Elf Power

"An Old Familiar Scene"
from the album Back to the Web
2006
iTunes

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Of the frontline bands associated with the mid-'90s Elephant 6 collective -- a loose conglomeration of '60s-leaning, experimental pop obsessives -- Elf Power didn't seem the most likely to stick around the longest. The Apples in Stereo had the hooks, Neutral Milk Hotel had the transcendent vision, and Olivia Tremor Control had the willingness to try anything. On the other hand, Elf Power had the ability to combine elements of each into cute little packages awash in Tolkien-esque imagery. And yet, a decade later, Elf Power is the band putting out album number eight, Back to the Web, while its peers have all entered dormant periods or disappeared.

Time hasn't stood still for Elf Power, either. Holding the reins through several lineup shifts, leader Andrew Rieger has arrived at a sound that's shed some of the outré touches without losing its edge. Tracks like "All the World is Waiting" hearken back to the thrift-store psychedelic chug of A Dream in Sound, but the sweet, straightforward, slightly awestruck album-opener "Come Lie Down with Me (And Sing My Song)" best indicates where Elf Power's heart is these days. Rieger surrounds images from nature and recalled dreams with compact, layered folk-pop songs that mingle joy and fear in equal measure. (Can an Iron & Wine collaboration be far behind?) It might not have been immediately obvious to anyone but Rieger that Elf Power could still be making relevant music a decade after its debut, but on Back to the Web, he proves the band's ability to thrive with age.

~ Keith Phipps, The Onion A.V. Club

the Concretes

"On the Radio"
from the album The Concretes In Colour
2006
iTunes

In Colour is the follow up to the Concretes' critically acclaimed debut album. Still an eight piece group (4 girls and 4 guys) they have spent the last year progressing their original Motown/Wall of Sound produced Swedish pop to a more folky outlay with the help of Bright Eyes affiliate Mike Moggis.

The result is a lush symphonic album of pop gems and lovely folk laments. Recorded in their native Sweden and mixed in the US, this album is the first album that Mike Mogis hasn't recorded in his renowned Presto Studios outlet. The album starts with the piano progressive first track of "On the Radio," which wouldn't sound out of place on a Carpenters Greatest Hits album. When the melodies lace themselves around the jangly guitars and intermittent flute it almost transposes the listener into a quiet walk in the pine needle riddled forests of Sweden.

The languid beauty of singer Victoria Bergsman's voice is the main vocal presence on the album but to spice it up the Concretes nominated Lisa to sing a lovely duet with Romeo from the Magic Numbers and also guitarist Maria Eriksson's plaintive honey tones are registered on the folk based "Grey Days."

There are obvious parallels on this album with Fleetwood Mac and also Saddle Creek's own Bright Eyes, but the Concretes interject their own sound with the reliance on traditional instruments augmented by the occasional flourish of brass and bells.

Although the sweetness and light that they project is for all to hear, the blanket of gauzy reverb -- the blueprint to their sound -- beckons a brighter, harsher light to come.

~ T.J. Hart, Sound Generator

Keane

"Is It Any Wonder?"
from the album Under the Iron Sea
2006
iTunes

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In 2004 Keane were catapulted into the mainstream consciousness with their stirring and majestic take on the epic-indie sound that had already proved successful for the likes of Snow Patrol, Coldplay, and Embrace. Infamous for their distinct lack of guitars in favour of delicious slabs of synth-rock and piano-driven indie brilliance, Keane are now back with their sophomore album Under the Iron Sea.

Described by the band as a darker and more raw experience, Under the Iron Sea is the sound of Keane pushing the boundaries of soaring melodica and hook-laden songs that equally shock and excite. Including the rousing and pulsating new single "Is It Any Wonder?," a track that finds the band at their most confident and anthemic, Under the Iron Sea looks set to be one of the biggest albums of the year.

