Valient Thorr @ North Star Bar, Philadelphia, PA

Valient Thorr’s performance last Wednesday at Philadelphia’s North Star Bar was an impressive blitzkrieg of Metal chops and showmanship. Touring in support of their lasted release, Stranger, which was released earlier the week before, Valient Thorr blasted through a set dominated by new material and some fan favorites from earlier records.

Valient Thorr take the stage looking like a bunch of crazed bikers, clad in denim vests and all sporting grizzly beards. Immediately after the opening song, which was “Double Crossed”(one of the many standouts on Stranger), frontman Valient himself shed his vest and undershirt, thus reducing his wardrobe to only jeans, a white belt with a skull buckle, and knee high red professional wrestling boots.

The show maintained an energy level this reviewer has not seen in quite some time. The playing this band is capable of is impeccable and the showmanship is that of a bygone era. These guys have stage moves for days and it makes for a show as entertaining to watch as it is to listen to. At the end, Valient Himself jumped down off the stage to shake hands and personally thank all fans for coming out. This is a band who knows how to do it. If they come to your town, and chances are they will (playing 250+ shows a year), do yourself a favor and go.

Album from Landing On The Moon out now

Omaha, Nebraska’s Landing On The Moon releases its debut album We Make History Now via the Young Love Records label, also home to popular indie artists Quitzow and Setting Sun. With a completely working-class and honest approach, the members of Landing On The Moon combine decades of musical experience and education and true friendship. The resulting chemistry of which produces love and loss, humor and contempt, melancholy and triumph, despair and hope, joy and fear.

The band’s profile has been increasing lately, having recently won a competition to appear at Omaha’s Maha Festival on the same stage as such indie rock luminaries as Spoon, Old 97’s and Superchunk.  One of the songs Landing On The Moon performed at Maha was “California,” (

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) a brand-new song introduced as “a song called ‘California,’ but it’s about Omaha.”

http://www.myspace.com/landingonthemoon

Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

A halcyon is a mythical bird that would calm the furious wind and coldness into something warm and bearable. While its significance is rooted in mythology, the term is also used when reflecting and looking back at past instances. Using what we’ve come to learn from Bradford Cox and Deerhunter, the topic for their latest masterpiece, Halcyon Digest, stems directly from the ability of being able to look back and remember past experiences. But the digest part, where one really analyzes and gets to the clear-cut bone of the fragment, can be the most difficult.

The thing with Deerhunter is that there is very simply no denying their ability at creating terrific pop songs. In the simplest of terms, it’s been their trademark imprint and what’s made their music so engrossing. Something like “Desire Lines” – through its interweaving shifts and moods – is nothing more than a dazzling, perfectly crafted pop/rock song. By the time the trajectory of the menacing guitars have returned back home, you’ve already spaced out to the flustering ending. Cox always seems to be the most unsure of everything in the band and I’m sure he’d be modest when realizing it but very surely, there is no limit on what this band is capable of.

It’s always been about being consistently great with Deerhunter and there never seems to be any reason to doubt their music. As one of music’s most consistent bands, their ideas continue to surprise and astonish on Halcyon Digest’s soaring highs. Even throwing in a Springsteen-like sax solo on “Coronado” sounds entirely fitting and especially marvelous on a Deerhunter album. As much as the subject matter might be depicting some kind of strenuous environment, the music is ubiquitously astonishing and towering.

Just by the low growl and bump of “Earthquake,” it’d be easy to note that there is a subtle amount of beauty creeping around the corners. What’s always amazed – me, at least – about Deerhunter is their huge wall of sound. It’s something obviously Loveless-inspired but it’s blazingly gorgeous as well. While Cox’s voice is a mystery behind the buzz of his microphone, the glitter freeze of the guitar scales the side of the walls with impressive ease. And just like on the flourishing excellence of “Sailing,” the production swells and grows around an immensely gripping progression. The latter’s is a lot more tempered – with Cox’s singing channeling a strong reference to Thom Yorke – and through what’s easily one of the album’s quietest moments, Cox sounds lamenting and sad when singing, “You learn to accept, whatever you can get,” before singing an uplifting melody to himself.

