Pocketknife/Adventures With Might Split 7" - Release at Holocene, February 29th

I was excited to discover that Pocketknife has a new release coming out - a split 7" with fellow Portland synth pop makers Adventures With Might on Vinyl Richie. The concept of the record is simple but clever - each band's side contains one original song and one cover of the other band. All songs contain sexy, danceable, synth-heavy pop. Pocketknife's original track, "Bats in the Belfry," skillfully combines creepy, ominous lyrics with frantic, catchy pop hooks. Adventures With Might's "Teen Machine" sounds like what would happen if 70's funk and 80's goth had the most awesome music baby possible. The bands are having a release show at Holocene on February 29th. Dancing will not be optional.

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Album Review and Relase Show - Lake: Giving And Receiving

Olympia, WA-born band Lake's forthcoming album, Giving & Receiving, to be released on K Records this coming Tuesday, is an experience in pure pop pleasure. Gorgeous male and female vocals, catchy rhythms, and an ample dose of keys, horns and synthesizers. Modern pop with a vintage cocktail/lounge sensibility, listening will transport you to a land where everything is groovy, but classy.

They're playing a release show April 12 at The Woods, with Portland bands Ages & Ages and the thoroughly adorable The Golden Hours. Definitely worth checking out. If, like me, you're outside the Portland area, they're on tour for the next month or so.

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Music Review: The Downer Party "Cities" EP

San Francisco band the Downer Party offers up a delicious serving of female-fronted indie rock in their forthcoming EP, "Cities". The band's singer, Sierra Frost (Who mentions that that IS her real name - and she hates it..) describes their sound as "mellow", but though not loud, they have a driving energy that refutes that description. Catchy riffs, fuzzy guitars, just a bit of synth, fun backup vocals, and clever, literate lyrics, sung with just a hint of country twang. The band name is misleading; The Downer Party definitely bring the fun. "Cities" will be released April 1st.

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It's hard to refuse the offer of makeup sex. A review of Burning Hank.

There is a large space in my music collection for music that makes me smile. Burning Hank makes me smile. They've got an approach to songwriting that is round, friendly and welcome at your dinner table.

"This song was the first one that we wrote together after Roger had joined us. It is about the common fear that your pet dog or cat will be abducted and used for cosmetic testing."

You see, this is what songs need to be written about. I have so many songs in my collection about the burning passion in my heart, the burning passion in my mind and the burning sensation in my pants. Bagh, I say. Give me songs about mild and rather forgettable earthquakes, socks, bisexuality and cats. I have filed these fine folks under "Awesome" genre tag. It's the same reason I am such a fan of Doctor Something. Maybe Burning Hank should write a tune about their own favorite Transit Center on a split 7"? I'd buy that to listen to on the Max.

"How many hospitals have your body parts? you are incomplete. Got your tonsils out in Tokyo and your head kicked in in Greece."

I think these people have been on tour.

"And Norma Jennings makes a damn fine cup of coffee
Take off those 3D glasses please Doctor Jacobi
And what the hell does Harry see in Josie?
And what the hell does Shelly see in Bobbie?"

A song about Twin Peaks pointed at this blog is just not fair. What's next Burning Hank? Are you going to send me a song about Bikes, Coffee Shops and Being Snooty? Alright fine, you can come play in Portland. We love you.

Musically this record is a mixed drink of jangle, rock, a touch of folk swing topped with synth trumpets on a swizzle stick. Much like their lyrics, it is simple and approachable. You could drink this record all night and not get too drunk. I keep wanting to hear more extensive instrumentation in these tunes though; that touch of swing just screams out for a lap steel. Seriously, if you guys read this review think of "Keep Digging" with a bouncy steel solo somewhere in there. It's pretty obvious that they can play their instruments but I feel like they're holding back a bit in this record. I bet their live act kicks fucking ass though. I'll put my $5 down on that.

On the balance I'll give it a 12.876 out of π. Which is pretty good. Verging on rad. I don't do numbers. Listen to their record on Bandcamp and make up your own damn mind.

Oh, and this from their Bandcamp page made me smile. I'll bet it makes you happy too.

"It was nice to see Dick Cheney in ill health and we wanted to keep the memory of that evil prick in his wheelchair alive for the next time we felt down."


Me too Burning Hank, me too.

-Eriq

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Album Review : Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun "Heavyweight Champions" EP

Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun hail from Atlanta, Georgia. They are a four-piece electro pop band, and their most recent EP, “Heavyweight Champions” was released in October of this year.