~ HMV.co.uk

Zero 7

"Throw It All Away"
from the album The Garden
2006
iTunes

Video streams of "Throw It All Away":
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Like patient and skillful gardeners, Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns have been cultivating audible treats for TK years. The duo, who comprise the UK writer/producer outfit Zero 7, are back on June 6 with their third full-length album The Garden, and the harvest is a varied and bountiful soundscape.

Their latest offering is full of what you have come to expect from these gents: laidback deep-pocket backing tracks, warm analog tones, sweet vocal harmonies, and the guest lead vocals of longtime collaborator Sia Furler. But, lush horn arrangements, Swedish-Argentinean vocalist and guitarist José González, faster tempos, and most notably, a few songs that (dare I say) rock out a little, are brand-new directions for the pair.

The Garden is still recognizably Zero 7, but a more experimental, edgy, grown-up Zero 7. Dabbling in a wider array of stylistic influences, the group has graduated from being easily classifiable as acid jazz, trip-hop, or alt-soul. From the subtle new wave bounce of "You're My Flame," to the cinematic orchestral drama of "Your Place," with echoes of everyone from Air ("Seeing Things") to Simon and Garfunkel ("Left Behind"), The Garden is full of surprises. Though unexpected and ground-breaking, the well-crafted and musically-rich songs on The Garden proves these two are musical greenthumbs.

~ DJ Scribe, coolhunting.com

End of Fashion

"O Yeah"
from the album End of Fashion
2006
iTunes

Pop/rock quartet End of Fashion had already become superstars in their native Australia before testing American waters with their 2006 self-titled debut. A streamlined mix of garage rock and pop, the disc sets itself skillfully apart from the mainstream through simple but distinct choices in song architecture and instrumentation, reminiscent of alternative Britpop bands like the Stone Roses and Oasis. For instance, twinkling electronic chimes on the slow-dance "Seize the Day" and stop/start guitar work on the up-tempo "Anything Goes" inject otherwise conventional rock songs with extra layers of creative texture, making the music dynamic and complex without compromising accessibility.

While straight-ahead rock is full of singers who do little more than shout on key, lead vocalist Justin Burford runs the gamut from raspy yowling to beautifully nuanced falsetto. He harnesses his highly expressive timbre with subtle control, using a strong vibrato to gracefully steer the musical moment from cathartic and evocative to opulent and carnival-esque. While Burford's versatile wail tends to steal focus, it remains integrated with rest of the band, particularly drummer Nick Jonsson's tight, less-is-more snare- and cymbal-heavy rhythm section.

The influences in play on End of Fashion are fairly extensive: the album samples flavors of alt-country, shoegazer, and new wave. Without these deviations, the record would be pure Britpop -- if not for the fact that Australia's commonwealth status does little more to link it with England than place a Union Jack on its flag. The Aussie band's take on the English style is fresh, creating a sound unique enough to impress a whole new continent of fans.

~ Cammila Albertson, All Music Guide

the Fiery Furnaces

"Waiting to Know You"
from the album Bitter Tea
2006

Download an MP3 of "Waiting to Know You" from Fat Possum Records
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This is their fifth full-length album in three years, making the Fiery Furnaces the hardest-working eccentrics in indie-rock -- not just in productivity, but in the inventiveness and density of the private code in which Chicago siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger write their songs. Although the Velvet Underground created the blueprint for the Furnaces' style 40 years ago -- a child prodigy's lyrical eye and unschooled melodic ear, sung-spoken vocals, savage electric guitar outbursts -- they never got their granny in to sing, as the Furnaces did on last year's Rehearsing My Choir. So how do they follow that? By going back to the dawn of the synthesizer era and psychedelic backwards-taping, among many other textural effects, some eerie, others charmingly silly. The poppy "Waiting to Know You" is marred by their playful self-sabotage. Despite the mismatches of mood and style, wistfulness accumulates throughout this album's 72 minutes; there's an intriguing inwardness at the heart of this most cultish of bands.

