Dreaming The Seeds Of An Extra Life

I had no expectations with this record - and the track ' Righteous Seed' floored me. The album - Dream Seeds. The band - Extra Life, a Brooklyn collective with connections to Yukon, Zs and Dirty Projectors. That said, nothing is easy here, and I can't say this will stay with me forever, or even for long. There are elements of Xiu Xiu, Neutral Milk Hotel, VAST, Animal Collective and indeed Dirty Projectors in this acrobatic, verbose, bombastic melange, and some of it comes off as pompous and flowery as it does eloquent and haunting. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the audaciousness of Charlie Looker's quite unique vocal stylings and the religiosity of some of the compositions. Above all, it isn't an easy ride, with many twists and turns, and for that I am grateful for the experience.

Buy Dream Seeds here or here.

Wonderful! Steve's Had Delicate Visions!

David Byrne's Luaka Bop record label usually delves into the weirder, somewhat world-music beat-infused side of guitar pop, having pushed along the fledgling careers of Geggy Tah and Cornershop, whilst currently housing Os Mutantes, Javelin and Tom Ze. Still, when I heard the first track off Delicate Steve's instrumental whizz-bang whimsy that is Wondervisions, I wasnt sure that Byrne had it right. "Welcome-Begin" has more incoming with Pavement than Cornershop's "Brimful Of Asha". But then the album spins some more, and the revelations become clearer. 'The Ballad Of Speck And Pebble' (which I featured here) is a rambunctious funbucket of a track, and the only track to share the slightest resemblance of a vocal track. From here in there is so much surreal trickery going on, with Steve (AKA Steve Marion, 23-year-old New Jersey multi-instrumentalist) flicking in sonic electronics, Afro-tribal drumming, ecstatic distorted riffs... Nothing is straightforward here, but yet it feels so utterly effortless - listen to the way in which the guitar veritably sings on standout track 'Don't Get Stuck (Proud Elephants)' whilst soaring synths and basic bass drum and percussive taps all meld in the background... Or the incessant beats on 'Butterfly' coalescing with the insanely sweet twanging guitar lines before the eruption of heavy distortion that rather than intimidate, heightens the lucidity of the colours emanating from without.

This is experimentation of pop and guitar conventions at its most infectious.How could Byrne NOT resist this? Its as if Fang Island and Dirty Projectors got together one night after taking some Quaaludes and threw as many musical outbursts as they could into the path of Brian Eno's touring bus, just as James Murphy enters an ice-cream shop nearby, and Byrne smiles maniacally from the shadows. For an instrumental record, Wondervisions is incredibly lyrical (and in a similar vein to Fang Island's self titled debut last year in terms of contagious instrumental melody). Its also a hell of a lot of fun - and deserved of a hell of a lot of recognition. Akron/Family are doing their bit, pinning him down to do their entire Stateside tour. Damned fine - and so infectious that I am getting Wondervisions of my own.

Delicate Steve - The Ballad Of Speck And Pebble
Delicate Steve - Don't Get Stuck (Proud Elephants)

Dreadlock Holiday? Way Yes!

Despite the titles' similarity, there is no connection to School Tour, the Dublin act I posted about last week and their Yes Way EP - read and listen here. Instead we have the Columbus Ohio based band Way Yes, covering 10CC's 'Dreadlock Holiday', which seeing as it is the 1st day of the 3rd Ashes cricket test in Perth is kinda fitting (although Im sure it wasnt the band's intention. And yes, Paul does have all the bragging rights so far, but Im fairly thickskinned). However this is not a traditional rendition, the lyrics being tweaked to coicide with the yuletide season. So, this is your Friday Cover Up, another Christmas present, or a warped way to pretend you are in the sun watching the cricket - sound like we cant lose, can we?

Way Yes has just released Herringbone, an EP that mirrors the likes of Fela Kuti, Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective, and is an all round clanging kaleidoscopic bliss bomb of candy. Check it out at Crash Avenue HQ here.

Way Yes - Dreadlock Holiday (10CC cover - Christmas version)

Friday cover up #8

Stop the presses! I know Im not Johnny-on-the-spot with this one, as its now Sunday - but Ive just got off a plane from Australia, and am still somewhat jetlagged, so cut me some freakin slack! Still, ill make it up to yall by offering up not just a cover, but an album of covers! Those masters over at Stereogum put out a tribute album to Bjork's incendiary album of 1995, Post. Thetribute album is called Covered. The artists doing the covering include Liars, Xiu Xiu, No Age, Atlas Sound, Winter Hinterland, Dirty Projectors... It is a masterstroke. Hunt it down, for the love of God! Im pretty sure Stereogum still offer it as a zip file on their site somewhere. And in the meantime, here is a taste by one of my favourite bands, Liars...

Liars - Army of Me (Bjork cover)