Stephen Malkmus

"Baby C'mon"
from the album Face the Truth
2005
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Download a free MP3 of "Baby C'mon" from Matador Records
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When discussing his beloved fantasy sports teams, Stephen Malkmus might as well be talking about his music persona: "If I have a winning team, I act really cocky, and if I have a losing team, I act sort of indignant."

The former Pavement frontman has just released his third solo disc, Face the Truth. It's now been six years since his seminal, California-based lo-fi indie group disbanded -- but they've remained relevant.

Two of their five albums, Slanted & Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, have been reissued in deluxe packages. Other retrospection has included a book ("Perfect Sound Forever: The Story of Pavement", by Rob Jovanovic) and a documentary ("Slow Century").

Stephen Malkmus

But even without these small tomes, Pavement and Malkmus can be found seemingly every week in music reviews, mentioned as an overt influence on a new band in the ever-burgeoning indie scene.

"I'm glad to be a part of it," the wry 39-year-old recently told The Associated Press at the New York offices of Matador Records, the esteemed label that Pavement went a long way toward establishing.

Matador, like much of indie rock, has grown up over the years. Today, bands that might have previously lived in the underground, turn up on "The O.C." every week.

"I started when it was still college rock, which it is still somewhat," he says. "It seems to have become more institutionalized in big cities."

Now, Malkmus is far from out of touch, but his music tends to be listened to mostly by old fans (whose numbers run high enough for him to sell out most concerts). The shaggy-haired indie hero lives in Portland, Oregon, with his girlfriend and their newborn child, which has led him to cut down on touring.

"But I've still got commitments and I think the record's good," he says. "I want to play it live and give it a little bit of life, which is hard if you don't tour at all."

Face the Truth is Malkmus' first solo disc not backed by his new band, the Jicks -- they appear only as guests. The album has been met with the typical critical acclaim for anything SM, as he was once known.

"We hail this thief because his structural influences fold into a signature sound as wholly individual as folk-rock guitar gods Richard Thompson and (the Smiths') Johnny Marr," wrote Spin magazine. "For good and ill, this jumble couldn't come from anyone but Malkmus."

Pigeonholing exactly what that jumble sounds like isn't easy -- even for Malkmus, who humbly accepts his contribution.

"I can do this sort of sludgy, weird, indie rock thing and it's original in its way."

He describes the opening track, "Pencil Rot," as "British" and "ready to kick ass and take names or whatever." He adds, "It's sort of like as hip-hop as I would be."

Known for a kind of accidental genius guitar playing in his Pavement days, Malkmus has increasingly been noticed for his riffs and solos.

Whether his playing really has matured, it's certainly less common. More in vogue nowadays is a churning rhythm of chords (see Interpol, the Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene). Here, he lets loose dizzying, key-shifting licks on the eight-minute "No More Shoes."

On the other hand, "Mama" is glowing, falsetto-rich Americana. Though one expects a David Lynch moment of devastation, the cheery romanticism isn't cracked. "Kindling for the Master" adds digital effects to the mix and "Baby C'mon" is a rock anthem that would put the Rolling Stones back on top.

But the standout is "Post-Paint Boy," a relaxed indictment of modern artists (before Pavement, Malkmus was a security guard at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York). He sings, "You're the maker of minor masterpieces for the untrained eye."

"That song is about artists, but it's as much about me or any person that's struggling in the scene to get a little success and it goes to their head, potentially," he says.

Malkmus long ago became comfortable with his place in the music world. In its individual creation, Face the Truth might represent his unique niche more than anything before.

"This record, more than any, is just my sound, whatever it is."

~ The Associated Press

VHS or Beta

"Night on Fire"
from the album Night on Fire
2004
iTunes

Listening to the thick beats, futuristic synths, angst-imbued melodies, and funky guitars of Night on Fire you might swear you had stumbled upon a Duran Duran bootleg or a recently uncovered Depeche Mode record. What you probably wouldn't expect to find yourself listening to is a self-described indie rock band out of Kentucky. Yet this is the seemingly immaculate conception of the group VHS or Beta. Catalyzed by the insular primordial ooze of Louisville's indie underground, they reacted violently to the scene's dogmatism and spontaneously evolved into one of the hottest bands in new wave revivalism and disco hipsterism. Moving one step further from their French techno influences and one step closer to their own side of the Atlantic, their latest release is a riotous homage to the second British invasion that brought us dance music worthy of headphones and a soundtrack for the seedier dramas of the '80s.

Perhaps the time was long past due for a new wave revival. The signs have been on the musical horizon for at least as long as Interpol brought suits and synthesizers back together again, and the recent release of two new albums by '80s standard bearers the Cure and Duran Duran surely fanned the flames. Add to that elements of the social and cultural decadence of the '80s, the return of Reaganomics, conservatism and Middle East conflict, and the die is (re)cast. Oddly, what seems so courageous about Night on Fire is VHS or Beta's brazen imitative style in the face of the overwhelming fetishism of everything new and original. They don't just "revive" new wave, adding a little of their own style or millennial flavor, they co-opt the whole kit and caboodle. The multi-layered vocals complete with brit-accented nasality sound as if they were extracted straight from the minds of Depeche Mode or the Smiths. The spacious mix laden with ricky ticky synth tones, throbbing bass, and reverb-washed guitars mirrors exactly the easily accessible and replicable new wave formula that gave the music world enough memorable one-hit wonders that the phrase Flock of Seagulls will forever equate with retro synths and blonde bouffants and rarely with Jonathan Livingston.

VHS or Beta

That said, why would one choose the contemporary knock off over the real McCoy? First, the album is brilliant regardless of its originality. Songs like "Alive" and "No Cabaret!" pulse with energy and charisma, the beats intoxicatingly exuberant, the melodies dripping off the thick bass notes like musical honey, the hooks so delightful sticky and delicious. Every track hums with vibrancy, each its own unique celebration of life, youth, and the tenacious pull of the dance floor. The songwriting is tight and carefully calculated, always pulling back ever so slightly before slamming into the intense catharsis of the chorus. Even the lyrics are wonderful poetic odes to infatuation and unself-conscious romanticism untrammeled by pretense or phony irony.

Second, even a hipster of the most exacting tastes (read: music snobs) will find ample intellectualism in the music of VHS or Beta. Aside from the curiosity of the group's overt replication of '80s music, systematically eschewing the music industry's obsession with originality and authenticity, there is also the fact that the music is at least to a certain extent, original. The songs are thoughtfully crafted, and on tracks like "Nightwaves" the band's house techno influences shine through with the use of more contemporary sounding techno timbres and an even deeper Daft Punk style bass. On "Forever" the band temporarily seems to forget their own intended concept (if there ever was a conscious intension at work), and makes a song that fits in definitively with their '90s Euro techno pop influences featuring a single sentence chorus that is systematically fragmented by layers of modern synthesizer acrobatics deconstruct the song's consciousness of its otherwise familiar structure.

Finally, claims to authenticity are intrinsically dubious and at best one of many ways to deem a piece of art worthwhile. VHS or Beta has made an album that truly sounds great, and that ought to be enough, though they will probably be called hacks and rip-off artists anyway. Maybe they have ripped off the '80s, yet in a world of retro fashions, turntablisim, samplers, and narratives of nostalgia, isn't it a wonder that anything can make a claim to originality at all? That Night on Fire manages to directly reproduce new wave without stylizing it or refashioning it for retro fetishists is perhaps the best testament to the purity of their intensions and the quality of their art.

