Faux Seattle Has Fallen

After taking in the jagged exorcism that is Brisbane band Clever's new track, it feels a jump to be launching into Fall Seattle, the eponymous debut record from the North Virginian quartet. Out through the excellent Faux Discx label (Sauna Youth, Monotony, Hookworms, Tense Men), it is a lucky dip of  the past, reappropriated in bedrooms, kitchens and basements, crystallising into a sonorous sojourn sparkling with jangle and noise, introversion and extroverted emulsions. There is a Deerhunter-meets-The Raincoats-meets-Grandaddy esoteric clarity to opener 'Carol'; a sundrenched meander through Lotus Plaza's back garden on 'Wanda Jackson'; a Yo La Tengo hopped-up malaise to 'Time'. 'New York' could be Ratcat trying their hand at Dinosaur Jr, a suitably fractious racket with cavernous space that still feels intimate amid the throat-tearing catharsis. The twang and meandering space of 'Boyhood' has me entranced - it is the central song, and the centrifugal force of the album, somehow slowing everything down but bringing it all into focus. The opening drums for 'Blau' is ominous before the onslaught, a shimmering menace not unlike the inimitable Women (which is why it is probably my favourite track here); 'Suburban Stain' is a guitar dream, off the books via the Books; the jumped up yet broody pop of 'Nothing You Can Hold On To' meanwhile sets it all free. 'Demon Son' takes us into black-spark shoegaze territory, albeit with bottom-of-the-well reverb sparseness in fits and bursts (another great song). Fall Seattle close up shop with 'Separation Anxiety', a mild, contemplative that burbles and percolates, a sepia-burnt daydream rumination on all that has come before. This is an incredibly strong record - there have been some Real Estate comparisons (which I can see in part), but despite my constant attraction to band signifiers above, the bowerbird genre splicing here makes the album a unique and highly rewardable listen. I really like this one - you should all grab Fall Seattle here.

Tigue Peaks

Brooklyn percussive heathens TIGUE have released an amazing record in the form of Peaks, a hypnotic gem of instrumental wormholes to lose yourself in. None of the tracks spiral out into gargantuan length, all reveling in their precise constructions - mini worlds fully formed. Helping to craft these mesmeric gems are the likes of Kid Millions (Oneida), Ira Kaplan and James McNew (Yo La Tengo), Shahin Motia (Ex Models) and Mike Turzanski, and the result is something of droning, immersive excellence, a heady chrysalis of unfettered rhythm that leaves you revitalized, reborn. Highly recommended stuff. Pick up Peaks here.

Gun Outfit's Dream Far From Over

Dream All Over, Olympia-bred Gun Outfit’s 4th album, came out October last year, but I thought it was worth a revisit seeing as they tour the UK next month. I have had this album for months on the work computer, but only really embraced it over the Christmas break, the subtly rambling record becoming a staple of early morning hazed malaise (it was a gooood holiday). Which I didn’t expect. I expected to like it, but because of what Gun Outfit was – their last three records more burnished, burnt, bent out of shape, a delightful cacophonous mess of post-punk malapropisms (especially Possession Sound).

Dream All Over follows a rebirth not that dissimilar to The War On Drugs or The Men – although neither wasted garage psych or bristling hardcore, all three bands found their equilibrium in blues-inflected hues, finding space and hushed tones a freedom rather than stifling inertia. For the uninitiated – Dream All Over isn’t a gear change more than a total overhaul. There is the spectre of Low hovering over the sparse, balalaika-infused ‘Angelino’, sung with haunting elegy by Carrie Keith (her touches throughout the album are always stunning); the Yo La Tengo breeze blowing through ‘Blue Hour’ and ‘Legends Of My Own’; Neil Young in a cracked, silent bathysphere on ‘Came To Be’; a Jason Molina-meets-Conor Oberst-meets-Lee Ranaldo manicured desert shambolism in ‘In Orbit’. ‘Matters To A Head’ has a rustic, flannel-in-the-Appalachians undercurrent, imparted through both Dylan Sharp’s slightly more curled vocals and humble yet bruised lyrics.

There is a measured, assured elegance that permeates every track here – although nothing approaches fever pitch, the seams of warm pastoral riches more than makes up for it. I can imagine these songs scoring a night under the stars in the desert; driving into the sunset through the desert; the sun tipping its head as it pierces the desert horizon…

OK so I am leaning heavily on that well-worn “desert” descriptor. But it is so apt here, as is one description I read of it being “canyon-cult blues”. Again, the shift to LA seems to have had a profound effect on Gun Outfit. To be honest, the new direction fits like a glove. Dream All Over works best on the periphery of reality, of consciousness, in locales and dimensions that are slightly skewed and wild. This echoes with the ghosts of Laurel Canyon and the Mansons killing the Age of Aquarius, Neil Young steering the ship, the consummate folklore punk. Dream All Over sounds like a reimagining; Gun Outfit are on the beach, in the sun, burnishing with wry chagrin that belies a ramshackle energy. You really should get this record (out through Paradise of Bachelors here). Gun outfit play The Lexington Friday February 12 - see you there.

