There was a time in the late 1980s/early 1990s that American Music Club would release albums which would cut through the trendy indie rock scene like a rusty knife. The group meshed an influence of introspective artistic post-punk with American twang long before Bedhead and Low were recording Joy Division covers, or Ida and Red House Painters were releasing albums.
It's another weekend of multiple podcast episodes of brand new music and gems from the vaults. Episode 694 features Belong, Annelies Monseré, People Like Us, Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka, Causa Sui, Lee Underwood, The The, Dadadi, Nový Svět, Shuttle358, Keiji Haino, and Peter Broderick & Ensemble 0. Episode 695 has Miki Berenyi Trio, Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance, Olivier Cong, France Jobin & Yamil Rezc, The Cat's Miaow, Daniel Lentz, Efterklang, Mick Harvey, Lightheaded, Internazionale, Dettinger, and Jóhann Jóhannsson. Art table in Hammond, Indiana photo by Hilary. Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
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Mac McCaughan is just one of those guys. He's the guy who runs therecord label (Merge). He's the guy that plays in Supechunk. Now, he'sthe guy that scores films. McCaughan returns as Portastatic for thislovely instrumental soundtrack in an almost spaghetti-western style,although variations abound. Through most of the release, reverbedguitar lines and whistles are complemented by kettle and brush drumsounds and occasional strings and keyboards. Elsewhere, simplesynthesizer and organ lines are forged with thumping beats and snaredrum. The only vocals appear on one track ("Do You Speak English?")that sounds like dialogue straight from the film. Lush, poppy andmoving, this collection probably has a much greater effect whilewatching the motion picture the music is featured in (as manysoundtracks do), but on its own the record is a fine piece of work.Things get a bit repititious on a few tracks, and there are a few"throwaway" tracks — and at just over 34 minutes total, that's a shame— however the sheer variety of sounds makes it an extremely pleasurableand worthwhile listen. There is nothing more inherently hummable thanthe "Looking for Leonard Theme" while walking down the streets of yourtown. I know nothing about the movie, mind you, but it has a glory andtriumph in it that make you want to carry your head high and strut. Ihope it's the theme for that reason, and I look forward to seeing thefilm for that extra emotional impact. All in all, a release well worthchecking out. It's at least enough to keep you engaged, and prettyenough to move you.
My first impressions were "there's no suprises here." Take two of myfavorite bands and combine their elements: mesh the shuffling drums ofJim White, sparse guitar work of Mick Turner and gentle violin of andcombine that with the wonderful harmonies and obscure references fromLow, the world's premiere songwriters/singers and hear two greatentities together. But upon deeper subsequent listenings, the whole is,in actuality, more than the sum of its parts. Recorded in Holland, inbetween performances and airport arrivals this edition of the "In theFishtank" series is once again about a half hour of bands taking abreak from their regular schtick to do something they enjoy doing. TheEP on the chopping block encompasses the finer elements of both groupsand brings them to a different level. It's strange how a trio ofAustralians make a trio of US Americans sound more in touch with theirAmerican heritage while vocals and harmonies gracefully compliment analready impressive canvas the Australian trio have been painting foryears. Included here are six tunes, including a haunting cover of NeilYoung's "Down By the River," sung by Mimi Parker and completelyunrecognizable until she begins singing, approximately five-minutesinto the track. With this, neither band are gonna win new fans,die-hards will buy this no matter what they hear, so my message is tothose fair-weather listeners: this is good for you and won't disappointyou like the Tortoise/The Ex EP from the same series.
Low may now be superstars, (yet they're not too big to still appear ona multitude of compilations and singles) but the shining moments onthis split single belong to Karla Shickele's new project, K. The lineupof K features a mixed cast of friends, including Tara Jane O'Neil (ofRetsin, Rodan and solo fame), Cynthia Nelson (of Retsin, Ruby Falls andthe Naysayer), Ida bandmate Michael Littleton, and Ida Pearle. Over thelast year, there have been some random K shows in the northeast US aswell as a couple home-manufactured CD-R releases, each time gatheringmore attention, leading up to an anticipated debut album. K's "RegularGirl" opens the disc on a strong note, a brand new song worthy ofaffection from any Ida appreciator. What follows are two from Low,includning a touchingly sweet track from 1997 titled "Those Girls,"which could almost be a speech directed to teenage girls. Also from Lowis a 3/4 time reworked "Venus" recorded by Warn Defever, which is niceto have for the fans, yet the voices sound kind of off. Defever alsoremixed the closing track, a short Flashpapr cover tune, "Were We toDance," a basic tune which could have been recorded straight tofour-track, powerful yet humble. "Were We to Dance" originally appearedon the 'Your Name and Mine' CD-R from K released last year. K is ontour right now with Retsin, check the dates at 
The former lead singer of the Screaming Trees returns on this, hisfifth solo release overall, with a set that blows all his previous workaway. This time, Lanegan's main partner in crime is former Soundgardenbassist Ben Shepherd, giving the release a sort of "Return of theGrunge Masters" air. Fortunately, that doesn't get reflected in thesongs, and Shepherd doesn't take the mic much — as he has in Hater andon one track of Soundgarden's "Superunknown," both of which I'll passon every chance I get. The songs are dark, moody, and dare I sayLeonard Cohen-esque, which is always a good thing in my estimation. Thevoice is what does it. Mark Arm recently made the comment that he'd goso far as to have a team of surgeons hold down Lanegan just so theycould try a throat transplant, of which Arm would be the beneficiary.That's a bold statement in and of itself, as Lanegan could easily wakethe dead or woo the ladies with his gritty, spooky crooning. All inall, the release is an amazing growth turn for Lanegan, as thesongwriting, lyrics, and melodies are awe-inspiring. The only complaintI might have is acutally a bit of a tip of the hat: the album has someof the best chances for misheard lyrics of any I've heard. And isn'talways the great artists who are misunderstood ("Excuse me while I kissthis guy," anyone?). On the opening track, "One Way Street," I couldswear Lanegan was saying "Can't get a dog without crying" — he's reallysaying "Can't get it down without crying," apparently. Does it detractfrom the power of this collection? Not even close. This release is justthe latest in a trend of similar artists leaving their old sounds for amore subdued, darker tinge — except Lanegan's been doing it all along.This time, it's clear he'll only get better.