~ Mat Snow, The Guardian

the Walkmen

"Louisiana"
from the album A Hundred Miles Off
2006
iTunes

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The Walkmen's third full-length proves this is a band for the ages. Joining a post-motorcycle-crash Dylan vocal delivery with a Springsteenian of-the-streets spirit, whiskey-soaked singer Hamilton Leithauser leads his band through a set of rousing, sharply focused, late-night pleas and barroom romps that take the group well beyond its garage roots. From the swamp pop of "Louisiana" to the calypso bounce of "Brandy Alexander" and swaying blue-eyed soul of "Another One Goes By," the music draws upon timeless forms, and in the process itself becomes timeless. Though there's hardly a misstep, the triumph here may be the startling entreaty "Emma, Get Me a Lemon" -- iridescent guitars, fervent organ and keyed-up, tribal-style drumming drive an impassioned vocal straight to the heavens. Mainstream success may not come easily, but the Walkmen deserve applause.

~ Susan Visakowitz, Billboard

the Finals

"They'll Never Know"
from the album Plan Your Getaway
2006

Download an MP3 of "They'll Never Know" from Spin Magazine
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The casual observer might pass judgment on New Jersey while cruising down its famous length of turnpike, whizzing by noxious chemical plants, a beer factory, and the far-from-picturesque Newark Liberty Airport. But maybe those nasty substances, having seeped into the water, have mutated the Garden State's population into a pool of rock dynamos, the latest of which comes in the form the Finals, a quintet out of Bergenfield, just a stone's throw from Manhattan.

Friends since grade school, the Finals recorded their debut full-length Plan Your Getaway with producer (and fellow Jersey hero) Heath Saraceno of Midtown. But thankfully, Getaway isn't a greatest hits revue of Jersey's greatest. The most prominent influence here actually isn't Midtown, but the Midwest: Brawny, insistent numbers like "They'll Never Know" and "Extended Autumn" owe more to Windy City legends Alkaline Trio. And there's an occasional twangy guitar or country-fried riff (particularly on "Plague Escapade") that suggest the Finals have a few unexpected tricks up their sleeves for albums to come.

~ Peter Gaston, Spin

Rahim

"Forever Love"
from the album Ideal Lives
2006
iTunes

Download an MP3 of "Forever Love" from the band's website
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We live in the age of the single. Even the most desired indie darlings have at best one or two songs that stand out more than the rest of their album. Long past are the days of the complete album. Although it is easy to get caught up in the buzz of a band with that one hit, you have to look a little extra harder to find a band with the complete package. For some, that might take keeping track with what a particular label is doing. Another way is scope the websites of producers and engineers who have a track record of working with bands with potential. Word of mouth is okay if you have someone who does those previous two jobs for you. Or you can get lucky and happen to have something fall into your lap. The last two happened for me with Rahim's latest, Ideal Lives.

Rahim is a trio that had gotten the opportunity to work with producer extraordinaire J Robbins. As a result of listening to this album, you get the feeling that the band and Robbins feed off each other by creating an eclectic album that flows from beginning to end, leaving a path of sweet harmonies mixed with some DC-influenced post-punk. Robbins' production work gives the album a raw sound that seems to work as well live as it does through my headphones.

The album opener, "KlangKlangKlang," has a little bit of everything going on. From some trumpet sounds, some really slick and sly, but subdued punk-derived drumming, and a brilliant, playful relationship between the bass and guitar, much like Robbins' old band Jawbox. “Something from an Amputee” continues this trend, but with lyrics that are considerably catchy to the point where you will find yourself lip synching to the chorus. Another favorite on this album would have to be “Forever Love” with its subtle math-rock tribute to '60s British Beatle-esque bands.

Throughout the album, Philip Sutton’s drumming is just amazing. Instead of playing to the vocals and the feel of the song, Sutton seems to have somehow managed to make the feel of the song come from the drums. Ryan McCoy’s bass and Michael Friedrich’s guitar together sound like an over-active 2-year-old, sometimes quickly stopping for the other to pick up speed, only to stop again, then all three members seem to pick up with each other musically and vocally, a trick that has gotten me hook, line, and sinker.

