Joshua Radin – Simple Times

Would you like some cheese to go with that Iron & Wine? If so, Joshua Radin will be more than happy to oblige. Arriving two years after his Zach Braff-endorsed debut We Were Here, the all-too-aptly titled Simple Times doesn’t appear to have moved too far away from wherever Here was. Like that album, it’s another inoffensive, uninspiring set of indistinguishable love songs that range from subtle to slight to saccharine.

Maybe I’m being too hard on him. After all, there are more than a few hints of actual potential scattered throughout this effort. “Vegetable Car” is a valiant stab at tongue-in-cheek that proves Radin capable of genuine wit with a little more practice, while “You’ve Got Some Growin’ Up to Do” – in spite of its unintentionally self-deprecating title – is a charming duet with Patty Griffin. Griffin’s participation, as well as contributions from several other female singers (Schuyler Fisk, Meiko, Erin McCarley) elsewhere on the album, evokes a more willowy Rilo Kiley, and makes it all the more frustrating that Radin’s potential peeking through the blandness is never fully realized.

Instead, listeners are treated to the same whispery folk platitudes of countless Jason Mraz doppelgangers before him. Then there are songs like “Sky” that can’t even be bothered to reproduce those, coasting by on clichéd choruses of “Oh oh’s” and “Ah ah’s.” Radin clearly knows his way around an acoustic guitar, and has a suitably sweet voice for the material, but his singing often straddles a thin-to-the-point-of-non-existent line between soft and soporific, almost as if he has a harder time believing the sincerity of his songs than we do.

Simple Times should not have to call for simple music. After all, love is many things, but seldom if ever simple. The sooner that Jason… I mean Joshua realizes this, the better his future output will be.

Tracklisting:
01. One Of Those Days
02. I’d Rather Be With You
03. Sky
04. Friend Like You
05. Brand New Day
06. They Bring Me To You
07. Vegetable
08. Free Of Me
09. You Got Growin’ Up To Do
10. We Are Okay
11. No Envy No Fear

Joshua Radin: website | myspace

Written by: Rob Huff

Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping

Everyone can relax. Kevin Barnes has gotten over the break-up and is doing much better this time around. After the high drama and catharsis of last year’s epically dark Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, Barnes and the rest of Of Montreal have dusted themselves off and returned to the celebratory psych-pop days of old with the anything but Skeletal Lamping. Contrary to its qualifier, Lamping is huge, busting at the seams with ideas, style shifts, and sexed-up enthusiasm. Barnes would appear to have reached the epiphany that the best way to get over somebody is to get under somebody else.

Make that multiple somebodies if his lyrics are any indication. His fauna does much more than hiss this time around as he waxes poetic about doing softcore (“For Our Elegant Caste”) and taking it both ways while doing so, taking ass against the kitchen sink (“Women’s Studies Victims”) and making you come 200 times a day (“Gallery Piece”), among other deliciously depraved acts.

In addition to his renewed randiness, Barnes conveys newfound resolve, while still betraying sincere vulnerability. Look no further for an example of this than the R&B-tinged “St. Exquisite’s Confession,” a contemplative Prince-pastiche where he simultaneously asserts that he’s “so sick of sucking the dick of this cruel, cruel city” while admitting that he’s “forgotten what it takes to please a woman” and that he “thought it was all over, but it all still hurts the same.” He then promises that “that’s all going to change,” and it does when the track crescendos into skittering beats, synths and vocoders that bring his tale of recovery and self-discovery full circle.

Indeed, Barnes’s lyrics alone are enough to make this album a triumph in their frankness, but it’s the frequently shape-shifting music behind them that makes it truly memorable. No retro musical touchstone is left unturned, be it R&B, funk, disco or ‘80s electro. The changes from style to style—often occurring within one song—can be jarring. The schizophrenic opener “Nonpareil of Favor” goes through no fewer than four stylistic transformations during its nearly six minute length, but not one of them feels forced or superfluous. Meanwhile, the climactic mini-opus “Plastis Wafers” successfully manages to incorporate all of the above, alternately shuffling, strutting and percolating while wanting to “know what it feels like inside you.”

