-Piper is known more as the guitarist for the Australian 80′s band The Church than for his solo career, even though Nightjar is his 6th solo album. But instead of like a fine wine that grows better with age, it appears Willson-Piper’s music has fermented for too long and has lost some flavor. It’s not quite all sour grapes however, but more like a wrinkled old raisin without much taste.

The guitarist who was once responsible for the jangly and textured neo-psychedelic melodies of The Church now dallies in a more adult-like and delicate soft-rock. The music on Nightjar is bittersweet, reflective and pleasant, but mostly pedestrian. The songs are moderately pleasing and not unenjoyable, yet nothing spectacularly breathtaking either. The gently strummed guitars, dreamy keyboards and hushed drums provide the listener with amiable and melodic tunes that won’t have you reaching for the stop button but also don’t have enough twists and turns to create much interest or anything real memorable that would make you want to press repeat.

The personal lyrics attempt to be poignant and introspective but are mostly straightforward and dull and at times a bit too pretentious. Combined with a distractively strained alto delivery, they end up diluting what minimal appeal these tunes may have had to begin with.

Occasionally some bright instrumental flourishes are added to the warm melodies to give the songs some juice but it’s nothing to get excited about since they’re neither grabbing nor contagious and act more like worn out window dressings to the prosaic song structures and their gentle acoustics.

The Church completists may want to pick it up Nightjar but otherwise you’re not missing out on anything spectacular.

Marty Willson-Piper

Second Motion Records

Solarcade – Songs for the Gathering EP

Solarcade simulates Coldplay on their new EP, Songs for the Gathering. Each track begs for commercial success using a sound so waxed and polished that it squirts through one ear and out the other.

This two-man, 8-year collaboration between vocalist Paul Van and guitarist Tony Pomilla builds on the FM momentum they got opening for bands like The Killers and Puddle of Mud, neither of which they sound like. This momentum includes some modest radio air time.

All the tracks on Songs for the Gathering have things in common: A drawn-out, Chris Martin-style vocal that croons during the verse with flourishes at the chorus; a muted, alternate picked electric guitar that, too, flourishes at the chorus; click track-aided drums that permit no accents other than the occasional cymbal hit … at the chorus; negligible bass lines; and synths to fill in the back. And all this comes packaged nice, tight, and crisp.

Many accuse Coldplay of sounding like a third-string, generic version of Radiohead. To me, Radiohead has three qualities that bands like Coldplay and Solarcade can’t touch: (1) the alluring, tangible tension and fragility of Thom Yorke’s vocal; (2) a finely blended totality to their compositions, a totality that resists the parsing out of particular sounds and instruments; and (3) constant intimacy in their music—live and recorded—even in their digital compositions.

Maybe Coldplay and Solarcade don’t want to be Radiohead. Well, maybe nobody is saying that they do. And, to me, neither band sounds like Radiohead because Coldplay and Solarcade do not have those qualities. At all.

Songs for the Gathering includes 6 tracks plus a bonus remix of their single, “Rise”.  “Rise”, like almost all songs on this EP, aim to be the next “Viva la Vida”. In fact, the only song that doesn’t is “When She Comes (Redux)”; the muted, alternate picked guitar chords, mechanical beat, and Chris Martin vocal are still there, but this song is less carbonated, more suitable for Adult Contemporary format than it is rock and alternative format radio. If not better, it is at least kind of different from the rest.

If you read all of this, give yourself a hug.

A&I Records

Blind Pilot on Tour with the Decemberists

5/29/09 – Riverside Theater w/ The Decemberists – Milwaukee, WI
5/30/09 – The Vollrath – Indianapolis, IN
5/31/09 – Pageant w/ The Decemberists – St Louis, MO
6/01/09 – Lifestyle Communities Pavillion w/ The Decemberists – Columbus, OH
6/03/09 – Tabernacle w/ The Decemberists – Atlanta, GA
6/04/09 – Memorial Auditorium w/ The Decemberists – Raleigh, NC
6/05/09 – The National w/ The Decemberists – Richmond, VA
6/06/09 – Bowery Ballroom – New York City, NY
6/07/09 – Black Cat – Washington D.C.
6/09/09 – Johnny Brendas – Philadelphia, PA
6/10/09 – TT the Bears – Cambridge, MA
6/11/09 – II Motore – Monteral, CANADA
6/12/09 – El Mocambo – Toronto, CANADA
6/13/09 – Mohawk’s Place – Buffalo, NY
6/14/09 – Pike Room – Pontiac, MI
6/16/09 – High Noon – Madison, WI
6/17/09 – 400 Bar – Minneapolis, MN
7/17/09 – Marymoor Amphitheater (w/ The Decemberists) – Redmond, WA
7/18/09 – Edgefield Amphitheater w/ The Decemberists – Troutdale, OR
7/19/09 – Edgefield Amphitheater w/ The Decemberists – Troutdale, OR
7/21/09 – Vogue Theater w/ The Decemberists – Vancouver, BC, CANADA
7/22/09 – Vogue Theater w/ The Decemberists – Vancouver, BC, CANADA
8/07/09 – Lollapalooza @ Grant Park – Chicago, IL
8/10/09 – KY Brown Theater w/ The Decemberists – Louisville, KY
8/28/09 – Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival @ Golden Gate Park – San Francisco, CA
8/29/09 – Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival @ Golden Gate Park – San Francisco, CA
8/30/09 – Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival @ Golden Gate Park – San Francisco, CA

MEandJOANCOLLINS – Love. Trust. Faith. Lust.