I revel in the fact that Ideal Lives is only the first full-length from Rahim. Even though the band has released an EP before this album, I feel this is a start to what is the potential to being the foundation to an interesting Rahim library. These guys deserve credit for not only keeping the sound that influenced them in the first place, but for also having the sense to expand on that one-dimensional train of thought and build on it to the point where the listener begins to wonder how the song will finish and the next will begin. That is not to say this album is full of trickery and random slight-of-hand tricks. Rahim just picks up where bands of the past have left off and where bands of the present can never seem to genuinely pick up. While I am sure J Robbins gave the band invaluable guidance, the chemistry between the members of Rahim is quite apparent from the beginning to the end of the album.

~ Jason Wilder, Delusions of Adequacy

Cities

"A Theme"
from the album Cities
2006
iTunes

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Cities -- four bright-eyed college kids, keen on creating a decidedly American brand of melancholic, but hooky, indie rock -- have a bone to pick with those hipster highbrows focusing their attention across the pond. The band's self-titled Yep Roc debut slices through Brit-influenced post-punk with mid-90's, layered guitar rock, and the organic, indie aesthetic that was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The band has continually honed its sound while playing sold-out shows with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, We Are Scientists, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Unwed Sailor, Engine Down, and I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, wowing audiences with their cathartic, near-feral live show. Committing Cities' sound to record was up to Brian Paulson (Beck, Superchunk, Wilco, the Rosebuds), whose knack for straightforward production allowed the band to transfer their sweeping, moody epics to disc.

~ Yep Roc Records

the M's

"Plan of the Man"
from the album Future Women
2006
iTunes

Download an MP3 of "Plan of the Man" from Polyvinyl Records
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The M's aren't a UK rock band, but they do a ripping imitation of one on the title track of their debut album, Future Women, which sounds like an early-'70s Paul McCartney tune upgraded for the post-Strokes era. The Chicago quartet is equally adept at modernist sheen and retro muscle, and they seem almost at odds with themselves on Future Women, swinging from the all-in indie-pop noisemaking of "Underground" to the razor-sharp electric blues of "Mansion in the Valley," as though unsure whether they want to join the Arcade Fire army or fly with Jet. The M's do best when they navigate the straits between art and commerce, as on "My Gun," where they shred and burn the blueprints for the big rock anthem while retaining an institutional memory of its hooky boom. Ultimately, Future Women's fractured personality gives the album drama.

~ Noel Murray, The Onion A.V. Club

30 Seconds to Mars

"The Kill"
from the album A Beautiful Lie
2005
iTunes

Authentic hard rock has always been about bleeding emotions and music so sharp and heavy it can tear flesh. This might not be what you would expect from a band that is fronted by an actor, but it is exactly what 30 Seconds to Mars delivers in A Beautiful Lie. The music is razor-sharp and solid, everything that good old-fashioned hard rock is suppose to be, but with a polished edge that is refreshing and modern.

The band is headed up by Jared Leto, also known for his roles in such critically acclaimed films as Requiem for a Dream, Panic Room, and Alexander. On Leto's dual roles, MTV.com said,

He is not the first actor to launch a career in rock and roll, but somehow he's managed to be the only one audience don't laugh off the stage ... 30 Seconds to Mars has earned itself some bona fide rock cred over the course of its brief career.

Leto must draw from the same deep introspective place he goes to for his dark roles to write his music. The lyrics are passionate and the music is raw energy. Aware of the preconceptions held toward acting musicians, Leto said, "Any time you have precedent that's negative like that, you're gonna have an uphill battle. I've never shied away from that."

He doesn't offer any apologizes, and he shouldn't. The commitment and talent he brings to the music can't be denied and is just as credible as what he brings to his acting. Not only the does he write all the songs the group records, he is lead vocalist and plays guitar. Jared's brother, Shannon Leto, plays drums, and they are joined in 30 Seconds to Mars by Tomo Milicevic, also on guitars, and Matt Wachter on bass.