Not every song displays multiple personalities. “An Elaurdian Instance” and single/closer “Id Engager” (download) offer radio-ready accessibility without sacrificing any of Lamping’s sense of exhilaration. The former is one of the finer examples of blissed out guitar pop this year and the latter is a glammed-up barnstormer that matches anything from the Scissor Sisters‘ debut.

As Barnes proclaims in that number, all he and Of Montreal want to do right now is play with you. That sexy playfulness was sorely missed on the equally good but emotionally harrowing Destroyer, but It’s refreshing not only to see that the gang is up to its old tricks again, but that it has improved them by honing and mixing in some of their newer ones. Just like any good lover should.

Tracklisting:
01. Nonpareil of Favor
02. Wicked Wisdom
03. For Our Elegant Caste
04. Touched Something’s Hollow
05. An Eluardian Instance
06. Gallery Piece
07. Women’s Studies Victims
08. St.Exquisite’s Confessions
09. Triphallus, to Punctuate!
10. And I’ve Seen a Bloody Shadow
11. Plastis Wafers
12. Death Is Not a Parallel Move
13. Beware Our Nubile Miscreants
14. Mingusings
15. Id Engager (download)

Of Montreal: website | myspace | download “Id Engager”

Written by: Rob Huff

Deerhoof – Offend Maggie

Apparently last year’s Friend Opportunity wasn’t friendly enough, or maybe it was too friendly. Whatever the case may have been, Deerhoof try for the best of both worlds on that album’s follow-up, Offend Maggie. The band continues to embrace its new-found accessibility while reviving some of the sprawling ambition of its 2005 epic The Runners Four. Now, I’m not sure who this Maggie person is or what she has done to provoke these guys, but I’m curious to know what she thinks of this new batch of songs, as they don’t offend so much as challenge, confound and ultimately astonish.

Theoretically conceived as two separate “acts,” Maggie plays surprisingly well when taken in as a whole. Unlike previous efforts where Deerhoof sounded like they were consciously trying (and succeeding) to push themselves, much of the songs here sound remarkably effortless, almost reflexive in their quality and consistency. The band’s trademark eclecticism is still very much in tact, but reveals itself in a far smoother fashion.

For example, rather than crashing to a jarring halt as it may have on albums past, the muscular propulsion of opener “The Tears and Music of Love” softly segues into the sweet shuffle of “Chandelier Searchlight,” a number that wouldn’t sound out of place on The Breeders’ Pod. The first half of the album follows a similar trajectory, ebbing and flowing both within and between songs before climaxing with album apex “My Purple Past,” a formidable usurper to the “Matchbook Seeks Maniac” title as Deerhoof’s best individual song. Patient yet commanding, the guitars and electric piano swell as Satomi Matsuzaki sings a simultaneously quirky and haunting narrative about a cowboy and sailor who seem to swap identities.

That crest alone would be enough to end an album on, but Maggie is a generous dame and has a whole second act to enjoy. Originally released as sheet music for fans to record for themselves over the summer, “First Born” still manages to surprise in spite of myriad “covers” on the web, beginning as a lovely chime before changing abruptly into to a playful shimmy. Meanwhile, the pair of songs that close the album – “Numina O” and “Jagged Fruit” – each take a page out of Sonic Youth’s playbook, the former with its Dirty pop melody and the latter with a droning dirge that frustratingly recalls Opportunistic afterthought “Look Away” (the last album’s only misstep) before simmering to life with a snarling cacophony of guitars.

Speaking of guitars, Ed Rodriguez proves a worthy, if not necessarily equal, successor to the dearly departed Chris Cohen. As for the veteran players, Greg Saunier’s percussion continues to explore new subtleties while the aforementioned Matsuzaki has never sounded better or sweeter. The lyrics she sings range from clever (the telemarketing as metaphor for unrequited love in the title track) to literal (her cheerleading in “Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back”) to head-scratching (how many times does she have to ask “Buck and Judy” about that damned fruit?).

