Friday 28 May 2010

Listen Up! No.8: Japandroids - Sovereignty

A relative oldie now, but their new No Singles companion (more like afterthought) LP to last year's buzz-saw classic Post-Nothing reminded me just how good this Canadian duo can be with four chords and some shouty double-tracking.

Thursday 27 May 2010

Listen Up! No.7: The New Pornographers - Silver Jenny Dollar

Dan Bejar aims for his best British accent and comes out sounding somewhere between Brett Anderson and David Bowie (is there a difference?). Meanwhile, the rest of the band approximate The Auteurs circa New Wave. A distinctly anglophile affair from the Vancouver groovers.

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Listen Up! No.6: Allo Darlin' - My Heart Is a Drummer

Clearly the chorus is 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' by Cindi Lauper, but who's complaining? The rest of the S/T record (which drops on June 7th) isn't bad either.

Listen Up! No.5: Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - When We Swam

This chirpy tale of impotence is the perfect example of how miserable themes can be married to melody which sounds like the musical equivalent of a toddler at Christmas. Happy, that is. And yeh, I interviewed them, what of it?

Sunday 23 May 2010

Listen Up! No.4: Male Bonding - Year's Not Long

Having caused a minor stir (in Dalston) last year by becoming a rare English signing to venerable US indie Sub Pop, the tattooed trio have repaid the faith with ramshackle slacker-punk tunes such as this. Likely to be a festival hit for the sweaty-tent brigade.

Short Cuts! April New Releases Round-up

April's album releases, including The Futureheads, Laura Marling, MGMT, Black Francis and loads more...

5/4
Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
Indisputably the most vital and most talented amongst her ‘nu-folk’ (yeesh) contemporaries, Marling’s tender years continue not to be a hindrance, either with her husk-augmented register or her intricate grasp of how to weave commercial and credible into hit after hit. That said, the age does betray her sometimes unfathomable life lessons, not to mention neutering their authenticity. Meanwhile, though she’s better at Joni Mitchell (‘Made by Maid’) than she is at Stevie Nicks (Devil’s Spoke), she’s most accomplished at being Laura Marling (‘Darkness Descends’). A triumph.
Choice Cuts: ‘Made By Maid’, ‘Darkness Descends’, ‘Goodbye England’
9/10
Black Francis – NonStopErotik
Get past the recurring mental image of the portly Francis manoeuvring himself around the 24-hour vice den which apparently constitutes his life in NonStopErotik, and you’re left with a startling return to Pixies-esque ingĂ©nue. In short: seamless key changes, twisted chords and backhanded melodies, all drenched in a knowing sense of noir – Noir Francis, that is.
Choice Cuts: 'Cinema Star', 'Corinna'
8/10
Ted Leo – Brutalist Bricks
After the outright disappointment of 2007’s sprawling misfire Living With The Living, sprightly 30-something social-idealist punk Ted Leo goes back to basics on his Matador debut. Save for hip-shaking soul-rocker ‘One Polaroid a Day’, the tracks here are short, sharp and direct, bustling past in a head-rush of instantly claimable hooks and intricate guitar stabs. As usual, the political moments (‘The Stick’, ‘ Ativan Eyes’), whilst brimming with passion and conscience, are only ever a fist-pump away from a toe-curling lyric; as usual, the personal as political cuts (‘Bottled Up Inwith  Cork’, ‘Even Heroes Have to Die’) jumpstart head and heart with cracked-macho displays of vulnerability.
Choice Cuts: ‘Bottled Up In Cork’, ‘Gimme The Wire’, ‘Even Heroes Have to Die’
8/10
Dr Dog – Shame, Shame
Presumably as bored as we were with the agricultural approach to psyche-outs championed hitherto, Fido and chums return with their tails wagging and a pop-sheened charm offensive. Just a pity it’s taken until now to get them house-trained.
Choice Cuts – 'Shadow People'
7/10
Harper Simon – Harper Simon
Daddy, daddy cool – and at 37 Harper finally realises it. The only thing that’s missing is Art.
Choice Cuts: 'Wishes and Stars', 'Ha Ha'
6.5/10

12/4
MGMT – Congratulations
There’s a lot of Love in this room – Arthur Lee looms largest over this startling re-imagination. For synths, read: guitars; for ecstacy, read: LSD. For electro-pop throwaway, read: surf-psychedelia tour de force.
Choice Cuts: ‘Song for Dan Treacy’, ‘Flash Delirium’, ‘It’s Working’.
9/10
Plan B – The Defamation of Strickland Banks
Invoking the spirit of the Winehouse Summer (2007),
Plan B heads East not North, hooks up with a Charles and Eddie cover band instead of Mark Ronson, and produces a pleasingly complete soul-pop smash – notwithstanding the reliably superfluous ‘concept’. Note to all the ‘sell-out’ catcallers: alternating between Jamie T and Dizzy Rascal rapping never counted as ‘grit’ in the first place.
Choice Cuts: ‘Love Goes Down’, ‘Stay Too Long’
7.5/10
Darwin Deez – Darwin Deez
Inwhich the moustachioed New Yorker demonstrates he’s fairly good at tackling the Strokes with added noise (‘Lights On’), the Strokes with a serious pop kick (‘Radar Detector’) and the Strokes minus the Ramones (all the others). What he doesn’t establish is if he’s likely to widen his record collection before the next one drops. Still, those sold on a hook certainly won’t begrudge the price of admission.
Choice Cuts: ‘Lights On’, ‘DNA’
7/10