The band’s site for the actual album spurs a new territory in sound. There’s definitely a growth of impressive new heights to acknowledge – along with the sheer fact that after 2008’s double-hit of Microcastle and Weird Era Cont. they still made an EP last year, Rainwater Cassette Exchange – on Halcyon Digest’s deepest depths. Blunt and honest, as if he is singing to a younger Bradford, the simplistic nature of “Don’t Cry” is capable solely because of the band’s skill at being able to write your standard ‘pick-me-upper’ without hesitation.

Painting the saddest stories has always been their strength and for a moment, you’d think that “He Would Have Laughed” is just another sorrow and bitter distaste when it ends up closing the album through a seven-minute jolt of spellbinding music. Cox is asking the most unique questions, “What do you when you’re sleeping?” and mostly, it’s an intuitive seeker that’s finding himself in life. But what it ends up achieving is yet another brilliant stroke of genius from Deerhunter. Something we’ve probably grown accustomed to – perhaps spoiled by – but nonetheless, always satisfying.

4AD

Chloe Charles – Little Green Bud EP

The Little Green Bud EP will immediately strike you because Chloe Charles has a phenomenal voice, but we all know a great set of pipes means squat if the music behind it can’t support it. Fortunately, Charles’ five song collection showcases not just her lovely vocals, but also an interesting mix of chamber pop, folk, and jazz.

While anyone can strum an acoustic, Chloe brings a classical guitar to the table. Her songs are rounded out with violin, double bass, and other instruments that set the stage for her mellow songs. Lead track “The Heavens” is an ethereal piece that uses spare instrumentation to lay a sweet, soothing groove.

The aptly named “Progression” is the most complex song on Little Green Bud and Chloe displays a penchant for smoky jazz and soul with a modern twist. No two minute pop ditties here, Charles instead favors well arranged pieces that have plenty of room to breath and grow. “Progression” does a lot of dabbling while still maintaining the cohesion of an expertly crafted, powerhouse song. If this is indicative of Chloe Charles’ future, this Canadian chanteuse has a bright future that is just beginning to germinate.

Little Green Bud isn’t a masterpiece, but the five songs here are all solidly built affairs that show great talent. Chloe Charles has a lovely voice and this self-released EP is a good start. While all of the songs have merit, I’d love to see Charles cut loose with more tracks like “Progression” on her next release, as her more complex arrangements definitely bring more oomph to the listening table.

Moonshine Hooligans – Subterranean Secrets

Moonshine Hooligans is a psychedelic folk rock duo consisting of brothers (I assume) Matt and Stuart Watson. They hail from Charlottesville, VA and their debut, Subterranean Secrets, is a fairly original and pleasant outing. And at under a half an hour in length, it’s a brief slice of Americana optimism that’s easy to absorb.

The “Intro” sets the mood nicely with some warm vocals and acoustic and piano chords. The production includes light backward effects and overall it’s reminiscent of Fleet Foxes (which is fine since this type of music is rare these days). It segues into “B is for Banjo” with – are you ready? – Banjo! Actually it’s a pretty hypnotic arpeggio and the string accompaniment and trippy effects are perfectly suited.

More lovely harmonies open “The Knife Waltz,” which is the most developed song so far. The music is fairly mellow during the intervals between verses, and once they begin, it’s like The Flaming Lips on Ritalin; the timbres are similar but the level of excitement and eccentricity is not. The inclusion of horns adds a delicate and interesting layer. “The Country Line” features some remarkable finger picking on guitar as the piano complements the sentiment presented by the melody and lyrics. The track builds more harmonies and a touch of psychedelic organ, allowing it to end in a very affective way.