Leafing Through The Daylight Library

There is an easy flowing metaphysical ambiance that permeates Daylight Versions, the new album from London dreamscapers The Leaf Library. The album is bookended by two long shoegaze excursions – the elastic, fuzz-fuelled languor of the excellent  ‘Asleep Between Stations’ and the cathartic yet contained maelstrom of ‘Evening Gathers’ – but in between are concise reimaginings of magisterial grace ('Slow Spring') and hushed, filmic ululations a la the most contemplative of Yo La Tengo's breathy moments ('Acre'). My favourite track is 'Pushing/Swimming', embodying the naturalistic percolating eloquence of Stereolab, the tapping, burbling permutations of stuttering instrumentation and a calmness aided and abetted by the hushed, sonorous vocals. It seems strange to call this Daylight Versions, as the sounds on offer occupy the gloaming, a time that is neither light or dark, nor is in between - it merely is. Patience is rewarded tenfold here. Grab the LP on white vinyl from Where It's At Is Where You Are Records (wiaiwya) here - hopefully we will see them on a show soon.

Daring Tigers To Dream Of Coffee

Here's some dreamy, hazy pop to finish off the day, my first back in Planet Masala. This is a band called Tiger Dare. The single 'Coffee' is languid, Galaxie 500/Yo La Tengo fare, the type of jangly whimsy that could soundtrack those micro-seconds when you close your eyes whilst laying on the grass and can see the sunlight through your eyelids. It drifts along without a care, and you won't want it to end. They are currently in the studio preparing their debut EP - I can't wait to hear it.

Averkiou Show A New Imperative - To Rock!

The first of two Gainesville, Florida releases to show off today (crazy, right?) is this EP The New Imperative by Averkiou (pronounced av er queue). It offers four tracks of warm and fuzzy guitars and vocal harmonies, like Yo La Tengo doing their best My Bloody Valentine, but with more heart. I can't believe I haven't heard of this quartet before! It makes me jump around my bedroom with giddy abandon like it's the late 90s all over again (when I used to jump around my bedroom with giddy abandon. Probably after writing bad poetry). If you could build a castle out of overdrive pedals and dig a moat with reverb, then but in that moat crystalline water from which sung the most alluring of Sirens, The New Imperative would be your blueprint. Awesome-o.


The New Imperative (look at that cat! Cats, man!) is put out through Sound Study Recordings, and can be gleaned here.

Averkiou - Fuzzy Photograph

Superhuman Slices of Shimmering Pop Pastiches

Indiana duo House of Bread have just released their self-released 3rd LP, Superhuman Tomb, and its a great little number. In this day and age of bedroom pop navel gazing brought to us from the arse end of some rusty cans and a piece of mouldy string - whether it be due to DIY necessity or just because its so in right now - it is not only refreshing to hear something that takes care in the intricacies of sound production, but are stretching out far and wide to discover how big their sound can be, whilst perfecting the art of the silence. It shouldnt be a surprise that House Of Bread can construct well realised songs - members Omar Azfaal and Bob Haddad have been in bands All Nite Skate and Castles together, and have been toying with this band's sound since 2006 - and yet there is a real sense of freshness to this offering.

Opening with soaring instrumental Nebula A908 - a mixture of Sigur Ros' eccentric musical interplay and shimmering guitar - Superhuman Tomb leads into Flying Nomads, Azfaal's vocals only on a slight reverb (read: the effect enhances his vocals, not a device to disguise the fact that the guy cannot sing) as he plays back up to some chugging guitar lines that canter into the sunset... 'Artificial Man' offers up some Krautpop tinkerings with elegaic vocals before stretching out in a Yo La Tengo pop mangling. Further along the track we get 80s Bruce Springsteen with synths-meets-Electric Soft Parade Hazy Boy, the quirky and ultra catchy Bunfs and the slow drum MOR of Snow Globe Smasher II, before closing the mish-mash behemoth that is 'Bloody Scouts', where every influence they can think of (Super Furry Animals, Flaming Lips, Machine Translations, The Cure, Devendra Banhart, Kraftwerk, Yo La Tengo...) is thrown at the canvas. Its this culminating track that probably encapsulates Superhuman Tomb the best - moments of fun and cerebral noodling amidst washes of aped classics of yore.

And to be honest, why not? The production shimmers with a glossiness that is somewhat lacking in most 2010 releases, and the guys really have put some heart into their babies here. A rough yet substantial gem.

Superhuman Tomb is out now.

House of Bread - Flying Nomads

House of Bread - Hazy Boy

Still Clean After All These Years

Now for a post about a band that heavily impressed my sister heavily, just to even out the balance...

The Clean have been around since 1978, banging out their influential indie rock in Dunedin, New Zealand. They are responsible for floating the Titanic that is Flying Nun Records, put out some amazing music, disbanding and reforming time and again, influencing bands as diverse as Pavement and Yo La Tengo...they are an Antipodean - nay, a global - institution. They released a new album, Mister Pop, last year, but chase down their Anthology archive first - nothing short of amazing.

And they are back! They are touring heavily, and Sara caught them at both Pavement's curated ATP and Primavera. They are an amazingly approachable bunch - kinda like what you imagine your dad would be like if he was in a band. Tally-ho!

The Clean - Tallyho

Slacker rock gods to worship

SM are heading to Brixton tonight to see the slacker rock gods Pavement. Of course the requisite band members have been busy in Pavement’s absence – Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks / Preston School of Industry / Spiral Stairs etc – butto see them all together again, in what will be my first official Pavement gig, promises to be mindblowing to say the least!

I am also quite excited about the band preceding Pavement tonight, US's Sic Alps. Featuring members of Sisters, amongst many other musical endeavours, Sic Alps may be four albums in, but have definitely been on the up and up over the past 12 months, fronting for the likes of Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth, and now scoring this coveted gig before playing at the Pavement curated ATP this weekend. I haven’t heard much, but what I have heard has me salivating. There are still tickets for tonight if you really push it, it will be a must see (and will quieten down our Deerhunter gushing I'm sure!)

Pavement -Golden Soundz
Sic Alps - Message from the Law