Like the finest glam rock of yore, the Cambridge, MA outfit MEandJOANCOLLINS specialize in a sweaty fusion of sexual perversion and hard rockin’ bombast. But unlike the genre’s forefathers (T. Rex, Roxy Music) this indie-minded foursome steers clear of any campy theatricality and fantastical preoccupations with grandeur. The grouop’s debut LP shows more grit than you might expect from a band that readily admits to the influence of David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Odder still is that much of it sounds radio ready, despite song titles like “(I Masturbate) A Little Too Much” and “Typical Asshole.”

MEandJOANCOLLINS was formed from the ashes of groups like the Collisions and Steel Poniez, led by Bo Barringer and Jen Grygiel, respectively. A double threat with both their voices and their axes, they’ve been calling themselves newlyweds ever since onstage nuptials were orchestrated during a gig last summer. Rounded out by a formidable rhythm section comprised of James Collins (bass) and Jason Marchionna (drums), Love. Trust. Faith. Lust. achieves an impressive balance of indie tenderness, garage rock cacophony, and punk rock attitude over the course of 45 minutes.

The album’s first half is where we find the band indulging in its seediest fare. On opener “Crime Of The Century,” fuzzed out bass guitar and four to the floor drumming set the tone as Barringer describes his muse: “6 feet tall / long legs / long arms.” With swooning falsetto vocals in the chorus and some old fashioned hand claps here and there, the song definitely has a confident swagger about it. Next up is “All The Cowards In Her Path,” a track that seduces the listener with its atmospheric use of guitar delay and reverb effects. Lines such as “She’s a bitch with a purpose / she’s a bitch in bed” hit just a bit harder with all of the instrumental pomp and circumstance of the previous track removed. As might be expected, “(I Masturbate) A Little Too Much” is a quirky and uncomfortable affair, but that’s probably because both Barringer and Grygiel, using their trademark dual vocal attack, sound so earnest as they sing about what continues to be a cultural taboo. “(Come Take Your Boyfriend) From Behind” is another memorable instance of bawdy indiscretion, with a jaunty groove led by more FX treated guitars and delicious vocal harmonies.

The instrumentation in these early tracks rarely strays from the traditional rock n’ roll drums/bass/guitar blueprint, but the band’s lyrical fetishes make for one guilty pleasure after another. It’s the album’s latter half however, where we see Barringer and company actually taking some liberties with their style and songwriting. “Typical Asshole” features a summery groove that would be right at home on modern rock radio. With a tastefully executed guitar solo and acoustic accompaniment, the only radical departure from this newfound breeziness is found in the bridge, where heavy chromaticism and dissonance abound. “Electricity” finds the band going into garage blues territory that would do Jack White proud. With some string arrangements and mournful guitar licks, this slowburner’s sexiness is completely unforced. It’s also one the album’s finest moments. Augmented by some organ harmonies and epic guitar riffs, “Auditorium” is a worthy follow up to such understated track, sounding ready to have its way with the nosebleed seats.

The message of MEandJOANCOLLINS isn’t just one of carnal pleasures or sleazy fantasies (though there is a fair share of them, to be sure). At its most basic, this record is all about the sheer fun of playing in a rock and roll band. And with their roots firmly planted in the glam and indie scenes, the unpretentious music of Love. Trust. Faith. Lust. might just be the remedy for the self-serious hipster who needs to lighten up a bit.

The Silent Boys – Progression: 1986-1991

I’m not gonna lie: I like re-issues of 80s post-punk and indie-rock gems. A handful of these, including ones by Crippled Pilgrims and Dumptruck, have stood the test of time and sound prescient. The Silent Boys has now released Progression: 1986-1991 as a retrospective of its early days. The band has re-formed and released a few albums in recent years, but it’s the early recordings that still generate interest.

Listening to any album from the late 80s requires a little context in order to be fully appreciated — it’s hard not to sound dated, after all, and only a few records sound truly timeless. Progression has some dark material a la Joy Division (“Batman” is even a little like a Fire Engines song with its herky-jerky guitar) but isn’t afraid to cop a Feelies stance now and again, as on “Black and White” and “Remember.” “See You Later” could also be a Feelies B-side, with maybe a nod or two to Translator and Green on Red.