“Moonshine Theme” introduces a blue grass factor with its fiddles, clapping and clattering bottle sound effect. It’s easy to picture Moonshine Hooligans performing this on a porch or bar in the south. This environment is sustained on “Arcadia,” which is the most engaging song melodically (it could easily be the album’s single). Watson sings of his travels to small towns (what else would music like this be about?) and the bass expertly leads the song. The middle section changes things up a bit with sounds of traffic and slightly ominous guitar and string intervals. The only thing missing is someone blowing into a jug.

Fading in with harmonica is “Final Story of the Night.” It’s a straightforward tale of a man in prison and the harmonica, guitar and piano work together wonderfully to craft a blanket of subtext around the lyrics. Finally, the album concludes with “Moonshine Dub,” which adheres to the psychedelic trademark of having the vocals (Watson saying random words) fly around the stereo channels. Musically, an organ leads the track, allowing the other instruments to appear when needed. The chord progression creates a surprising level of melancholy and honestly, the duo should’ve created an actual song around music so moving.

Subterranean Secrets is a modest debut by a very talented duo. The music is never really thrilling and the songwriting is nothing special, really, but Moonshine Hooligans succeed in combining the genres they set out to. It boils down to this: some music is made to excite with its energy and production while others are meant for the quiet moments in life. Subterranean Secrets isn’t an ideal choice for a party or to impress people, but on those long train rides full of sunshine and inner reflection, it’s a perfect soundtrack.

FAO#27 (Brave Timbers & Amiina)

The language of musical analysis is rife with clichés, contradictions and confusion.  Whilst it’s often claimed that a ‘less is more’ approach bears some of the greatest fruit, the hypothesis comes unglued when thinking of the layered and laboured-over studio triumphs of The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Miles Davis, Serge Gainsbourg and many others.  Things get thornier when tackling the concept of ‘minimalism’; also a term that is regularly misconstrued and misused.  Whilst one voice and a guitar can be classified as minimal, something like Steve Reich’s masterful Music For 18 Musicians is still more truly minimalist.  Together, ‘less is more’ and ‘minimalism’ could both be about the room that is left for the listener to immerse their own thoughts into, rather than how many producers, instruments and singers are at play.  Certainly, the minds that bequeathed our ears with the following new releases have known such distinctions, which have informed their creativity to varying degrees of success.

brave timbers – For Every Day You Lost (CD + 3” Woodwork remix CD, Second Language)

Although taking unassuming backroom roles in bands such as The Declining Winter, Fieldhead, Anna Kashfi and Last Harbour across the last decade or so, Newcastle Upon Tyne-based multi-instrumentalist Sarah Kemp has still made her intuitive presence felt in all the right places.  Now belatedly encouraged to pursue a solo venture – under the capital letter dodging brave timbers alias – by the good-eared folk at Second Language, Kemp has delivered an unquestionably sublime one-person debut LP.  Recorded in a very DIY and semi-improvised fashion, in various multi-tracked combinations of tenor guitar, violin and piano, For Every Day You Lost is the kind of instrumental record that gives journalists context-fitting nightmares.  Grasping at comparisons with the chamber-folk wares of Rachel’s and Dakota Suite may help give some indication of where this 11-track set came from, but such dot-joining is somewhat ill-serving to a collection that creates its own pocket of timeless bucolic melancholy.  Crucially, despite her dexterity and experience across three musical implements, Kemp sustains an unshowy intimacy and restraint throughout, leaving space rather than crowding-out our audio fields.  In turn, this means different melodic details drift to the surface on each spin, with nothing over-defined or over-cooked.  In other, lesser hands, this could have been an austere, unwelcoming and pretentious affair but somehow Kemp unconsciously connects here with both warmth and intelligence.  All told, this is a quietly stunning new beginning to be celebrated.