The second single from A Beautiful Lie is "The Kill." This begins soft -- soft drums, and lyrics tenderly whispered. As it progresses, it fills out with the guitar lines, and it transforms into something loud. The emotions run high through this charged track. It's another song about a volatile relationship, a theme that is ever present through most of the CD. It is all laid out on the line -- powerful and strong guitar and drum lines behind a sturdy lyrical delivery.

~ blogcritics.org

Neko Case

"Star Witness"
from the album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
2006
iTunes

Download an MP3 of "Star Witness" from Insound.com
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Neko Case turned up forty years or so too late to be one of the great country voices of the Fifties -- hearts break whenever she hits one of those seraphic high notes. The songs on her fourth studio album, though, are vastly weirder than her precursors': You'll find evocative story fragments about profound alienation written in the dense language of contemporary poetry ("the sledge of tectonic fever"); chorusless rambles with one long free-form verse; oblique songs about songs that suggest she's been studying her New Pornographers bandmate Dan Bejar's stuff; and folk-song lines about John the Baptist. But from her luscious, aching croon, and her ensemble's solemn high-mesa twang and groove (the crew includes members of Calexico and the Band's Garth Hudson), you'd never guess she wasn't covering Patsy Cline standards.

~ Douglas Wok, Rolling Stone

The Rakes

"All Too Human"
from the album Capture/Release
2006

Download an MP3 of "All Too Human" from Spin Magazine
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It would be easy but unwise to place The Rakes in that currently crowded shed of wiry British post-punk worshippers. There are bucketloads of easy, valid comparisons—both past and contemporary—to make, so let's get a partial list out of the way quickly: the Futureheads, Wire, Maximo Park, 999, Kaiser Chiefs, The Jam, Buzzcocks, and Bloc Party (especially Bloc Party) all provide solid reference points for Capture/Release, but a lack of singularity doesn't stop the album from being eminently listenable at its weakest moments and a solid stunner at its best.

It helps that The Rakes' full-length debut is almost embarrassingly packed with winning singles, songs that lit up London in 2005: Four of Capture/Release's 12 tracks have already been released as UK singles. Like most lasting pop, they initially seem like vacuous, quickie fun: At under two minutes, "22 Grand Job" sticks and moves with the energy of punk's early days; "Retreat," at just under three, marches in on Alan Donohoe's smart vocal snarl, building up to its broody, bristling sing-along ("Walk home/ Come down/ Retreat/ To sleep/ Wake up/ Go out/ Again/ Repeat"); "Work Work Work (Pub Club Sleep)" explores similar terrain from a measured distance; and "All Too Human," a tack-on to the American edition, bodes well -- in a kinda Franz Ferdinand-ish way -- for the future.

But the album is never just vacuous, shimmying post-punk fun. Beyond the obvious standouts are smart, strange songs like "Terror!", which rides in on a slinky guitar and sinister vocal melody, but goes on to get paranoid ("Every plane is a missile / Every suitcase a bomb") and the martial "We Are All Animals," which even dares a bit more social commentary with lines like "Will genes replace Genesis?" Those lines aren't objectively brilliant, but they work brilliantly in the context of an album that manages to slink, lurk, grate, and dance simultaneously. It isn't striking out into unknown sonic neighborhoods, but Capture/Release does a striking job of exploring familiar territory.

~ Josh Modell, The Onion A.V. Club

Pony Up!

"The Truth About Cats and Dogs (Is That They Die)"
from the album Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes
2006

Download an MP3 of "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" from Insound.com
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The ladies of Montreal's Pony Up! first lasooed me in with their cutesy humor and smart pop last year when I heard their single "Shut Up and Kiss Me." This track from their first full-length Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes is just as catchy, but may signal that the band's added a bit of an indie guitar rock edge.

Wolfmother

"Woman"
from the album Wolfmother
2006
iTunes

The buzz is entirely accurate. Not only do I buy the hype surrounding Wolfmother, I would invest several thousand shares. This Australian trio will probably receive some sort of critical correction in the coming months to reign in their pre-ordained status as the next big thing, but it's not coming from me. On the strength of its self-titled full-length debut, Wolfmother should become the first band since Soundgarden and Tool in the early '90s to capture the hearts and minds of hipsters and heshers in equal measure. It's that good.