~ Katie Zerwas, Pop Matters

Nedelle

"The Natural Night"
from the album From the Lion's Mouth
2005
iTunes

Download a free MP3 of "The Natural Night" from Kill Rock Stars
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California artist Nedelle, a product of her parents' classical and jazz influences, is making the jump from very small indie to a little bit bigger indie. While it may not be Nirvana going from Sub Pop to Geffen, it is a significant step for the songstress. With one previous solo record and collaboration with a friend, Nedelle was asked to bring her act to Kill Rock Stars. Her first album, Republic of Two, was a soul/bossanova record, mostly influenced by the records she would dig out of her father's jazz collection. This time around, Nedelle plays the part of acoustic folk performer and she fits easily into those shoes.

From the Lion's Mouth is comprised of mostly Nedelle and her guitar. A few scattered songs have strings, horns, or a drum/bass combo. Opener "Tell Me a Story" reminds you of friends you had in college who would strum their guitars in their dorm rooms and make up songs on the fly. You felt like they were playing only for you, mostly because they were. But Nedelle puts this feeling into every song, letting you feel like she is singing only for you, letting you in on her innermost feelings. In that opening song, Nedelle does indeed tell a story, one about wanting to be distracted from thinking about her dog that has passed away. At first listen, you might notice that she is not exactly a polished and perfect singer. What she has to make up for it is earnestness, honesty and personality. Again, that's at first listen. Upon further listening, her voice becomes so comfortable in your ears that you wouldn't change it for the world. It's like a piece of furniture that you get and always meant to refinish, but have become so used to its appearance that you can't bring yourself to do it.

Nedelle

"Good Grief" is the first song to contain a backing band and is a two and a half minute pop masterpiece. Comparisons have been made before to the likes of Dusty Springfield and Karen Carpenter, and after this song you can hear why. The same can be said for the song "Heatstroke." To me, she's almost like a '60s-era, sunny California version of Ani DiFranco. Clichés become poignant and incisive commentary in her delivery such as when she sings, "And I know he feels the same and I'm terrified." Most of the songs on From the Lion's Mouth are barely over two minutes and as such seem the perfect length. Each song becomes a pocket sized nugget to digest quickly and efficiently. Nedelle doesn't try to overwhelm the listener with overlong instrumental spans or repeated choruses. Instead, she delivers a compact package of brilliantly crafted little ditties that reveal her soul two minutes at a time. Nedelle creates her own backing vocals on songs like "The Natural Night" and "Begin to Breathe." In the latter case, the backup vocals are Supremes/Pips like, recalling soul singers of the sixties, but because all of the voices are hers, there is much more of a personal touch.

I can't help but be reminded of another artist who had a sophomore effort on Kill Rock Stars, Elliott Smith. Both tell personal stories, influenced by music from the '60s, with the help of an acoustic guitar. And while Elliott Smith is a starker album, From the Lion's Mouth is indeed similar at least in its confessional manner. Now we just have to wait to see if her KRS stint leads to a major label deal. Nedelle is a true, original talent deserving just as much recognition as her peers such as Joanna Newsom and Sam Beam. Now if I can just figure out what the deal is with the Disney-esque zoo animals on the cover...

~ Terrance Terich, treblezine.com

Shout Out Louds

"The Comeback"
from the album Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
2005
iTunes

Stream "The Comeback" on Real Audio or Windows Media

The Shout Out Louds have earned a curious distinction this year. Sure, the Swedish indie pop quintet has tramped the usual path toward alt-rock success. They've gained attention while supporting acts such as Kings of Leon and the Dears. Critics have praised their full-length debut, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, for its melodic loveliness and heartsick intensity.

But the band has also been singled out for the striking likeness its frontman, Adam Olenius, bears to Max Fischer, beloved teen antihero of the film Rushmore. Both have something of the misguided Romeo about them, all hangdog passion and boyish ardor. And the way Olenius's achy croak expresses that moodiness is a big part of his band's winsome sound. While Olenius admits that their sincere, unfussy sensibility is due largely to early musical limitations, it's also a conscious decision.

"When I wrote the songs, and when we discussed it and talked about the album, we just wanted it to sound like a debut," Olenius says in a phone interview. "We had got some reviews, like, 'Oh, it sounds too childish,' but that's what we wanted."

Shout Out Louds

Their initial output was also shaped by a happy accident. When they first started practicing together as a band, they had a drum machine they didn't know how to program. They were able to work out only two settings a simple rock beat and a slinky bossa nova rhythm. It was a fortuitous accident. The Latin influence kicked off their ongoing interest in mixing varied genres into their pop sound.

"We just got inspired by electronic music, jazz, and we just found that we had to make our music putting it on the edge, so to speak," Olenius says.

In the hands of the five-piece singer-guitarist Olenius, guitarist Carl von Arbin, bassist Ted Malmros, keyboardist Bebban Stenborg, and drummer Eric Edman these influences emerge subtly, amid sweet pop that evokes the Psychedelic Furs and Echo and the Bunnymen. "Very Loud" is dominated by a cantering beat, lovelorn vocals, and melancholy keyboards, while "Oh, Sweetheart" is an off-kilter rock ballad with sawing strings and a full-throated chorus. Some would say their mix of deft orchestration and emotional directness positions them alongside bands like the Arcade Fire. Olenius feels they're the creative compatriots of acts like current tour-mates the Dears.

He has mixed feelings, however, about being lumped into a larger Swedish rock invasion that includes the epic, psychedelic bombast of the Soundtrack of Our Lives and the kinetic garage rock of the Hives.

"I think people mention, like, Soundtrack of Our Lives and the Hives, but I don't think we have the same sound as they [do]," he says. "So, I think it's just easy to maybe put us in the same group. I mean, the Hives are doing great at what they're doing, and Soundtrack of Our Lives as well. But I think we have our own sound."

For all their differences, Olenius does believe that Swedish bands share a certain something that crosses genres and sonic inclinations, something influenced by the national reverence for art and culture, and, perhaps, the Nordic chill.

"I think there is a Swedish sound," he said. "It's really hard to put your finger on what it is, but maybe the cold Swedish winters really do something to us. Maybe it has something to do with the melancholy sound."

~ Sarah Tomlinson, Boston Globe

Nic Armstrong & the Thieves

"The Finishing Touch"
from the album The Greatest White Liar
2005
iTunes

Download a free MP3 of "The Finishing Touch" (as well as non-album track "If We Can't Escape, My Pretty") from New West Records

Click here to listen to an album review by NPR's Ken Tucker

Nic Armstrong & the Thieves are old-school British rockers, digging up classic white boy blues like the early Stones and Fleetwood Mac on "I Can't Stand It," sophisticated pop finery like the Kinks on "I'll Come to You" and "The Finishing Touch," and the four-squared songcraft of the early Beatles on "Too Long for Her" and "You Made It True."

They aren't just imitators or slaves to the past, though, injecting their songs with blasts of energy, tons of passion, and if not originality then an exciting approach to garage rock revivalism. Your first clue that they are dedicated to doing things the right way is that they hired Liam Watson to produce at his Toerag Studios (where the White Stripes recorded Elephant and Razorlight recorded Up All Night). Watson gets a typically punchy and dynamic sound -- the guitars are like live wires, the drums restrained and bolstered by maracas, tambourines, and handclaps; and the vocals clear and strong.