19/4
Caribou – Swim
Plastic-electronic hermit Dan Snaith might be more comfortable at a house party than filling dancefloors, but here he proves he’s just one killer pop loop away from a Billboard breakthrough. Whilst he searches for the right note, the rest of us can enjoy the fact Snaith’s abundance of grey matter hasn’t yet obscured the life (and love) in the wires.
Choice Cuts: ‘Kaili’, ‘Odessa’
7.5/10
Ash – A-Z Volume 1
MOR of the same from the eternally youthful Downpatrick tykes... who are actually old enough to know better these days. Still, as one might expect from what is essentially a singles compilation (comprising the first half of their admirable but inconsequential a-z singles experiment), most of the tracks herein pull you in hook, line and sinker, more than making up for the occasional stinker. Bravo.
Choice Cuts: ‘Joy Kicks Darkness’, ‘Command’, ‘Song of Your Desire’
7.5/10
Kate Nash – My Best Friend is You
Lily Allen sings Billy Bragg – this time with more guitars, and less show-tunes. Lacks ‘Foundations’ but the first and second floors have had significant renovation. That said, entertain the full spoken word rant of ‘Mansion House’ at your own peril, and cringe at the gratuitous swearing and “cocaine” plugs.
Choice Cuts: ‘Do Wah Do’, ‘Paris’
6/10

26/4
The Futureheads The Chaos
I’ve always had a sneaky suspicion that The Futureheads were a power-pop band – the chunky palm-mutes, the quad-tracked harmonies – hiding under a post-punk veneer, and their fourth long player proves it. Here, they tone down the sparser guitar exchanges and 90 degree angles and instead puff their chests out as they strut through their best choruses (‘Heartbeat Song’, ‘I Can Do That’) since ‘Skip to the End’. As usual, they’re sincere enough to carry it off, even if the tricks are cheap.

Choice Cuts
: ‘I Can Do That’, ‘The Chaos’, ‘Dart At The Map’

8/10
Harlem – Hippies
Sticks closely to the garage-rock mantra – “it plays therefore it is” – then adds chorus after chorus, and lyrics about ghosts and people on fire.
Choice Cuts: ‘Number One’, ‘Tila and I’, ‘Poolside’
7/10
Gogol Bordello – Trans-Continental
With some 7 nationalities amongst their 9 full time members, Eugene Hutz’ gypsy-punk jivesters are unlikely to be booked to play a BNP function in the near future – nor, on this evidence, are they likely to disuade Nick Griffin that gypsies should be neither seen or heard. Whilst slow-burning twisted folkies like ‘When Universes Collide’ are pretty enough, the band (and Hutz’ vocal) works best when the eclectic musicianship is twinned with the jolting stop/starts and “hoi hoi hois”, a match-up only infrequently realised here. Time to move to pastures new?
Choice Cuts: ‘Immigraniada’, ‘Sun Is On My Side’
5/10
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Saturday 22 May 2010

Listen Up! No. 3: Medications - Seasons

Plenty of hooks, cross-eyed rhythms and great chops from this DC trio - the best band you've never heard of.

Friday 21 May 2010

Listen Up! No.2: Ted Leo + the Pharmacists - Bottled in Cork

The key cut from his robust, breathless new record, The Brutalist Bricks, here Ted proves irrevocably he's best when channeling heart over head. And then repeating the killer hook for the 15th time.

Thursday 20 May 2010

Listen Up! No.1: Nada Surf - Love Goes On

Yes, it's a Go-Betweens cover. It's also the pick of the tracks off the band's new covers record, If I Had a Hi-fi. If I had a hi-fi (which I do), I'd mostly be playing this (which I am).

Monday 3 May 2010

Hot 5 at 5 - Spotify Playlist

Spotify Playlist featuring 5 highly recommended tracks that have been tickling THE POPSCENER's eardrums today.

Hot 5 at 5 (3/5)

Harlem - Number One
Hood-winkers

The Besnard Lakes - Albatross
Soaring

The Clash - Guns of Brixton
Takes aim

MGMT - Song for Dan Treacy
Far out

Darwin Deez - Lights On
Naturally selected
 
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