The influences are unmistakable. Wolfmother are experienced. They are iron men. Their time is gonna come. And they're obviously not the first rock band to go down these roads. If listening to a Jet or Lenny Kravitz album becomes a parlor game of name that classic-rock artist, the members of Wolfmother bring their own riffs, style and attitude to every last song. Yes, they are like Zeppelin, in that both are awesome. The various formulas have been tweaked enough so that they have their own signature style -- call it psychedelicock-rock.

Singer/banshee Andrew Stockdale has the pipes of Robert Plant, the hair and energy of Cedric Bixler, and the premature but knowing egocentricity of Jack White circa 2002. Drummer Myles Heskett provides the requisite power and precision to the proceedings. And thank God for Chris Ross: His bass and organ work gives Wolfmother its exquisite heaviness.

In the age of wisenhiemer blogs and Best Week Ever, Wolfmother is irony-proof classic rock. The exuberance, meticulous songcraft and sheer balls of a song such as "White Unicorn" put me in the strange, unfamiliar position of not caring that I dig a song called "White Unicorn." Unlike the Darkness or Eagles of Death Metal, these guys don't think this shit is funny, and instead of making them ripe for mockery, it makes Wolfmother that much more respectable.

Perhaps the best compliment is that listening to Wolfmother's album made me jealous of the kids lucky enough to turn sixteen in 2006, driving their first cars, heading out to Friday night high school football games and to keggers afterward, driving down Main Street and blaring Wolfmother from their speakers. This will be their soundtrack, and it will serve them well.

~ Michael Legat, Prefix

Brandi Carlile

"Tragedy"
from the album Brandi Carlile
2005
iTunes

Twenty-three-year-old singer-songwriter who's gone back to nature, living in an isolated cabin outside Seattle with a dog, a cat, a horse and an acoustic guitar. Her ethereal, melancholy ballads made fans of Dave Matthews and James Taylor, both of whom she has joined onstage. Her debut album arrived summer '05.

Carlile's songs have a spare heartache that reflects her love for old-school country, but she loves new-school mopers like Radiohead and Jeff Buckley just as much. "I get all sorts of comparisons but never to one person," she says. "It's more like, 'Sheryl Crow meets Patsy Cline,' which makes me feel good. At least there's some originality there."

When she was sixteen, Carlile landed a gig as a backup singer for an Elvis impersonator. "We put on sequined costumes, did choreographed dances -- the whole nine yards," she says. "It's how I learned about harmonies and layering vocals."

~ Gillian Telling, Rolling Stone

Jolie Holland

"Springtime Can Kill You"
from the album Springtime Can Kill You
2006

Download an MP3 of "Springtime Can Kill You" from Anti Records
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Rather than killing you I believe that spring is the perfect time of year for, among other things, a song this ripe and unhinged. Sounding like a lounge-based, accent-free Björk, Holland skates, slides, and flutters through the tune, all but deconstructing its wonderful melody -- and making it all the Tom Waits-ishly more wonderful in the process. Holland by the way is actually making the opposite point her title implies, itself a neat songwriting trick: "If you don't go get what you need/ Something's going to break on the inside"; springtime kills the part of you that needs to be killed, in other words; in other words, the blossoms and colors and scents and breezes force you to be as alive as you actually are all the time without realizing it, or at least try.