Nic Armstrong

Armstrong has a great voice for this material, able to sound snide and angry on the rockers, light and sweet on the bouncy ballads, and on a few tracks ("Back in That Room," "You Made It True") he conjures up something very similar to John Lennon's raw howl. There are few weak songs and many highlights, like the blue-eyed soul stomp of "Natural Flair"; the witty cover of Alvin Robinson's "Down Home Girl," where they throw the guitar hook from Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" into the mix; the cute "Mrs. the Moraliser," which sounds like a Graham Gouldman-penned Yardbirds track; and the absolutely storming "Broken Mouth Blues," which sounds like nothing more than Dylan fronting the mid-'60s Stones -- only different somehow, and that is the key to the whole record.

Between the stunning production and Armstrong's gutsy performance and hooky songwriting, The Greatest White Liar adds up to much more than the sum of all its parts and is a blast of fresh air that blows away all the dirty hordes who think noise and a howling lead singer are the key to great garage rock when what you really need is imagination, soul, and great tunes.

Nic Armstrong has all that, and his debut record is good enough that it is sure to be totally ignored -- unless you just finished reading this, in which case you should be entering your credit card numbers at your favorite online record emporium right about now... ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide

The title The Greatest White Liar might be a bit too strong or self-deprecating, but Armstrong and his band the Thieves does a quite convincing job of mining the '60s Brit sound, most particularly the Stones and shades of Beatles (and perhaps the early Moody Blues and Gerry and the Pacemakers). Make no mistake, this is not a band covering '60s songs; Armstrong wrote a majority of the songs here. It's undeniably poppy (flashbacks to Spinal Tap's early days as another British Invasion band comes to mind) but edgy and rock enough to still sound contemporary to be played at the punk clubs. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; if so, then this band is the perfect example.

~ NewBeats.com

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

"Ain't No Easy Way"
from the album Howl
2005
iTunes

Download a free MP3 "Ain't No Easy Way" from BMG.com
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"We went through some hard times as a band. Lost the meaning of why we were doing what we were doing… but I think this album somehow has been a new beginning. Just the music alone and making this record really inspired us to keep the whole thing going, and get the band back together with Nick.”

So comments Robert Turner honestly on the return of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and their third album Howl, set for release in late August.

When the band broke onto the scene in 2001 with their fuzz guitars and dirty full throttled cry of "Whatever Happened To My Rock 'n' Roll?" in September 2001, they were a refreshing blast of fresh air -- a band who truly cared about their music, but walked and talked and looked rock 'n' roll.

The group had formed in San Francisco when Peter Hayes (who grew up on a farm in Minnesota), Robert Turner (Santa Cruz mountains) and Nick Jago (originally from Devon) met up San Francisco in 1998. Taking their name from the Marlon Brando film The Wild One, things started to look up after they moved to Los Angeles the following year, signed to Virgin and started work on their first release.

BRMC's eponymous debut album was released in 2001 to amazing reviews. The band toured the UK in 2002 on the NME tour, after their first UK date supporting Oasis at the Royal Albert Hall at the personal request of Noel Gallagher. The band spent most of the year based there, playing several shows in the summer, again with Oasis (at Finsbury Park) and headlining the Radio1 tent at the Carling Weekend: Reading & Leeds festivals.

With the release of their second album Take Them On, On Your Own in autumn 2003 -- the same time as they stepped in to save the day and replaced the White Stripes (when Jack White injured his hand) at the Carling Weekend Festivals -- the band looked set to carry on onwards and upwards, but it wasn’t meant to be. Several factors, including in-band personnel problems and differences over the artistic control of their music with their label, meant their return was an anti-climax and within the year they were back in the US and parted from Virgin.

B.R.M.C.

Undeterred and unbowed, the band immediately started work on a new album, unsure of what they’d do with it but determined to carry on.

The new album was recorded over a 12-month period in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, the longest the band had ever spent on a record. "We did it in pieces," Robert says. "The first couple songs like 'Howl' and 'Sympathetic Noose' were started around the time of the last album and, I don't know, somehow the lack of professionalism we took towards those songs just sounded better. Just having fun playing and mixing on the fly with no cares."

"We always wanted it to come across that it was a good time making the music," says Peter.

Robert continues, "We went back to recording in the same way as the first LP. More produced, like old fashioned recordings where you’re building the parts and the sound like a Beatles or Beach Boys record, layering tracks. Which is the opposite of Take Them On, On Your Own where we wanted to capture the natural sound and feel of a band just set up playing in a room together, a very raw, very different approach."

The result is an amazing 13-track album, which shows a considerable musical evolution of the band. From the opening track "Shuffle Your Feet," you can hear a new bluesy, country-tinged side to the band, whilst never losing their groove. Through the lush, epic sounds of "Weight of the World" to the stripped back simplicity of lead single "Ain’t No Easy Way" to the haunting "Restless Sinner," many people will be surprised at this "new direction" for the band.

"Well this is a whole different kind of songwriting and sound than what people know us for," Robert explains. "The truth is that I guess we've written these kind of songs our whole lives, more rootsy Americana, back porch kind of songs, or whatever you want to call it, but never had the balls to put them out on a record, or the musicianship to really pull it off until now.”

The new album also sees the band mature lyrically. "The words were very important to us on this album," Robert adds. "I would hope people start going back to the days when words and poetry and writing actually meant something again. It's been a long time. There's a lot of shadows behind these words. We wanted to give a nod to Allen Ginsberg and the beat poets of the '50s and '60s in the album title, and we tried to bring that spirit and all those voices into the music as well. Beyond that, we'd just got out of a bad record deal and we were free to just make the music we loved again."

~ xtaster.co.uk

Death Cab for Cutie

"Soul Meets Body"
from the album Plans
2005

Download a free MP3 of "Soul Meets Body"
[right-click/save-as] Source: Welcome to the M!dwest!
Or you can hear it at myspace.com/deathcabforcutie.

Chris Walla was eating a burrito in rural Massachusetts when he had a eureka moment.

"Maybe we should call the record Plans," the Death Cab for Cutie guitarist recalled telling bassist Nick Harmer. They presented the idea to the rest of the band, who lingered on it for only a few brief seconds before agreeing.

"I swear to God, it was that easy," Walla laughed. Due August 30, Death Cab's fifth album picks up where their 2003 breakthrough, Transatlanticism, left off.

"They're in the same kind of ilk as [The Beatles'] Rubber Soul to Revolver," frontman Ben Gibbard said of the companionlike nature of the albums, stressing that he's not comparing their work to the Fab Four.

"It has a lot of the spirit of Transatlanticism," Walla explained. "Picking up there, yet moving forward. This is the first time in the history of the band that the same four people have worked on two records in a row."

While "The O.C." has famously been generous to the band's rising profile the past two years, it's another show that has featured their music -- HBO's "Six Feet Under" -- that has the most in common with the new album's dark motifs. While emolike sentiments of love and loss remain, existential questions revolving around life and death seem to preoccupy the quartet on Plans. And despite Death Cab's most fruitful times, a major-label debut, artistic autonomy and a huge following awaiting their next move, Gibbard can't help but wait for the other shoe to drop.

Death Cab for Cutie

"When things are going great I can only think, 'When is this going to end?' " Gibbard said. "[In a good relationship] it's like, 'One of us is gonna die one day, and that's really gonna be a bummer.' Knowing that there will be an eventual end to it is something I can't shake and should probably seek therapy for."