As with all past Deerhoof efforts, you’ll either love it or you won’t. For every song that can potentially convert the skeptics (pretty much any of the above), there will be one that fuels the argument that they’re simply experimental for experimental sake (“This is God Speaking”). But the rest of us who were wise enough to jump on their opportunity for friendship will only love them more for these minor flaws. We know better, and so do Deerhoof. They may not be actively seeking new friends this time around, but that doesn’t mean they won’t readily reward them.

Hear the new material live as Deerhoof embarks on a national tour beginning in October through mid-November before heading across the Atlantic for a series of European dates in early December.

Tracklisting:
01. The Tears and Music of Love
02. Chandelier Searchlight
03. Buck and Judy
04. Snoopy Waves
05. Offend Maggie
06. Basket Ball Get Your Groove back
07. Don’t Get Born
08. My Purple Past
09. Family of Others
10. Fresh Born
11. Eaguro Guro
12. This Is God Speaking
13. Numina O
14. Jagged Fruit

Deerhoof: website | myspace

Written by: Rob Huff

Army Navy – Army Navy

Arguably the Andrew Ridgeley to Ben Gibbard’s better known George Michael in the mid-90s band Pinwheel, Army Navy front man Justin Kennedy has his work cut out for him if he hopes to make a name for himself solo. So far, judging from his new band’s self-titled debut, he sounds content to just play it safe, not so much following as driving parallel to the indie pop road paved by his former colleague’s Death Cab. The result is an amiable, but unremarkable effort that while ripe with potential to explore on future efforts, lacks distinctiveness in and of itself.

by Travis Schneider

Despite being produced by Adam Lasus — whose resume most notably includes albums by the likes of indie faves Yo La Tengo and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!– the album has an acute Britpop feel, evoking memories of groups from early Teenage Fanclub to early XTC to The Libertines. The sound of the former act is particularly prevalent in the opening trio of “Dark as Days,” “My Thin Sides” and “Saints.” All three songs rock with a breezy, Bandwagonesque propulsion that one hopes the rest of the album can deliver just as easily.

However, what follows slips not so much into a consistent groove as a comfortable rut. The songs are far from unappealing. In fact, many of them are catchy and downright enjoyable individually. The problem is that together, they are completely transposable, hence robbing the album of momentum. Perhaps tellingly, the only song that even mildly stands out from the rest of the pack is the song that most closely resembles Kennedy’s former Pinwheel partner: “Unresponsive Ears” has a undeniable jangly charm, laced with what sounds like glockenspiel and blossoming lovely layer after layer of guitar with each passing chorus. It would have sounded right at home on the last Death Cab for Cutie album, but it doesn’t help on a debut album struggling for a unique identity.

Regardless of the album’s innocuous, interchangeable nature, the band displays a seasoned prowess in its execution. Kennedy’s lyrics are appropriate for the sound if a little generic in subject matter, and he often sings like a more nasal Britt Daniel(yet another American indie staple). Diverting but non-descript, these songs are the perfect fodder for teen movie soundtracks, which is fitting given how they’ve been tapped for the upcoming Michael Ceravehicle “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.” That will no doubt give them a modest boost for passing recognition, but they’ll need to push a little harder next time (and there’s enough raw talent on display here to justify a next time) for real longevity.

Army Navy’s debut album is released Oct. 14, 2008 by the Fever Zone.

Tracklisting:
01. Dark As Days
02. Jail Is Fine
03. Saints
04. Silvey Sleds
05. My Thin Sides
06. Unresponsive Ears
07. Slight Of Hand
08. Pocket Boys
09. Ignite
10. Snakes of Hawaii
11. In the Lime
12. Golden Pony

Army Navy: myspace | interview with

Written by: Rob Huff

Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer?

Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before: a singer/songwriter branches out from his or her band to release a collection of “solo material.” The inevitable blog buzz builds. Chatter rises about potential turmoil within the group. Some people even celebrate the idea that an artist can finally explore and express new ideas that he or she may not have been able within the confines of a group dynamic.

You hear word about “high profile” producers and collaborators. A killer advance single may even leak that convinces you that you’re really in for something extraordinary. Then the album drops, you pop it in for a listen and it sinks in: This doesn’t sound all that different from the band. It’s nothing new. Individual output from artists as diverse as Thom Yorke, Jenny Lewis, and Siouxsie Sioux over recent years, while far from terrible, has done little to justify its existence outside of the respective bands. To that growing list, we can now add Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer and her Ben Folds-produced, “Twin Peak”- nodding debut, Who Killed Amanda Palmer?.