~ fingertipsmusic.com

Gnarls Barkley

"Crazy"
from the album St. Elsewhere
2006
iTunes

Video streams of "Crazy":
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In 1998, Brian Burton was a distracted art student at the University of Georgia who spent his idle hours tinkering with a drum machine in his dorm room. So when Burton flipped Goodie Mob rapper Cee-Lo his glitchy demo after a show, he didn't expect much to come of it. Fast-forward to 2003: Burton, now calling himself Danger Mouse (and just months away from blowing up with the Jay-Z/Beatles mash-up The Grey Album), is producing an album by New York MC Jemini. Cee-Lo -- who had recently put out a critically acclaimed solo album of freaked-out soul -- agrees to sing on a track, impressed with Burton's wacky, symphonic production. "It was right down my alley," says Cee-Lo. "I was like, 'Let me get on a couple of your tracks.' And he said, 'I don't do tracks, I do albums.' "

Coming from Cee-Lo, who scored a hit with his 2003 Timbaland-produced "I'll Be Around" and Danger Mouse, who produced Gorillaz' Demon Days, it's no surprise that St. Elsewhere (the pair's first album as Gnarls Barkley) is a genre-defying mix of hip-hop, soul, electro and, uh, college rock (check the funked-up cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone").

"Almost half the album was done via e-mail," says Cee-Lo. "He would send me something, and I would go into the studio and cut it." Adds Danger Mouse, "We were really competing, trying to impress each other. I was just trying to send him the most out-there stuff, and he was trying to outdo it." This year, the two finally got together in the studio to finish St. Elsewhere. Many of the songs -- including the Al Green-at-a-rave single "Crazy" -- were cut in a single take.

In the U.K., "Crazy" went straight to Number One before it was even available in stores -- based on the volume of downloads alone. But Danger Mouse fears stateside listeners might not be as quick to embrace it: "It's too out there for urban radio, and it's too urban for rock radio." Cee-Lo has a more positive spin, saying, "Were we crazy to try to break down boundaries? Well, was Dr. Frankenstein crazy? Or was he convinced, completely convinced of something?"

~ Laura Gitlin, Rolling Stone

Rock Kills Kid

"Hide Away"
from the album Are You Nervous?
2006
iTunes

Rock Kills Kid's Are You Nervous? (out May 16) is an unusually polished debut album, melding early-U2 guitars with "I Love the 80s" synth riffs and Robert Smith-like emoting. But Jeff Tucker, the L.A. fivesome's frontman and songwriter, didn't always make such a slick first impression. "When I first met Jeff, he looked like a bum," says Rock Kills Kid's guitarist, Sean Stopnik. "He had a shirt that was down to his knees, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a bottle of brandy in his hand. I thought he was a homeless guy living in an alley." Stopnik was wrong: Tucker was, in fact, a homeless guy living in a recording studio. Crashing on a couch near a mixing board was economical and also gave him extra time to tweak his music. "I'd give Jeff [music] files and he'd play with them at night," says producer Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182). "He lived this record."

The band's more danceable songs, like the four-on-the-floor stomper "Paralyzed," evoke the neo-New Wave of the Killers and Franz Ferdinand, but others, including the chiming ballad-cum-anthem title track, are in the arena-rattling vein of U2, Echo and the Bunnymen and -- it must be said -- Modern English. "At the time I was writing this stuff, Creed was still at the top of the charts," Tucker says. "[Dance rock] is huge now, and we're falling right into it. It's weird how everybody subconsciously goes in the same direction at once."

Tucker, 27, started playing guitar in his early teens, after his parents moved him to a new town. "I didn't know anybody," says Tucker. "And I didn't really want to know anybody, so I just said, 'Screw it, I'll sit in my room and play guitar all day.' " After a half-semester-long stab at college, Tucker spent five years working crappy day jobs while living rent-free in the house of a friend's parents. "It was a confusing time," says Tucker, who began writing songs during that period. "I was kind of depressed. I was mooching off this guy, and his parents hated me."

~ Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone

the Lovely Feathers

"Wrong Choice"
from the album Hind Hind Legs
2006
iTunes

The Lovely Feathers seem poised for success: They hail from the buzzing indie beehive of Montreal; they're labelmates with Islands on the newly formed Equator Records; hell, they even have a name derived from the animal kingdom and Marcel Dzama-esque illustrations on their album sleeve. But it isn't merely the contemporary cred signifiers that make Lovely Feathers a potential hype band; it's the music.