However bleak it sounds, the record still retains optimism and walks that patented DCFC line between where happiness ends and sadness begins. (Or is it the other way around?)

The album opens with the anthemic and bittersweet "Marching Bands of Manhattan," a soaring and classic Death Cab mini-movie. Commencing with elegiac organs, a lyrical story builds to a Coldplay-esque grandiloquence with the heartbreaking lyrics "Sorrow drips into your heart from a pinhole/ Just like a faucet that leaks/ And there is comfort in the sound/ But while you debate half-empty and half-full/ Your love is gonna drown."

Produced by guitarist/studio whiz Walla in a barn in Longview, Massachusetts, the album achieved a focus from the isolation. "It's got a pretty cool sonic sprawl to it," he said. "But it's more concentrated and more pinpointed than the other records, and I think that comes with the clarity of being zeroed in -- being in a barn, not having anything around you."

Plans' first single, "Soul Meets Body," is an uptempo track that again grapples with existential questions and reconciling personal needs. "It's a declaration of desire over circumstance," Walla said. "It means, 'Here's where I am and here's what I want to be and how do I bridge those two things.' I think it's a beautiful articulation of love, friendships and relationships and everything you do over the course of the day."

While a video has yet to be shot, Death Cab do have some humorous ideas. "Cheerios," Walla said, "swimming through a bowl of cereal -- you know, a whole General Mills theme."

Other key tracks on the 11-track Plans include the wistful piano number "What Sarah Said" -- with its melancholy refrain "Love is watching someone die/ So who's gonna watch you die?" -- and the sparse, acoustic "I Will Follow You Into the Dark," which reprises the death theme yet again.

"There's a lot of songs about love and death and how those two things interact with one another, themes of finding love and being afraid of losing it to a number of things and a sense of never being quite satisfied," a reflective Gibbard said.

Antidotes to those heavy contemplative moods (at least musically) are the upbeat "Your Heart is an Empty Room" and "Crooked Teeth." "[Plans] can be uplifting, but not in that new-agey kind of way. It's certainly not a Christian-rock record," Gibbard laughed.

An October tour with Stars and Youth Group is expected to be announced soon. Those who can't wait for Plans' August release can busy themselves with the group's recent DVD, Drive Well, Sleep Carefully, a 13-song collection of live performances from a 2004 spring tour plus a handful of festival dates including a Lollapalooza appearance.

~ MTV.com

Marjorie Fair

"Empty Room"
from the album Self Help Serenade
2005
iTunes

"Empty Room" is the iTunes Free Download Single of the Week, available for free through next Monday.

You can also watch the video for "Empty Room" at iTunes.

They say you can tell a lot about a band by its behavior on the tour bus. Typically, stories of groupies gone wild and illegal antics abound and become rock 'n' roll folklore. Last month the Los Angeles band Marjorie Fair rolled into town from Atlanta an hour before taking over a table at Malo, a Mexican restaurant in Silver Lake, CA. They had been touring the United States for the past month.

Anything crazy -- wink-wink -- happen on the road?

"Evan taught me how to sew," the bassist, Scott Lord, said with genuine reverence. "He could thread a needle in the dark even when the road was bumpy."

"Er, that's not really a good image for our image," said Evan Slamka, the 30-year-old lead singer and guitarist. "I was making alterations."

Marjorie Fair

It feels right that Slamka, with his unruly hair and sad, bourbon-colored eyes, can stitch. He has pieced together a few different incarnations of Marjorie Fair since January 2004, and this grouping, which includes Mike Delisa on drums, Dain Luscombe on keyboards and Lord, is the perfect fit. Yesterday their debut album, Self Help Serenade, hit stores in the United States. It was released in Britain on May 31. Mojo magazine has already suggested the record as "a candidate for debut of the year" and The Independent gave it a five-star review. The songs are both melancholy and lulling. If you were to call into work sick with an aching heart, the plaintive lyrics would make for good medicine.

Over dinner the band discussed the group's integrity ("very solid"), longevity ("hopefully like Neil Young's career") and past struggles with puberty ("Hair spray causes horrible zits.") Within the group Slamka is the most talkative, Luscombe is the most meditative, Delisa is the most definitive and Lord -- the youngest member at 20 -- is mostly silent.

When a smiling young woman stopped at the table to hug Luscombe, 30, it was the third person he had greeted at this neighborhood joint. "That girl works at Philip Morris," he said. "Wait. No. That's the cigarette company. I mean William Morris. Maybe we should sign with her." He stubbed out an American Spirit.

In that moment the table grew quiet. It was as if these guys were suddenly rolling the idea of success around in their mouths like a sweet cherry Life Saver.

"We're not going to change and become jerks if we..." Luscombe trailed off.

"We have this '60s idealism," Slamka said. "We just want to hear our music and know that it affects people who are like-minded."

The others nodded, though earlier all four had agreed that they got into music to get girls. The consensus, however, was this: In high school the opposite sex can't get enough of the guys in the band. Later in life, however, women prefer a man with a steady job.

On to the Silverlake Lounge, a charming and gritty little place for live music. The band ordered a round of beers and settled in to catch a show by Becky Stark, a folk singer. It was clear, as she crooned the refrain "Don't go to sleep," that the band wanted more than anything else to do just that. They had spent the last two days driving and sewing and catching up on episodes of the hit TV show "Lost".

"I'm so dazed and exhausted that I'm not even tired anymore," said Delisa, with glazed eyes. "I feel great."

~ Monica Corcoran, New York Times

Don't believe everything you might read in Rolling Stone. Here's what they said in an "In Brief" section earlier this month:

Singer-songwriter MARJORIE FAIR will release her new album, Self Help Serenade, on July 19th.

As you read previously, Marjorie Fair is in fact a band comprised of dudes, not a lady songstress. Oops!

Sufjan Stevens

"John Wayne Gacy, Jr."
from the album Illinois
2005
iTunes

Download a free MP3 of "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." from TheCrutch.net
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It's not often that Illinoisans have an opportunity to hear an album that mentions towns such as Jacksonville, Decatur and Peoria in track titles and song lyrics.

Nor are there numerous historical, musical explorations of their state conveniently summed up in about 75 minutes.

But the Land of Lincoln can hear about the state and other Illinois facts on folk musician Sufjan (pronounced Soof-yan) Stevens' Illinois, released earlier this month.

"I feel like some of these songs I've written specifically for Illinoisans," says Stevens, a 29-year-old Michigan native. "A lot of it's written just for anyone, but it's kind of nice to have the support."

Illinois is Stevens' second album in his planned tribute to each of the 50 states. In 2003, Stevens released Greetings from Michigan on the Asthmatic Kitty label, which he co-founded with his stepfather.

Stevens thought he could sell more of his Michigan albums by proposing that it was the first in a series of 50 albums, one for each state. The musician didn't think anyone would buy Michigan or take his proposal seriously.

That was until fans and media started asking him what state was next.

"I think I started to realize that I did have a greater vision," Stevens says.

Although Stevens frequently has traveled overseas, he says he hadn't explored the United States. The "50 States" project allowed him to learn more about his country.

"It became an inquiry into American identity and geography," he says. "I started to do more research and started to travel more in the U.S. and realized maybe this project had some bearing, had some real personal meaning to me."

Stevens jokes that he chose Illinois as his second state because the state gave him funding, but he says, "It really was a matter of aesthetic." At the time he was writing Illinois, he also was writing Rhode Island, Oregon and New Jersey.