If the earliest works sound too derivative, it’s forgivable. There was a lot of sharing going on at the time. “Scream” has the hallmarks of early Goth, for example, with its reverbed chorus and quasi-tribal rhythm supplemented of course with prominent bass. What passed for sinister and subversive for the time, though, strikes us today as pretty tame and mild. Sometimes laughably so.

Because Progression compiles 23 tracks over 5 years, it’s in some ways a document of what was hip at the time for each of those years. The Silent Boys doesn’t exactly have a distinctive style of its own but rather seem to be taken along with the currents of the times. “Leningrad” might have some cliched lyrical content (something about passion’s fire growing “higher and higher”), but musically it’s a successfully nervous stab at dark pop. “Eternity” takes a page from O Positive’s “Say Goodbye” at the beginning and then fuses it to a very Fiction Bridge guitar sequence and it too coalesces nicely. Yeah, it was probably a powerful song in its day music since has taken the bite out of this more dated material. By the way, the vocals, drums, and guitar on “Eternity” end up making it self-consciously sound like a lost Joy Division single, which was most likely the intent.

It’s always cool to have another document from that period of time, or at least it is for completists who still break out the old LPs now and again. If The Silent Boys doesn’t inform as much as reflect the sounds of the times, that’s OK: Progression‘s still a decent glimpse at what was going on back then. As a bonus, “Starry Skies” sounds like a cross between the aforementioned Fire Engines and Haircut 100. It’s those kind of unlikely hybrids that are the most curious and instructive.

Diagonals – Valley of the Cyclops

From Austin, Texas this five-piece brings us a debut album that is both upbeat and a bit gloomy at the same time.  The music begs one to get up and shake it retro-style while both the tone and lyrics cast a bit of a different feel.  The contrast is interesting, something I might expect out of a Quentin Tarantino film soundtrack.  The dusty guitars, double-tracked vocals and swirling organ in “Clown Fucker” made me think of Death Proof, both groovy and ready to kick some butt all at the same time.

An interesting twist to the album packaging is that it is part of a series called “IF” by Monofonus Press which aims to pair music with art.  In the case of the Valley of the Cyclops, the art consists of a short comic depicting a sympthatic yet unitentionally cruel character by Michael Berryhill titled I Could be Happy.   This is the fifth installement within the series.

“Wizard Dome” opens the album pretty strongly with jangly guitars and a wicked groove that I can only describe as go-go rock.  The vocals are pretty monotone and continue that way for the entirety of the album.  The vocals work on this track and well into the album, but somewhere along the line I stop paying attention and my mind wanders.  Ultimately, Valley of the Cyclops starts to take on a tone that pushes its uniquely groovy tone into monotonous territory.  After a few listens the album as a whole still doesn’t stick with me but the general sound does.

Plenty of guitar riffs fill songs like “Neil Diamond Blues” but the stand out musical star would have to be the organ stylings of Wiley Wiggins.  Yes, the guy from Dazed and Confused.  This is definitely the foundation of what makes the sound so unique.  At the beginning of the album I would venture to add the flatlined double-tracked vocals to that list too, but given that they start to sound rather boring after awhile I think the style needs a big of a shake up to stay both unique and interesting.    

The Diagonals have an interesting musical formula and seeing as this is their debut, they have plenty of time to grow and move beyond the confines of a their sound a little to explore new, yet complimentary territory.  The Diagonals style of groovin’ rock with a healthy dose of reverb and retro organ infusion makes for a unique formula that is both dark and dancy.   

Monofonus Press

Speck Mountain Announces July Tour

Folk/Americana duo Speck Mountain have released a set of dates for July. The dates and locations follow, they’ll be supported by Sub Pop’s Death Vessel.

7/10/09-The Belmont, Detroit

7/13/09-Zuzu at the Middle East, (Cambridge) Boston

7/15/09-Bruar Falls, Brooklyn

7/16/09-Monkey Town, Brooklyn

7/19/09-Velvet Lounge, Washington DC

Tortoise Tour in Support of New Album

Tortoise announce first summer dates hitting several major American cities and a few festivals far and wide. Beacons of Ancestorship is the band’s first record in over five years. The band will tour Europe in the late summer and return to the US for another string of dates in the fall.

Check out “Prepare Your Coffin” from the new album right here:

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May 29 Buffalo, NY Tralf Music Hall
May 30 Brooklyn, NY The Bell House
May 31 New York, NY World Financial Center Winter
Jun 11 Athens, Greece Synch Festival
Jul 11 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour
Jul 13 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
Jul 15 Austin, TX The Mohawk
Jul 17 Chicago, IL Pitchfork Music Festival
Jul 19 Washington, DC Black Cat
Jul 20 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church
Jul 24 Tokyo, Japan Fuji Rock Festival
Aug 14 St. Malo, France La Route Du Rock
Aug 22 Hasselt, Belgium Pukkelpop

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