Armed with a sophisticated pop sensibility, the Lovely Feathers are never short of musical ideas, as they spastically shift tempo, volume, and style in highly compressed spaces. The songs are unpredictable, leaping from barely-there strumming and whispered vocals to bombastic full-band arrangements. Album opener "Pope John Paul," for example, effortlessly packs at least five different parts -- only two of which repeat -- into less than four minutes.

Unfortunately, the band's eccentric approach to songwriting is mirrored in its disastrously quirky lyrics. Pop music needn't be literate or even literary to be great, of course, but too many of these songs are marred by distractingly precious words. Often the delivery is tongue-in-cheek; elsewhere, cringe-inducers like "I like the chapped skin above your eyes/ Even when you complain about my hives" from "Mildly Decorated" are sung with what sounds like conviction. Such couplets, when paired with this high level of musical invention, mark the Lovely Feathers as heirs to the Unicorns' legacy of smart-ass pop. But where the Unicorns managed to situate their cloyingly cutesy lyrics in an album-wide concept about death, there's no such coherence here, just grating loose ends. Sometimes the lyrics manage to be amusing, but mostly they're as irritating as the aforementioned chapped skin and hives.

Still, there's strong evidence here that the Lovely Feathers are a superb indie pop group in the making; enough, even, to make you forget the lackluster lyrics. "In the Valley" is the band at its tightest, as the thumping bass of its disco-tinged intro gives way to razor-sharp guitar interplay and a swooning string section. "Wrong Choice" is classic indie rock in the Weezer vein, with sing-along verses and swelling choruses.

The Lovely Feathers have the potential to shape their ideas into something more focused, and the songs on Hind Hind Legs would have carried more weight had they not been sabotaged by silliness and fluffy wordplay. Maybe Yanofsky had this in mind on "Ooh You Shocked Me," when he sang, "Who has a heart? I have a heart." Perhaps next time, he'll prove that sentiment to be more than just another ironic line.

~ John Motley, Pitchfork

Imaad Wasif

"Out in the Black"
from the album Imaad Wasif
2006
iTunes

Download an MP3 of "Out in the Black" from Kill Rocks
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If you've heard of Imaad Wasif, it probably first happened when New York's Yeah Yeah Yeahs announced he'd join them onstage as a second guitarist for the much-buzzed New York outfit. And because of this, you would probably assume Wasif's solo material to be adjunct to Karen O.'s hyped-up Big Apple hipsterdom.

They couldn't be more wrong.

Wasif, a onetime member of the New Folk Implosion and Alaska is more than a stylish guitar-slinger, as he proves on his self-titled solo debut. With a handle on sparse singer/songwriter material and spacious songwriting akin to Jeff Buckley or a stripped-down, coffee-shop version of the Veils, Wasif establishes himself as much more than a Yeah Yeah Yeahs accessory. Imaad Wasif is the sort of album you'd expect to find playing in a coffee-shop, but not in one of those disposable-cup, extra-expensive venti chain joints, but rather in that your favorite struggling, locally-owned coffeehouse with beat-up, comfy couches and sturdy porcelain cups.

Wasif proves to have an ear for the downbeat sort of melodies and loose songwriting that fit perfectly with a dark cup of joe. Tracks like "Fade in Me" and "Whisper" give Wasif the perfect vehicle for his strained but never tortured delivery to lead a folk track through the numbers without growing stale. "Coil" expands Wasif's one-man approach to take in standup bass and strings, to find a balance between the Southern Gothic of acts like Munly or 16 Horsepower and traditional singer/songwriter material. Similarly, "(Dandelion)" and "Spark" stretch their legs and lope through folk-pop territory, gently hiding their melodic side behind haunting stretches of barebones simplicity.

For a guitarist like Wasif to plug in and take the stage with a crew of New York hipsters might seem like a non sequitur, but it's only if you're not paying this album the attention it deserves. Imaad Wasif handles folk and singer/songwriter material, but Wasif does it with attention to the little details that make this effort much more than a typical acoustic strummer. With that sort of versatility, it's no wonder Karen O. tapped him as a hired gun.

~ Matt Schild, aversion.com