Second Language Podcast 5 (featuring extracts from brave timbers’ For Every Day You Lost)

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Amiina – Puzzle (CD/download, Amiinamusik)

Although somewhat overshadowed by the stature of past collaborators (namely the late great Lee Hazlewood and erstwhile employers Sigur Rós), Icelandic outfit Amiina have very gradually become a gentle force to be reckoned with.  With 2007’s full-length debut Kurr, came an utterly bewitching delivery of intimate and scantly-voiced pleasures, that delightfully melded the worlds of Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Joanna Newsom and Icelandic folk.  With Kurr the then all-female quartet revealed that ‘barely-there’ music can be just as moving as more emotionally forthright creations.  Now expanded to a sextet, with the male additions of drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen and electronic artist Kippi Kaninus, the challenge for Amiina to keep things distinctively intimate whilst being more ambitiously wide-open, is at the heart of this second album. It’s a challenge that, sadly, the group struggle to overcome at various points throughout proceedings.  Whilst many of the key elements that made Kurr so special are still here – like the plucked strings, woozy accordions, filmic bowed-saws and spine-tingling percussion – they at times feel swamped by the embellished electronics, weightier rhythms and more emphasized vocals.  Whilst there’s nothing wrong with stylistic progression of course, the dilution of the group’s idioms with directions that align too closely to fellow Icelanders (specifically with Sigur Rós’s panoramic profusions on “What Are We Waiting For?” and Múm’s icy digitalism on “Ásin”), has taken away some of Aniima’s unique charms.  That said, there’s still enough of the old subliminal beauty nuzzling inside Puzzle to forgive some of the transgressions; with the serene post-classical glacial shifting of “Thoka” and the eerily pretty harmony-drenched “Over And Again” being especially lovely.  Ultimately, Puzzle may help to build-up Amiina’s brand in the blossoming Icelandic music scene, but hopefully next time around greater courage will be found to pursue a less conformist path.

New Video and Album from Nice Purse

Nice Purse Make Video for Debut Record
“Kathalaugh” video link: http://www.so-tm.com/nicepursevideo/NicePurse_kathalaugh.m4v
“Heart Medley” mp3 link: www.bantermm.com/tracks/NicePurse-HeartMedley.mp3

Nice Purse’s debut record Black Medal was released in August via SoTM

Nice Purse began as the brainchild of singer/songwriter France Camp.  France was looking for better methods towards spare change,  and started “busking” around the Minneapolis Uptown area.  After an extensive bout with covers, France eventually grew bored and started writing his own songs.  France emailed a few of his tracks to his childhood friend Ian “Indian” Davis who was instantly charmed by the passionate sounds France was creating.  The duo soon signed up good friends Dylan and Elise to join them on their debut album “Black Medal”.  Nice Purse is a blend of Violent Femmes and Bright Eyes,  with a tiny bit of The Modern Lovers tossed in.  Their songs are celebrations, often with their roots in tragedy.

Nice Purse’s songs seem to be wrought with equal amounts of insecurity and confidence.  It is this mixture that makes France’s insights so poignant.  Even if you’ve never loved and lost, France will pull at your heartstrings and pull you into his lush musical world.  Their new studio recordings (to be released on the Minneapolis label, SoTM) show a surprisingly mature side to the sounds of Nice Purse. There are more than brief moments of greatness on their debut album Black Medal.

Nice Purse on MySpace: www.myspace.com/pantherbolt

Raymond Scott Woolson – Broken Things Mended

Usually the phrase one-man band conjures thoughts of a guy on stage with either a guitar or keyboard, a tambourine tied to his leg, a harmonica harnessed to his neck, and a kick drum at foot, making a living more from spectacle than from any sort of memorable music. Raymond Scott Woolson is a one-man band, but in almost the completely opposite sense. Instead of sounding like a busker, Woolson produces enough layers with guitars, bass, keyboards, and drums to compete with any conventional multi-person band. With no live show, his work exists only in recorded form, and this work speaks for itself, unsupported by promotional images of his face or statements of purpose. Entirely instrumental and home-recorded, Woolson’s music is refreshingly free of scene or pretense. This freedom extends that feeling of freshness to the music, which surges upward in slow-building layers of guitars which sparkle brightly before diffusing into the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