"It came down to that the nature of the songs for Illinois are on a much grander scale, more epic sounding," he says.

"I guess I just had a strong inclination to work on songs that felt more grand."

As with Michigan, Stevens wrote, composed, recorded, engineered and produced the Illinois album. The album features more than 20 instruments, including a string quartet and more than 15 musicians.

Stevens started his career as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band from Holland, Mich. After going solo in 1999, he released his first album, A Sun Came, in 2000. Enjoy Your Rabbit, which was released in 2001, highlights the symbols of the Chinese zodiac. His only album not self-produced is 2004's Seven Swans.

His state albums are distinctly different -- Michigan is an emotional assessment of his home state, while Illinois is an historical assessment based on research instead of personal experiences.

"It's really a record about history," Stevens notes. "So much of history isn't about personal experience, but it's an assessment of events and then formulating meaning from that assessment."

In researching "Illinois," Stevens read books about such towns as Decatur, Rockford and Jacksonville. Stevens says he became "obsessed" with Jacksonville, which is the title of a track.

He also read many of Carl Sandburg's works.

"I was really interested in Carl Sandburg because he sort of takes on the voice of many people -- the voice of the worker, of the Illinoisan and the Chicago blue-collar worker," Stevens says. "I felt like a lot of what I was doing was channeling voices and characters and I was taking on sort of the American voice with the same kind of classicism and the same kind of pretension that he was required to do."

Although Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln were frequent subjects in Stevens's reading, they are barely mentioned on the record.

"There's been so much already written about them," he notes.

Stevens, who has a master's degree in creative writing from New School University in New York, had written several songs and eulogies for Lincoln. He eventually cut them all. The only trace that remains is an instrumental track titled, "In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth," a reference to text at Lincoln's Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Stevens, who has been playing music since childhood, plays more than 10 instruments on the album. Because he doesn't own all of the instruments that he plays, he uses his portable eight-track recorder to record where some of the instruments are kept.

"I tend to gravitate towards environments where there are interesting instruments," he says.

For example, he recorded the sound of a grand piano at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn and his friend's electric organ in a basement. The string quartet was recorded in a quartet member's apartment.

Most of the record then was assembled piece by piece, Stevens says.

"A lot of it was done in isolation, so it's painstaking because it's not live at all," Steven says.

Because Illinois was recorded under such conditions, Stevens modifies songs for live shows -- changing a key, altering arrangements or rewriting songs completely.

"I've done songs from the record live that sound nothing like the record," he says. "It's kind of a new experience, and it's kind of work-intensive because it's like doing the record all over again."

~ Springfield, Ill. State Journal Register

Pony Up!

"Shut Up and Kiss Me"
from the EP Pony Up!
2005
iTunes

Download a free MP3 of "Shut Up and Kiss Me" from Dim Mak Records
[right-click/save-as]

Resembling a high-school version of the Donnas, these winsome twee-pop girls write songs about kissing boys and, well, kissing boys. They got their break after meeting Aussie popsmith Ben Lee at a gig; impressed with their demo, he had them open for him on tour and then signed him to his Ten Fingers label. "We were just screwing around and having fun and it made us get our shit together," says singer/multi-instrumentalist Camilia Ingr. Though they were initially more enthusiastic than competent, Pony Up! have "drastically improved," says Dan Seligman, director of red-hot indie rock fest Pop Montreal. "They have the ability to write a great pop song." ~ Spin Magazine

Autolux

"Here Comes Everybody"
from the album Future Perfect
2004
iTunes

Download a free MP3 of "Here Comes Everybody" from InSound.com
[right-click/save-as]

Autolux, an ethereal Los Angeles-based art rock band heavy on space noises and sugary hooks, audaciously claims on its Web site that its members don't care whether or not the band is liked.

This is either a bald-faced lie or the result of a cynical outlook adopted after struggles with previous bands proved too much. Two-thirds of the group did time in largely ignored '90s alternative acts Ednaswap and Failure.

However, it stands to reason that there would be no need to put out an album for public consumption if the opinion of its listeners didn't matter.

To its credit though, Autolux never sought a record deal. It just kind of unfolded in a movie sort of way.

Autolux

T-Bone Burnett, the purveyor of the rootsy collection of songs on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, decided to start a label with the film's producers, Joel and Ethan Coen. One night, while out on the town in LA amid '80s-fashion-obsessed hipsters, he happened upon Autolux.

"He approached us and we were impressed by how knowledgeable he was about music in general," guitarist Greg Edwards said. "He's actually very scholarly about it."

Burnett convinced the band that the label, Red Ink, shared a similar vision when it came to music -- putting out artistically satisfying releases regardless of what the financial result would be.

It seemed to be a perfect match, and Burnett -- who had helmed releases from Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello and Counting Crows -- was behind the board on the band's debut, Future Perfect.

"It may have seemed like an odd pairing, but he's (Burnett) a very forward-thinking guy," Edwards said.

The 11-song set is an atmospheric ride that manages to create breathing room between crunching guitars, steady beats and shared vocals. Think early Radiohead with a heavier vibe and a touch of British shoegazer rock.

Bassist Eugene Goreshter handles most of the singing duties, but drummer Carla Azar lends her pipes to one of the album's standout tracks, "Angry Candy," in a very Kim Deal-esque performance.

The critics have been raving about the album since its release in November, and performances around the country, including one at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival , have put the band on the top of most indie rockers' lists.

The group was recently picked by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor to open the shows during its co-headlining U.S. jaunt with Queens of the Stone Age this fall.

All this amounts to something the group claims it never sought: fans.

"I tend to get used to the fact that we're actually doing and that we're going out with a band like Nine Inch Nails," Edwards said. "Maybe I should stop to appreciate it more." ~ Paul Saitowitz, Riverside Press-Enterprise

Damien Rice

"Cannonball"
from the album O
2003
iTunes

Click here to listen to the full album O, including "Cannonball"

Everytime it seems that radio becomes saturated with bands and artists that sound the same, someone comes along and proves there is still hope for musical creativity in the music industry, and this time around that someone is Damien Rice.

Damien Rice

The Irish singer/songwriter possesses an incredible knack for delivering some of the most beautifully written and performed songs that have been heard in recent memory. Harkening back to sounds influenced undoubtedly by Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley, Rice’s luxuriant vocals, compliment his acoustic guitar and produce a sound that is unlike anything else in the mainstream today.

By no means is Rice’s record upbeat, nor is it uplifting, but perhaps that is what makes his lyrics so powerful, and the raw emotion behind every note so believable. Evident on the track “Cannonball,” Rice conveys a beautifully arranged song, with captivating lyrics. The opening track “Delicate” along with the second track “Volcano” provides equal brilliance, and set the tone for this record.

Perhaps what makes this album so noteworthy is its lyrical depth. The album provides more than just standard lyrics to be heard and forgotten, these lyrics are thought provoking, and stick with the listener, a quality that makes this album one to be heard. ~ Alternative Addiction

Thunderbirds are Now!

"Eat This City"
from the album Justamustache
2005
iTunes

Download a free MP3 of "Eat This City" from French Kiss Records
[right-click/save-as]

Thunderbirds are Now! used to come off cocky. Or they used to try really, really hard to come off cocky, hoping that no one would notice it was a sham.

"The whole cocky attitude was sort of a mask," said Ryan Allen, the (suburban) Detroit band's singer and guitarist.