This record is definitely catchy. Nearly every song has me moving a bit and singing along while it plays. Lead singer Lauren Gibson has a great voice; in turns sweet, powerful, pained, and sinister. The band is also quite versatile. Each song has a distinct personality. Track one, “Bones” is strong, opening with an explosive feedback sound and continuing with fuzzed guitars and a solid beat all the way through. Two, “Apologia” continues Bones’ strength – a little slower, but just as in-charge, guitar and drum driven with a few well-placed space-age electric sounds. The third and title track, “Heavyweight Champions” changes the mood – starting with electronic sounds and piano, the body of the song has a slower, shuffled beat and sultry, noirish tone that would be well at home in a divey lounge of the Blade Runner future. Tracks 4 and 5, “The Atlantan” and “Faster Than Some” share a more acoustic, stripped down sound with less drums; in case you need a rest and an intimate chat after all that dancing.

The final three tracks are the weakest. “Like it (remix a)” and “Or Not (remix b)” are two different versions of the same song. Both have more processed vocals, drum machine sounds and layered vocal samples. The first one is busier, very clubby, lots of electronic breaks; the second a bit gentler, with an echo-y a cappella intro and synth strings. The final track, “Never. Always. Good” continues the theme with handclaps, X-files-soundtrack type synth sounds over a heavy beat which sounds like a mix of drum machine and acoustic, processed robot-style vocals and electronically produced stutter echo.

Now, the last three tracks are by no means bad. They are decent songs, and well done dance club remixes. I may be an unfair judge, since I don’t listen to dance music. However, after the individuality and quality of the first five tracks, a dance club remix that sounds like any other dance club remix is a letdown. Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun is a great band, and Lauren Gibson a great singer. I’d like to hear them do more of what makes them great and forget about trying to sound like everybody else – they’re better than that.

From their myspace page "Southeast Performer Magazine Shoot (OhSnapkid.com)"

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CD Review : (Destroy) Nate Allen Double CD - Perfect Recipe For A Smile\Don't Let This Smile Fool You

In a Slide @ The Metreon. Take By Cody @ www.rasimage.com

I’ll admit, I’m not much of a folk punk fan. That said, Portlanders Destroy Nate Allen totally charmed me. Well, technically, “Perfect Recipe for a Smile” is Destroy Nate Allen, written & performed by Nate and his wife Tessa, and “Don’t Let This Smile Fool You” is Nate Allen alone.

“Perfect Recipe..” has very sparse instrumentation – guitar, male & female vocals, and the occasional shaken percussion. The aesthetics are straight up punk rock, while the lyrics mix introspective, personal storytelling in the vein of Olympia acoustic pop with the charm and humour of Jonathan Richman. In a few instances, “Recipe” and “His Lips Are Sealed Hallelujah” specifically, there’s an infusion of wacky radio theatre.

The opener, “Anchors Away”, and “White Flag” later on, are fairly simple, fun songs. I can’t quite guess whether the lyrics hint at a bigger story or were simply fun to say, but it doesn’t really matter.

The majority of the songs on “Perfect Recipe..” are super cute duets describing the story (real or fictionalized, I don’t know) of Nate and Tessa’s relationship, or Nate’s feelings about life. “Turns Out Your Perfect For Me” “Loving You”, “His Lips Are Sealed Hallelujah” , “Despite It All”. Destroy Nate Allen have a good way of capturing the victories and challenges of loving someone. My favourite is “Loving You”, which depicts the difficulties of loving someone even though “she likes the songs that I don’t like.” Nate and Tessa have amazing chemistry – I feel almost like an eavesdropper listening to them sing about their love. “Recipe” is a song I’m really sorry my old band Project Casserole didn’t write. It’s a theatrical, poppy instruction to cooking – “Follow the recipe the first time that you do it, after you do that you can add things to it.” And hey, that’s really good advice.

“Don’t Let This Smile Fool You”, is even simpler in instrumentation – just Nate and a banjo. It’s also a quick one – the longest song is 2:48. Track 1, “Phil Collins” has that purposely-fuzzy, ancient wax cylinder microphone sound. “35, 35, 35” is a great song. I can’t explain exactly way – it’s just fun and poppy and makes me feel really good.

The next three, “Guitar Strings”, “Glow in the Dark”, and “How To Make a Girl Cry”, are love songs. And for the record, “How To Make a Girl Cry” is so sweet that I did start to cry a little while I was listening to it. All Allen’s love songs contain the kind of sweet, emotional things that most guys won’t hardly admit to saying to the person they’re saying it about, much less tell the whole world – I give him double kudos for that.