"After many frustrating years writing computer music," Jake says, "Irealized that in order for my music to have the emotional and physicalimpact I was hearing in my head, I would have to learn to let my lovefor machines escape its tempestuous confinement." This CarparkRecordings release, though filled with passion and what-have-you, isstill a much more embraceable concept than an actual listen. Somethingabout it just doesn't catch my attention — while the repetitiousmelodies and cleverly constructed beats do blend nicely, they all tooeasily fade into the background of the room. In songs such as "ThePrincess Speaks of Love," a quirkiness shows up that is enough to leavea smirk on your face, but still nothing progressive enough to be quitecaptivating. In all, the album is something to bob your head to, butnothing to get excited about. Perhaps his computer love is still in itsearly stages, showing promise but not quite maturity yet. I'd pass onthis Dating Game match-up, and wait to catch Mandell a little furtherinto the relationship.
Hard to disagree with a lineup which features guest vocalists like KidCongo Powers, Julee Cruise, Jon Spencer and Diamanda Galas, right?Unfortunately I don't see myself listening to this disc all too often.While the last few Khan releases have been rather hypnotic explorationsof beat-filled electronics, this offering seems to try to accomplishtoo much with too little backup, going for that 'crossover potentialmarket'. Khan has fallen into a gap, traveling down a beaten path whichhas proved disappointing for predecessors like U.N.K.L.E., Bomb theBass and Recoil: overloading an album with a different singer on everycut. In all cases each artist had established themselves in aninstrumental capacity but when they added the voices, the musicsuffered, gaining sound effects while losing the power of a good tune.To its credit, it grooves with a sweaty, dirt-bag sleazy style which isnot entirely like Khan's previous releases on Matador. On the wholehowever, I'm not moved.
One really negative thing I can say about this debut from Manitoba isthat it sounds like so many other artists I've already heard. Sure,it's catchy. It's toe-tapping, energetic and pulsating. But it was allthese things the first time I heard [insert electronic/remixer/DJartist here] do it. There are moments here that remind me of Tortoise,Daft Punk, Moby, Mark Isham, Bob James, Phil Collins (ack!) and more.That they're all together on the same record isn't a bad thing (exceptfor Phil Collins), but it also takes the originality out of theexperience. If I was in a coffee bar and heard this music on thespeakers, I wouldn't complain. Nor would I rush over and ask who itwas. It's that ineffectual to me. The album has it's moments, however.I really like moments of "Paul's Birthday," and "Mammals vs Reptiles"is mildly intriguing. The major difficulty is that the music neverreally seems to engage the listener. I felt very little while listeningto this release. In fact, "Start Breaking My Heart" seems to go out ofits way to distance you. The constant big beat wonderness and cut andsplice "magic" is lost on me, and most of the songs would TOTALLY WORKWITHOUT IT. It feels like the work of an artist who started out tryingto impress rather than develop a unique sound. I'm sure Manitoba wouldbe a great remixer. But with original material, I'm just left wantingmore. More originality, more substance, and more cohesiveness. So muchof it just feels thrown together. I'd file this one under "BuyerBeware": worth a listen, but try before you buy.
"-Ma femme a des visions de grands chandeliers. Nous pensons aussi à detrès beaux escaliers... Mais on ne peut pas forcer les choses voussavez, elles se font naturellement."
Whatever you've heard about this band, it doesn't do them justice. "TheMan Felt An Iron Hand..." is actually a shortened telling of the realtitle for the album, one that would make Fiona Apple cringe. It seemsan unlikely combination, this band called Lumen: stand-up bass,acoustic guitar, heavy-hitting drums, and accordion/organ. But it worksas a unique and vibrant sound. Little is known about the band exceptthat they are from San Francisco and two of the members are/were inother bands: Andee Connors from A Minor Forest and Jeffrey Rosenbergfrom Tarentel. And the song titles, simply roman numerals representingtheir track number, don't give anything away. The formation that isLumen exceeds all comparisons to any other bands, including those itsmembers are from. Supposedly, the members "collectively despisepost-rock," and it shows in the choice of instruments and often spaceycompositions. It's purely fascinating how they get some of these soundswith the bare instruments they've chosen! Sometimes, the arrangement istoo repetitious, as on the almost annoying "VII." But "III" and "V" arewhere the sound comes together in an amazing display of unity betweenthe band members. Intricate, pulsating, driven, and melodic as allhell, "The Man Felt An Iron Hand..." is as original an album as I'veheard this year.