Perhaps I’m just being too cynical. After all, many of the songs included here are quite good, and most of the highlights actually began as live favorites during the Dolls’ myriad tours, most notably in the lush opener “Astronaut (A Short History of Nearly Nothing),” which now features swelling strings courtesy of Rasputina’s Zoe Keating. Other stand-outs include “Ampersand,” a sobering ballad in the vein of Yes, Virginia’s “Delilah” that once again seems to explore a dysfunctional relationship this time from an internal perspective, and the perky “Oasis,” a single-in-the-making sporting girl-group harmonies, Cars-styled synths and archetypically Palmer-esque lyrics about date rape and abortion.

Indeed, a good deal of these songs would be right at home on any Dresden Dolls album (Maybe, Virginia perhaps?), but that’s the point. Why go through the facade of a solo outing when your best songs originated within the band? Why not record versions of these that include the fierce and propulsive percussion of fellow Doll Brian Viglione? Furthermore, if you insist on asserting your independence, why not choose collaborators that actually challenge your aesthetic and listeners’ expectations in order to make something unique instead of ones that, while undeniably talented, merely encourage and accentuate attributes that were already prevalent in your work?

Ben Folds is in full-on “Brick”-hurling mode here with his production, and while on paper a team-up between him and Palmer sounds like a match made in Heaven, his quirky touches frequently get lost amidst Palmer’s trademark in-your-face melodrama. The one exception where their styles truly come together into something worthy of them is on the sauntering “Leeds United,” a delectable slice of Cabaret swagger complete with swanky big-band trumpets. The other team-ups don’t work nearly as well as they sound like they would. Annie Clark of St. Vincent fame is wasted on the soporific Carousel cover “What’s the Use of Wonderin’?” while East Bay Ray’s guitars add little to the already slight “Guitar Hero.”

Perhaps the only way for an artist to truly shine on his or her own is to cast aside the band altogether. Frank Black wrote some of his most intriguing (if not ultimately satisfying) work post-Pixies, and Björk continues to spin beautifully challenging gold from her Sugarcubes’ straw. But should it really have to come to that before a solo album can take on genuine artistic relevance? Do band artists really have something unique to say beyond their collectives any more or are they simply going it alone to prove that they can? These are questions that deserve answers, and any of those answers would probably be more satisfying in the end than the answer to Who Killed Amanda Palmer? Nobody may have killed her yet, but she’s certainly veering dangerously close to shooting herself in the foot.

Look for Who Killed Amanda Palmer? in stores September 16, 2008.

Amanda Palmer: website | myspace | NYC show review

Written by: Rob Huff

Okkervil River – The Stand Ins

Like the old saying goes, the show must go on, and on it does go for Okkervil River on The Stand Ins, the quickly crafted (barely a year after their last effort) but skillfully executed sequel to 2007’s The Stage Names. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor thematically as well as literally, it’s another softly rousing, subtly haunting collection of songs that explore hopeless romanticism and tragic aimlessness as only Will Sheff and company can.

One person who, sadly, will not be along for the ride anymore is Jonathan Meiburg, who left the group to continue forward with his equally excellent project Shearwater full time. That departure didn’t stop him from making one final contribution to Stand Ins via the gorgeous, rollicking “Lost Coastlines,” a suitably epic swan song for his work with the band.

“Coastlines” is the first of many album standouts that continue the poignant themes and metaphors first employed in Stage Names: in this case it is a nautical theme that equates the hardships of being in a band with none other than, you guessed it, rough waters. The slightly Memphis-tinged “Starry Stairs” continues the dead porn star yarn started by last year’s “Savannah Smiles.” Meanwhile, closer “Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed On the Roof of The Chelsea Hotel, 1979” echoes last year’s elegiac “John Allyn Smith Sails” with the tale of another gifted artist’s tragic suicide.