The next two songs, “Grandpa”, and “Ain’t Gonna Rain no More” are something completely different, but related to eachother. The first is Nate asking his grandparents what life and his history is about, and the second is a goofy song his grandpa supposedly taught him – “How the heck gonna wash my neck if it ain’t gonna rain no more?”

“Suffer” is about the necessity of dealing with things you don’t want to deal with, with a little bit of political commentary mixed in.

The pair of records end with “Pardon Song” which reminds us that

“In the end it doesn’t matter, in the end we are just fools – if we haven’t made a lot of friends and broken a few rules.”

I know I’ve thrown a lot of lyric quotes in here, but for this sort of music, that’s the best way to explain it. Actually, the second best way. The first best way is for you to go listen to it yourself.

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EP Review : Tribella "My Guest List"

I was pretty excited to receive a CD from Tribella. A three-piece, all woman band from Austin, trained in classical piano and jazz? Sounds pretty sweet. Unfortunately, the result is relatively unremarkable. They're talented, they have good instrumental skills, good voices, and good production. A little too good, a little too mainstream. I expect them to be singing "Soak up the sun". The title track, "My Guest List," and #4 "Saucer Eyes" are notable for their girl-power, I don't need some man to treat me wrong, I'm in a rock band attitude, but stylistically, I'd still rather have Bratmobile tell me that. Don't want to take my word for it? The whole EP is available for free to listen on their website.

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Album Review (and show Tonight) Chores : The Subtle Politics of the Public Hammock

A press release in my e-mail inbox announcing an April 2^nd CD Release at Rotture was the first I’d heard of Portland locals Chores. Before taking a listen to the album, The Subtle Politics of the Public Hammock, I took a peek at the record cover – it has a 60’s or early 1970’s look, a hammock in the foreground with some people, facing away, walking down the street in the background. I popped the CD into my car stereo fully prepared for some British-Invasion flavoured indie-pop a-la Blue Skies For Black Hearts. I was dead wrong, but not disappointed.

Chores have been referred to as “pop”, but I would put them more in the category of rock \ post-punk. Repeating, guitar-driven melodies are topped by powerful female vocals, backed by men, sometimes sung and sometimes chanted, altogether reminiscent of X, Yo La Tengo, and a slight flavor of Siouxsie Sioux and the B-52’s. The first track, Welcome To The Public Hammock, has a woman speaking in French over some dreamy music – my French is not quite good enough to determine what she’s actually saying, but something regarding a hammock. The tracks after that are more straightforward, but with lots of variety. Track 2, “My Own Private Esperanto”, wins automatically just because of the title. It also happens to be a good song, with chanted vocals and several changes throughout the song, including a revisiting of the recorded French voice. Track 3, Make the world Go Away, has more powerful, belted vocals, and some references to the Internet. Track 4, Super Car, is referred to on the press kit as a song of “social import”. Maybe I’m not catching all the lyrics, but what I do know is it’s a super fun, metal-influenced (but in a good way) song about driving around in a super car. New New Deal, on the other hand, definitely is social commentary, with lyrics about working at Wal-Mart and in a Hong Kong factory. This song reminds me of a somehow successful blend of 70’s protest soft-rock and riot grrl. Track 6, Familiar Order, is the gentlest song on the album. Tracks 7 and 9, Rose and Noinsuranceland, are unique in that they have male lead vocals. This turned me off of them at first, though the fellow who sings isn’t bad, but the female singer is just SO DAMN GOOD. Her voice blows my mind. It’s hard to compete with that. Regardless, after a couple listenings, I’m kind of fond of “Rose”, a seemingly simple pop song that spans the entirety of a relationship from excitement to loss to bitterness while remaining amiably catchy. I didn’t really get into Noinsuranceland at all, though I definitely appreciate the sentiment – in fact, I’ve spent my whole life there and have been fortunate enough, knock on wood, to avoid any life threatening illnesses.. but the song comes off as a little too obvious and kind of pop-punk for me – not a bad song in itself, it comes off as weak when the rest of the album is so excellent.

Chores are playing tonight (Thursday, April 2) at Rotture to celebrate the release of The Subtle Politics of the Public Hammock. Doors open at 8, Church plays first, Chores second, and Lesser Lewis third. The cost is $5, and if you go, you can buy their album for an additional 5. That’s a good deal.

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