"We kind of knew at the bottom of it that we still had a long way to go. Our attitude was, if we become larger than life where our attitude is concerned, maybe people will ignore the fact that we're kind of sloppy and our songs are kind of underdeveloped."

It's not like they were worrying themselves over nothing, either. Two or three years ago, Thunderbirds are Now! was still a band driven more by the frenetic energy of youth than by any exceptional sort of vision or skill.

Thunderbirds Are Now!

They could deliver danceable, synthed-up punk rock at an unrelenting pace. They were daring enough to experiment, unpretentious enough to be goofy. But they were also a little sloppy.

They aren't so sloppy any more. Their latest album, Justamustache, is a sharply executed, musically subtle, almost shockingly melodic effort (considering the band was once known for throwing kitchen implements into the musical mix).

Which is to say that it's different in style and quality both. Thunderbirds are Now! have dressed up their freakouts in New Wave clothing. They've got the guitar-synth double-pronged attack. They've got the Casio-style beats. And they've got a sugary, infectious vibe that's reminiscent of bands like Blondie or the Cars, if still a bit harder.

Allen said the shift started some time ago. Their old sound had started to bore them (or him, as the guy who does the lion's share of the songwriting). They didn't want to become one trick ponies. They started mixing things, going for something both "mainstream and still totally fucked up."

Some bands -- and Allen used the pop-punk group My Chemical Romance as a case in point -- are too easy to understand, he said.

"It's like, 'This is catchy. This has a good chorus,' and I'm done. I don't need to delve deeper. All I want to know is they have nice hair and their songs are catchy. You can make catchy music, but keep it weird at the same time."

He also believes you can make catchy music without having nice hair. Though sometimes he worries about his hair. Part of dropping that old cocky pose is apparently a newfound willingness to talk about personal insecurities.

"I think more bands should be honest and say, 'Sometimes I wake up and I'm like, God, I feel fat today,' " he said.

Call it the band's new earnestness. Allen said they've even dropped some of their old goofiness, the same goofiness that led them to create songs with titles like "Not Witherspoon, but Silverstone" and "When It Comes to Elements, Hydrogen is Titz."

"You can only be funny so long," Allen said.

Being as they're done with the goofy bit, done with the hyper-confident facade, what's left? Inner confidence, Allen claims.

"We're trying to get away from championing ourselves as this great thing," he said. "We're done trying to convince people verbally. We're going to make the music speak for itself." ~ Matthew Miller, Lansing Noise

The Changes

"Her, You and I"
from the EP The Changes
2005

Download an MP3 of "Her, You and I" from the band's website
[right-click/save-as]

The first thing to know about the Changes is that they're okay with being compared to the Police. This is fortunate, because much of the press the band has received in the few short years it's been together has made favorable comparisons between it and Sting & Co.

"We get compared to them so much, and I think it's kind of strange because I don't think any of us even think about the Police that much," guitarist-vocalist David Rothblatt says. But the Changes' clean-line sound, penchant for slinging catchy hooks and ability to inject slight melancholia into cool, upbeat pop is classic Police. And when singer-guitarist Darren Spitzer's voice leaps into his high register, it's almost eerily Sting-like.

The Changes

The second thing to know about the Changes is that they're poised to be the next band to break out from Chicago's bars and into the mainstream. The announcement of the new one-off Lollapalooza festival (July 23-24) was followed by news that the Changes would be the only unsigned band, and one of the few Chicago acts, in a lineup stocked with rock giants and the most recent batch of breathlessly praised up-and-comers.

The Changes make it look so easy. The band came together in late 2002, and hit their '80s-laced sound right off the bat. "I don't think there was much thought as to what it would sound like," Rothblatt says. "It just kind of happened."

And then the shows happened. The band opened for Hot Hot Heat, the Walkmen, Ted Leo and other modern pop standard-bearers. In the meantime, the band members started recording, and produced the sessions themselves despite their lack of experience. "Each [recording session] we're learning something," Rothblatt says. "The first one was our first time in a studio. None of us had been in rock bands, and we didn't know what to do. We went in, played our songs, mixed it and left. The second time we realizes we had been idiots, and that what you do is overdub."

"It was like this genius realization," adds bassist-singer Rob Kallick with a laugh. Despite its lack of studio layering, their debut release, an EP titled First of May, is surprisingly strong, full of chiming guitars and vocal melodies that leap out of the speakers and burrow themselves into the listener's brain. They followed it up with an equally strong, more fleshed-out set of four new songs. Their self-released, self-titled EP cemented their status as the darlings of the Chicago scene's pop faction.

That recognition may help the Changes release a full-length album. Earlier this summer they stopped in New York City on their first tour, and label reps were in the crowd. Given the way Lollapalooza came knocking, it's likely the majors will follow suit. Kallick and Rothblatt joke about their goal of signing to Dreamworks ("Anything with David Geffen," Kallick laughs), but they're half-joking at best. Since the '80s is firmly entrenched as the sound of the '00s, a big-label contract for a band that revisits the era's most intelligent (and biggest-selling) sounds doesn't seem so out there.

Yet for all the attention thrown their way and all of their potential, the Changes don't come off like rock stars. While many other musicians would panic or brag about sharing a stage with the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr., Kallick says, "I don't want to have too high of expectations for it. We might just be on a tiny stage in the corner." In fact, the only time any excitement over the gig comes through is when Kallick and Rothblatt discuss how amped drummer Jonny Basofin is over the prospect of being on the festival's T-shirt, and they still seem more stoked about headlining at Schubas than opening for Weezer.

So while they prepare for a tour and a concert that may make their careers, the Changes are keeping their heads down. They're still recording, trying to push their sound into new parts of the musical map, and still ending up at one familiar spot. "We'll do the craziest things and think, 'God, we're really going out on a limb,' " Kallick says. "And we'll play it for someone and they'll say, 'It really sounds like the Police.' " ~ Time Out Chicago

The Duke Spirit

"Love is an Unfamiliar Name"
from the album Cuts Across the Land
2005

Watch the video for "Love is an Unfamiliar Name"
[Real Player stream]

If they wanted to, the Duke Spirit could probably hook up a few synthesizers, apply some hairspray, and become to Blondie what the Killers are to Duran Duran. But hey, that'd be too easy; instead, Cuts Across the Land is an album brimming with the piss and vinegar expected from a band toiling -- until recently -- fruitlessly in the British music scene since 2002. Of course, that sort of elbow grease is required when you're aiming to usurp the femme-blues throne currently occupied by PJ Harvey and newbies the Kills and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Duke Spirit singer Leila Moss possess the scowl of Karen O, with a haunting, reserved quality that, at its darkest, is reminiscent of Kim Gordon. "Darling You're Mean" at first lulls listeners with a pacific guitar pattern and breathy vocals before launching into a menacing, dissonant chorus. "Oooh no, yeah it's comin' back/ And I say oooh, Jesus Christ, yeah it's drivin' me mad" wails Moss with enough unnerving frankness to frighten even the most petulant, chauvinist male blues singer.

The Duke Spirit

Instrumentally, Cuts Across the Land loses some steam from the band's cataclysmic yet cogent live performance. Still, that doesn't prevent singles "Love is an Unfamiliar Name" and "Cuts Across the Land" from staking their claim in 2005's indie honor roll. The former rides an ascending guitar riff until Moss's heartbreak boils over into a flurry of piqued "Oh-oh-oh's." The title track taps the Jesus and Mary Chain mentality of repeating a basic chord progression until it sounds revolutionary -- and a clamoring, Sonic Youth-inspired breakdown two-thirds through serves as a dead-on extension of Moss's scoffing persona.