Lyrically, Sheff continues to display both a biting wit and aching vulnerability, the likes of which are enough to render Conor Oberst’s most recent output all but obsolete. As on previous efforts, he’s at his best when he turns his themes inward. The album’s catchiest number “Pop Lies,” a song about pre-programmed sing-along melodies, achieves delicious self-parody with a rocking playfulness that proves the positive influence touring with The New Pornographers has had on the group. Inversely, “Blue Tulips” is a reflective sister song to Stage’s “Title Track” that is alternately swooning and sobering.

Punctuated by instrumental interludes that could either be taken as palette cleansers or pace-breakers depending on who is listening, The Stand Ins arguably feels more like a cohesive whole than its older sibling, but could just as easily be viewed as the other side of the coin. With this last formidable pair of releases, Okkervil River have hit a spectacular stride that one only hopes will continue into their future work. I can’t wait to hear what The Stunt Doubles sound like.

Okkervil River: website | myspace

Written by: Rob Huff

UNKLE – End Titles… Stories for Films

What is this growing fascination that aging electronic acts have with film music? Massive Attack took a shot at it a few years back with their soundtrack for “Danny the Dog.” Saint Etienne followed suit with music for “What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day?”. There were even rumors that Radiohead would be scoring the end credits for the upcoming film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s “Choke.” Now it would appear to be UNKLE’s turn. In this case, however, the trip-hop veterans seem to want to make music for a film that hasn’t even been made yet. If End Titles… Stories for Films is any indication, it’s also one that few people would even want to see.

At a sprawling 74 minutes, End Titles could certainly fill a modern indie film’s worth of time. Like any good soundtrack, there are the obligatory instrumentals (12 of them, in fact) punctuated by tracks featuring guest vocals from various collaborators (the most noteworthy being Josh Homme and Canadian rockers Black Mountain). This all sounds good on paper for an intriguing concept album, so why is it that these Stories play more like the soundtrack to some boredom-induced nap than any number of epic films that may play in your mind?

Part of the problem, if not most of it, rests on the shoulders of some uncharacteristically conventional instrumentation. For a group that has broken so much ground in the field of electronica with their compositions, it’s almost insulting to hear the duo try to wring drama out of dated metal guitars and lumbering percussion. The tracks with vocals fare slightly better, but one gets the impression that we have the guest musicians to thank for that rather than the “stars.” The aforementioned Homme manages to evoke some appropriate tension amidst the skittering beats of “Chemical,” and Gavin Clark pulls off some fairly decent Thom Yorke impressions in tracks like “Cut Me Loose” and “Against the Grain.” Of course, whether that was the intention of either Clark or UNKLE is highly questionable. It doesn’t bode well for a project when its most passable moments simply echo someone else’s far superior works.

Perhaps the biggest source of disappointment comes from knowing that UNKLE is so much better than this. Before Stories, we may have even welcomed the idea of a hypothetical film score from these guys. Alas, End Titles too often plays exactly as its title would suggest: a long scrolling list of impressive credentials that too often lacks the substance of the art that preceded it.

End Titles… Stories for Film is currently out digitally via Surrender All and will hit stores on September 2nd.

Tour Dates:
The complete track listing for End Titles…Stories For Film is:
01. End Titles
02. Cut Me Loose (ft Gavin Clarke)
03. Ghosts
04. Ghosts (String Reprise)
05. Kaned And Able
06. Blade In The Back (ft Gavin Clarke)
07. Synthetic Water
08. Chemical (ft Josh Homme)
09. Nocturnal (ft Chris Goss, James Petralli and Robbie Furze)
10. Cut Me Loose (String Reprise)
11. Against The Grain (ft Gavin Clarke)
12. Even Balance
13. Trouble In Paradise (Variation On A Theme)
14. Can’t Hurt (ft Gavin Clarke and Joel Cadbury)
15. 24 Frames
16. In A Broken Dream
17. Clouds (ft Black Mountain)
18. Black Mass
19. Open Your Eyes (ft Abel Ferrera)
20. Romeo Void
21. Heaven (ft Gavin Clarke)
22. The Piano Echoes

UNKLE: website | myspace |
Surrender All: website

Written by: Rob Huff