Woolson has developed a strong reputation among a small legion of geeky music fans as one of the best artists working within the ethereal instrumental rock zone. These are fans that don’t care how he presents himself or what label he’s on, just that his music hits that sweet spot. His records consistently do just that – while never striking a bad note – and make grand gestures seem both effortless and effervescent. He combines the huge but personal sound of incremental post-rockers Mogwai with the serene maximalist washes of electronic artists like Ulrich Schnauss. Even as Broken Things Mended often escalates into exuberant climaxes, it achieves a rare thing by feeling as relaxing as it does energizing, making a great space for a clarity of consciousness to develop.

But this is all true of all of Woolson’s albums. What makes Broken Things Mended even better than the rest of his stellar discography is Woolson’s obvious artistic growth. Lead track “Future Self Portraits” jumps off the page as Woolson’s poppiest track, buoyed not only by a nimble lead riff, but a rhythm section jauntier than he’s brought to the table previously, cycling through spacious breaks and rushing bursts to the point of transcendent overload, all in under five minutes. “Bring Your Whirlwinds With You” lapses into a ferocious break – easily the heaviest moment Woolson has put to tape – that brilliantly slips in a false stop and even falser restart before the main theme returns as light as a cloud and a pogoing riff dances the song out. “Awake O Sleeper in the Fields” even seems to drop the guitars in favor of a meditation of piano, synthetic instruments, and field recordings. The last half of the album hears some of Woolson’s most pastoral melodies (“Every Unrequited”) alongside some of his deepest psych passages (“Moving Up Day”). But for an album so overflowing in layers and sheets of sound, even the darker moments are eventually leavened by glory, leaving one with the feeling that everything is going to be alright, if not in every fact and detail, at least in the overall scheme of things.

Eschewing simple dreaminess, Broken Things Mended beckons the listener to wake up and feel invigorated by life in the moment. It sounds both massive and light, turbulent and calm, comprehensive and immediate. If you’re at all a fan of grandly expansive rock and aren’t afraid of positive emotions, Broken Things Mended has the power to fulfill its promise of healing. Woolson makes it as simple as sitting there and opening your ears – your heart will soon follow.

Raymond Scott Woolson

Randy’s Alternative Music

Clinic – Bubblegum

Having perfected a triangulation of ‘60s garage-rock scuzz, mangled Krautrock and dismantled Augustus Pablo dub so early on, Clinic left very little room for future manoeuvre, only relentless repetition.  Whilst such dutiful recycling has always allowed the Liverpool foursome to deliver a consistent stream of sterling singles over the last decade, the law of diminishing returns has gradually become an affliction across five studio albums, leading to the belief that album number six – Bubblegum – is somewhat of an ‘adapt or die’ scenario.  Admirably, Ade Blackburn, Brian Campbell, Jonathan Hartley and Carl Turney have stepped-up to the challenge to reinvent themselves as lushly-arcane sound sculptors instead of mere malign groove-riders.

So, Bubblegum puts far less emphasis on Velvets guitar chug, squealing vintage organs and clattering drums, in favour of pastoral acoustic instrumentation, psychedelic-funk wah-wah, balmy synths, serene string layers, junkshop percussion and gossamer harmonies.  In effect, the maniacal malice has been skilfully traded in for soothing mystery and violence exchanged for unsanitised sophistication.

The opening “I’m Aware” was certainly a good preceding single choice, packing-together wistful Syd Barrett-like art-pop and lysergic bucolic warmth, to create perhaps the first Clinic song that can be described as touching.  Other peaks follow in its wake.  The smeary pedal-heavy guitar weaving lure of the title-track is hard to resist; the winsome “Freemason Waltz” shows both shades of Fairport Convention and Ennio Morricone; “Forever (Demis’ Blues)” plays imaginatively with Spoon-like rhythms and vocal percussion; “Another Way Of Giving” beautifully melds chiming dulcimers with rustically-orientated melodica; and the dreamy wordless electronic primitivism of “Un Astronauta En Cielo” could have sat well on Eno’s touchstone Another Green World. Perhaps to avoid accusations of having gone soft or too straight, there are a handful of noticeable mood-breakers.  The high-octane fuzz of “Lion Tamer” and “Evelyn” are still very much in the otherwise shelved early-Clinic mould and the strange spoken-word tale of “The Radio Story” (featuring the deadpan tones of photographer Jason Evans) certainly sticks out as reminder of the group’s sense of warped mischief.