Unfortunately, the album's murky mix reveals a few songwriting bugs, particularly on slower-paced tracks. Despite the blemishes, Cuts Across the Land is a surprisingly galvanized and consistent offering from a band that has hardly registered a blip on most British, let alone American, radar screens -- an inverse Coldplay of sorts. Score one for the underdog. ~ Adam Moerder, Pitchfork

Giant Drag

"This Isn't It"
from the EP Lemona
2005
iTunes

Two straight days featuring artists from Orange County, California. And neither has guested on The O.C. -- yet?

Giant Drag

I didn't plan that. It just happened. Anyway, today it's Giant Drag. The band is fronted by guitarist/vocalist Annie Hardy, and she's joined on drums by some dude named Micah Calabrese. But -- and no offense to him -- Micah's not particularly important. It's Annie Hardy who garners the attention.

She's drawn comparisons to such artists as P.J. Harvey and The Breeders, which I guess might help explain why I think "This Isn't It" sounds like it could be from 1995 rather than 2005?

Lemona is the band's five-song debut EP. Giant Drag's first full-length, Hearts and Unicorns, will feature a few carry-over tracks from the EP -- including "This Isn't It" -- and is expected to see release later this year.


Download an MP3 of "This Isn't It" from TheCrutch.net [right-click/save-as] and maybe check out a video for the song at the Giant Drag website.

And also from the band's site, here's an MP3 of a cover of Journey's "Who's Crying Now?" [right-click/save-as] Yes, that's right. Journey.

And it appears you can stream a few other Giant Drag songs at myspace.com/giantdrag (And if you wanna learn more about MySpace.com, check out last month's Billy Corgan post)

The Willowz

"Ulcer Soul"
from the album Talk in Circles
2005
iTunes

Download a free MP3 of "Ulcer Soul" from TheCrutch.net
[right-click/save-as]

The Willowz are four pretty young things from Anaheim, California, whose excellently shambolic new album, Talk in Circles, takes garage rock back to its roots -- literally.

"We recorded it in our bass player's brother's garage," says singer/guitarist Richie James Follin. "We'd do our guitar tracks sitting in my minivan with the mixing board on the seat. It's better than spending so much money in a studio."

Talk in Circles is a sweet-and-sour cocktail of buzz-saw guitars, Stooges propulsion and coed shouting about boredom, bad love and youthful uncertainty that ends with singer/bassist Jessica Reynoza, 21, intoning, "We can die now." To date, the group's messy DIY approach has made it the odd band out in its hometown. "Orange County's music scene is really shitty -- all these hardcore and emo bands," says Follin, 21, a sophomore English major at Cal State Fullerton. It was their mutual distaste for Anaheim bands -- and their mutual love for the Zombies, the MC5 and old soul music -- that united Reynoza (a classical guitarist and abstract painter) and Follin (who'd gotten into L.A. punk through his mother, an art dealer who dated Henry Rollins back in high school) after they met in a college bookstore in 2001.

The Willowz went through a succession of drummers and second guitarists, practiced in an abandoned house and struggled to launch their first cross-country tour. "We couldn't rent a car because we were all seventeen or eighteen," Follin says. "The only person who'd drive us was this transvestite from New York. He was mad creepy." Their big break came when French director Michel Gondry put two of their songs on the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack. "They didn't have a big budget for music," Follin says. "His people found us on MP3.com."

Though the Willowz aren't yet famous among garage revivalists, they have done their part to start a rivalry with one of the genre's biggest names. "The Strokes were playing in L.A.," Follin says. "We snuck in and ended up hanging out with them. Our drummer was drunk and got in a fight with their bass player. We ended up spray-painting 'The Willowz' on their tour bus." ~ Christian Hoard, Rolling Stone

The Willowz

Smoosh

"Rad"
from the album She Like Electric
2004
iTunes

Seattle pop duo Smoosh -- singer-keyboardist Asya, 12, and drummer Chloe, 10 -- aren't even teenagers yet, but their pensive lyrics, minor chords and forlorn melodies give their music the sound of moodier artists twice their age. The sisters' debut album, She Like Electric, has already won them opening slots for Cat Power, Sleater-Kinney, Jimmy Eat World, Death Cab for Cutie, and even Pearl Jam.

Smoosh came about when the musical siblings, who had taken up the piano and begun entering talent shows by the age of six, went to get an old violin strung for Chloe at a music store. She walked out with a drum kit instead, along with their salesman's phone number at the Seattle Drum School. After less than a year of lessons, their salesman-turned-instructor, a pre-Death Cab for Cutie Jason McGerr, encouraged Asya to bring in her songs. McGerr went on to record their demo at the Drum School -- for free -- in the summer of 2002. "If we didn't know Jason, we wouldn't be a band!" exclaims the girls' web site.

After batting around a few ideas -- "Chloe wanted to be punk-rock and call us Crashsound, and I was like, 'Noooo' " -- the girls finally settled on a band name. And after a few local club gigs in the spring of 2003, Pattern 25 Records approached the duo about making an album. She Like Electric was recorded with Seattle producer Johnny Sangster Mudhoney, the Posies, Murder City Devils) in just three days. Since its fall release, the sisters have been opening for indie royalty, and when they played a Halloween show in Los Angeles (dressed as Spiderman and "Batwoman") actor Tobey Maguire came backstage for an audience. "He'd heard of us and wanted to see us," Asya shrugs.

With mounting commitments, the girls' father serves as a sort of manager, juggling shows with classes. "I answer e-mails and schedule gigs around soccer practice," says Mike. "We have no plan, no agenda, and we never shopped them. I let them call all the shots, ultimately." Neither he nor his wife is musical, he says, and it was their daughters who turned them on to indie rock, from Nirvana to Interpol. The girls are just naturally drawn to making music.

"We don't think about it," says Asya of their songwriting technique. "Chloe does the drums, and I do the keyboard and vocals. The music comes first, and then I do the words at almost the same time." Regardless, says the younger sibling, Asya "usually gets what she wants."

At their loudest, Smoosh can match the early exuberance of Luscious Jackson, and at their more introspective, they echo the Breeders. "Major chords seem a little bit boring," Asya comments, whose song titles include "Massive Cure" and "I've Got My Own Problems." "I guess minor is, like, sad, but I just like that sound better." In the darker track "Make It Through," Asya sings, "If you go into something head-first/it might not come out right." It's a song that the twelve-year-old says deals with "making it through something" with the help of another. ("Sounds like it's a song about your boyfriend!" adds Chloe.)

Songs like "Rad" are more fun, with Asya half-rapping, "Uh-huh, uh-huh/Yo, yo." And the short stomp "The Quack" (with the lyric, "The bone daddy's back!") is so exuberant that the girls are in giggles by the end of the recording. "Our mom was making us some breakfast," explains Chloe. "And we were singing like that just to be funny," says her sister. Cat Power's Chan Marshall is an unabashed fan of the song: she closed a show of hers recently by lip-synching live to the track.

Not yet out of grade school, the sisters are eager for more, with Asya taking up guitar and Chloe the electric drums. Both hope younger sister Maya, 8, will soon join them on bass. "And I'd like to open for bigger bands," says Asya. "Like the Shins, and the Strokes." ~ Anuj Desai, Rolling Stone

Download a free MP3 of "Massive Cure" from Pattern 25 Records [right-click/save-as]
Watch the video for "Rad" at Kids Who Rip
Watch the video for "La Pump" at Pattern 25 Records
Watch The Today Show report on Smooth at Pattern 25 Records

Smoosh

Razorlight

"Golden Touch"
from the album Up All Night
2004
iTunes

Watch the video for "Golden Touch" at the iTunes Music Store.

Many artists say the greatest reward is to have an effect on people's lives. Johnny Borrell, 24-year-old frontman for Razorlight, won't settle for merely having an effect; he wants his music to save the lives of others. After all, it was his music that saved his life.

When he was 17, Borrell started shooting heroin, and for the next two years, he made a daily habit of shooting up and snorting cocaine. Over time, he lost most of his friends, some who overdosed, and some who couldn't stand watching Borrell destroy himself. It was only after he decided to mold his feelings into impassioned lyrics instead of numbing them with narcotics that Borrell found meaning in his life. And the more he wrote, the more he was able to cope with the outside world.

"Now I see everything in my life as material for my songs," Borrell said. "Whether it was looking back at when I was 18 and I was staggering around listening to Exile on Main Street while waiting for the man, or whether it was hanging out and having a beer with rich kids in London."

Borrell formed Razorlight with guitarist Bjorn Agnen, bassist Carl Dalemo and drummer Christian Smith-Pancorvo (later replaced by Andy Burrows) in London in 2002. Inspired by various American artists including Velvet Underground, Television and Bob Dylan, and more contemporary British acts like Oasis and Supergrass, Borrell and his bandmates wrote a batch of songs that were jaunty, mesmeric and rife with hooks.

"I was trying to write songs that I would want to go see," Borrell said. "I was going to lots of gigs and some of them were okay, but I usually wouldn't want to stay for the whole thing. I wanted to put a band together that would do a show I wouldn't get bored at."

He came up with the band name one night while playing a party at an abandoned fire station for an assemblage of homeless squatters. It was a combination of a high fever and a jam-inspired trance that conjured the magical moniker. "It was the middle of winter and I was very ill and a bit delirious," he said. "There was all this reverb coming off the back wall as we were playing, and it sounded amazing. So, at the end I was improvising, and I started singing, 'It's all right, it's all right,' and that kind of mutated into 'Razorlight, Razorlight.' And I just loved the name. It reminds me of Occam's Razor [the principle which says if there are two competing theories, the simplest one is the preferable one]. You apply the razor and get down to the bare bones of whatever situation you're dealing with."

The band tracked a batch of demos at Toe Rag Studios (where the White Stripes recorded Elephant), and less than a year after they formed, Razorlight had a major-label deal. The many club gigs that followed generated a major buzz, and in no time the British press was comparing them to the Strokes and praising them as the UK's answer to American garage.

"I think some of that happened because we recorded at Toe Rag," Borrell said. "Obviously, it's totally untrue, and we had to just blaze our way through it, but some of it does stick even now."

Plenty of bands would be thrilled about being favorably compared to the Strokes and Franz Ferdinand, but Borrell isn't interested in blanket praise. He considers such comparisons, however accurate, to be lazy and insulting. Remember, he's not just interested in being a pop star; he's out to make a real difference.

"The thing is," he begins without an ounce of modesty, "I really write great songs. There's a voice in me that's screaming to people to fill their lives with some integrity. [I want] to let them know that there's something out there that is more substantial than breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, we've got the best rhythm section in rock music of any band. If anybody wants to show me a rhythm section that's better, I'd love to see it." ~ Jon Wiederhorn, MTV.com

Razorlight

The New Pornographers

"Twin Cinema"
from the album Twin Cinema
2005

Download a free MP3 of "Twin Cinema" from Matador Records
[right-click/save-as]

Also from Twin Cinema: "Use It" [MP3 from Matador]

It's the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the United States' independence. So, what better song to highlight today than that of a Canadian indie rock supergroup.

Vancouver's The New Pornographers are led by A.C. Newman (formerly of Zumpano) and Daniel Bejar (Destoyer) and also features alt-country singer Neko Case, Limblifter's Kurt Dahle and Todd Fancey the Evaporators' John Collins, independent filmmaker Blaine Thurier, and also recently Newman's niece Kathryn Calder (who appeared in Case's stead last month on a mini-tour).

After a couple of acclaimed releases (2000's Mass Romantic and 2003's Electric Version), the band returns on August 23 with a new disc, Twin Cinema. The band's US label Matador has made available an MP3 of the first single, also entitled "Twin Cinema" and linked above.

The New Pornographers

Controller.Controller

"Silent Seven"
from the EP History
2004

Download an MP3 of "Silent Seven" from the band's website
[right-click/save-as]

“A friend of mine once argued to me that the only two popular musical acts of the 20th century who will be remembered in 500 years are Bob Dylan and The Beatles. At the time, I was pretty sure this was bullshit, and today, I'm absolutely positive that it's bullshit. Maybe it's just the 40-reissues-a-week release schedule of the moment that has me confident that at least a healthy cross-section of the 20th century's musical output will be remembered in the 26th century, provided we're still around then, but I also think the current state of technology mandates that much of it will survive. We're approaching a point even now where the storage media for art are nearly invisible, and with that kind of capacity for information, there's no reason some kids in the very distant future shouldn't be able to start a band that some future critic will label a "cross between Sonny Sharrock, Pere Ubu and Wyld Stallions."

Of course, it's hard to imagine how anything will sound original in the 26th century, given the fact that it's hard enough these days to escape the dense history of pop music short of growing up in Antarctica and doing all of your writing and recording in a corrugated shed on the Ross Ice Shelf. Toronto-based Controller.Controller, however, do manage to bear the weight of a good many influences in their sound, most of which can be pinned to the years 1977-1983. And if you're sick of hearing about new music that owes a debt to the post-punk era, hear me out for a couple of 'graphs, because Controller.Controller may fit conveniently in the dancepunk mold, but there's a whole lot more to them than just dance-minded rhythm.

For one thing, they have Nirmala Basnayake, who spices her vocals with pinches of Debbie Harry and David Byrne while delivering some truly excellent melodies. She's backed in this endeavor by four gentlemen who know how to ride and manipulate a groove for maximum effect. Drummer Jeff Scheven is a human metronome, throwing down whip-crack pulse beats that always revolve around a four-on-the-floor center for his bandmates to dress up with all manner of rhythmic and melodic flourishes. Guitarists Colwyn Llewellyn-Thomas and Scott Kaija fence with laser-tones leads, distort for vicious stuttering breaks and mine that delicious Nile Rodgers pocket for the sake of the dancefloor, while bassist Ronnie Morris locks in with Scheven with clean, melodic lines.

The opening title track states the band's intentions to move you in every way possible with copious hi-hat, scratchy, clean-toned guitar chords and Basnayake's Byrne-ish sing/speak admonitions, "You need to make corrections/ You need to pay attention." And that's just one of the nearly constant highlights as the band grooves through a half-hour of sharply honed post-disco, shuddering through the frenetic and dramatic chord changes and buildups of "Silent Seven," and slipping on the viscous rhythms of "Disco Blackout." Controller.Controller have pulled together a deftly funky debut, as full of thoughtful songcraft as pure kinetic energy. And that's really what separates History from the dance-rock pack -- it's not just something to sweat to, it's something to sing along to, and something to come back to.” ~ Joe Tangari, Pitchfork

Controller.Controller