Overall, Bubblegum, is very much a triumph of restyling, that makes it perhaps the most necessary Clinic LP since 2000’s Internal Wrangler debut. Perhaps however, it’s also time that Clinic developed more as a songwriting vehicle, with singer Ade Blackburn making his vocal/lyrical presence more memorably penetrating. But as it has taken Clinic this long to find life beyond two-chords, we might have to wait have another ten or so years for such an evolutionary shift.  In the interim though, Bubblegum has plenty of endearingly edible nuggets to chew upon.

Domino Records

Listen to “I’m Aware”:

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Mice Parade – What it Means to Be Left-Handed

Brazed with the golden charms of brimming drums, clamoring guitars and an intensified plantation of multi-dimensions, Mice Parade celebrates with great pageantry. Their first album in over ten years as a band, What it Means to Be Left-Handed is the band’s opening foray into the scene of competitive indie music. And, although everything has always relied on master music-maker Adam Pierce’s ability at being able to sway different instruments into one substantial ball of endearment, their debut combines various artists and sounds to convey an overall tone that is definitely worth notice.

Once you’re greeted with the shining beams of radiance that are introduced when “Kupanda” comes glaring in, it’s clear that What it Means to Be Left-Handed is going to be one daringly varied journey. African guitars and a sparkling piano paint the walls with shades of orange and red by way of intricate melodies and progressions. These guitars aren’t being shredded but, rather, plucked and picked to sound almost like majestic organs, and this sense of togetherness, of sweetness, of love, is the winning recipe in Mice Parade’s fruitful blend of other-worldliness and harmony.

Their covers ultimately stand out because they’re entirely reformed and re-invented in the hands of Mice Parade. So much so that the album’s closer is a reverb-drenched and stormy stomp cover of “Mary Anne”. Borrowed from labelmate Tom Brosseau’s catalog, the version found here is a revolving door of longing tensions. On the flip-side, “Mallo Cup” is a spiky and strikingly great rendition of the Lemonheads’ classic song. It’s not as if they sound dis-similarly worlds apart either, with Mice Parade’s attention to scope and sequencing, each song sounds complete and involved within the album’s framework.

Themes switch between the shifts in mood and you’re always greeted with a uniquely alternate sound on every song. The covers aside, “Couches & Carpets” begins with a Flamenco guitar before switching to rolling drums and stunning vocal arrangements. Male and females come and go before the fuzzy guitar takes over. The point of contention would need to rise with the album’s lack of cohesiveness but when there are flourishing moments – like the roar of strings and keyboards on “Old Hat” – an extra color, or two, to add to the painting surely doesn’t hurt.

Like the multi-hued ray of colors that fill the cover of the album, the music found inside is just as vibrantly vivid. Certain songs afflict with a strong piano melody and evocative lyrics (“Tokyo Late Night”) where Pierce is able to sound like Paul Banks without ever getting too dreary. Not to worry though, “Fortune of Folly”’s open-ended, crashing drums and pedal tones make sure to follow with brash creativity. Before you know it, it’s a Jamaican-tinged, surf-guitar blast from the Caribbean. It’s hard to believe that a band this effectively musical could really only be releasing their first album, but What it Means to Be Left-Handed is just that: a diverse assortment of refreshing new music from a band that has already developed and progressed their chops. It’s a joyful occasion and for Mice Parade; a loud celebration down the street, rodents and all.

FatCat Records

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