Sound Bites

Sloan Sloan Sloan

I haven't written about Sloan since last May. Which is a long time for me. So get ready, I've got lots of info.

Firstly, this is the cover to the band's new album, Parallel Play -- This is the band's eighth studio effort and the title is a reference to the stage in kids' development when they play next to each other but not with each other. Which is their winking way of describing how the band works these days. For more on this, bassist Chris Murphy had this to say:

Collaboration can be difficult. Our band does less of it than we used to and it's too bad. It may just be a romantic feeling but the songs where something major was added by someone other than the main writer are my favorite. I definitely come in with finished song structures but I like to leave room for someone to play something I wasn't expecting.

We never fight. We just stew. Aren't the best bands the ones that are founded in passive aggressiveness? If this is true then we are truly the best band ever. When you've gone this long without a real fight there is the constant fear that if we start telling each other the truth that it will be the end of the band.

If we videoed this process even Metallica would think we looked like goofs:

"Don't try to make my song sound like the fucking Traveling Wilburys!"
"Yeah well give your backwards delay wah pedal to some 15 year old that thinks it's cool!"
...band over.

We have all developed a sophisticated sense of humor that we use against each other at times. Patrick is the funniest man alive but he also loves digital delay. That would make me a Traveling Wilbury.

This is the most democratic, percentage-wise, Sloan record we've gotten in a long time. As you may know, all four members write and sing and this time it's pretty evenly split, with everyone getting three songs, except drummer Andrew Scott who gets four. Clocking in at 35 minutes, Parallel Play is their shortest ever. Kinda funny, as their last one, 2006's Never Hear the End of It, was their longest. It's out June 10 on Yep Roc but you can hear it right now, via a streaming player on the Yep Roc website. But here's the first single, Chris Murphy's "I'm Not a Kid Anymore":

MP3: Sloan - I'm Not a Kid Anymore (Pre-order Parallel Play)

I've listened to the album a few times and it's another strong one in their 17-year career. Chris Murphy brings snark and melody, Patrick Pentland delivers the Big Riffs, and Jay Furgeson's encyclopedic pop knowledge gives us the best songs on the album, including highpoint "Cheap Champagne," which should please anyone who really dug Navy Blues' "C'mon C'mon." As for drummer Andrew Scott, he generally classes up the joint, and finally answers the question many Sloan fans have been asking: "When will Sloan's genre-plundering finally lead them to reggae?" The time is now, folks.

They may all be nearing 40, most of them with kids, but they've still got it. Certainly, they're still easily one of the most consistently awesome live shows of my rock-show-going existence. If you've never experienced Sloan in person, shame on you, but you can rectify that shortly as they'll be in the States in June:

Jun 14    Detroit        Majestic Theatre
Jun 15    Philadelphia    North Star Bar   
Jun 17    Washington, D    Black Cat   
Jun 18    Cambridge, MA    T.T. The Bear's (buy)
Jun 19    New York, NY    Bowery Ballroom   
Jun 20    New York, NY    Bowery Ballroom   
Jun 22    Cleveland, OH    Grog Shop   
Jun 23    Chicago, IL    Double Door

Tickets for the Bowery shows are on sale this Friday.

But wait, there's more! Lots more ("witch music," "techno," etc)... after the jump.

Hello Blue Roses | Glassland Gallery | 2.16.2008

"Playing live sucks," Dan Bejar joked, or sort of joked, in consolation as Sydney Vermont struggled finding the chords on her acoustic guitar in the low lighting of Glasslands Gallery. She had started and restarted the song about eight times and was clearly ready to move on to the next one but gbave it one last go and muddled through.

It was that kind of show. Hello Blue Roses, Bejar's other other group with his Girfriend Vermont, hadn't played a live show in 18 months, with Bejar adding, "our last show was 18 minutes long. Tonight we're determined to top 30!"  The stops and starts probably helped extend the show well into record length. They played maybe eight songs, mainly with Vermont singing and occasional flute, and Bejar on Guitar and occasional vocals. The set was loose, jokey and had a distinct '70s folk vibe to it -- I kept thinking of Judy Collins for some reason. Probably the flute.

Despite having a New Pornographer (and Destoyer) in the house, Glasslands was crowded but definitely not packed. Carl Newman was in the house, as was the Phosphorecent guy. Not an essential show, but glad I went.

MP3: Hello Blue Roses - Sunny Skies (Buy it)

I shot video of the same song:

Better pictures at Brooklyn Vegan.

CMJ 2007 Day Two| Bella | Knitting Factory Old Office

Best stage accoutrement ever: a tiny little table lamp with the Bella logo stitched into the shade that was perched on the guitar amp. I tried to take a picture of it (you can see it under the KF logo in this picture) but the white balance makes it to bright to really see it in all its darling glory.

Bella are cute like that. But not twee. The Canadaian-American trio mix the sweet and salty: boy-girl vocals full of "bah bahs" and harmonies, but also crunchy guitars and a healthy dose of attitude. Their debut, No One Will Know, is fairly slick but live, Bella are messier and loud with the three members switching instruments every few songs.quite a lot over the last couple months.

The Knitting Factory Old Office, where the Mint Records showcase was happening, is nobody's idea of an ideal venue, but it felt more like a party than most gigs. CBC beverage cozies and decorated bags of candy were tossed into the crowd. You could tell most of the audience knew the bands. (They were likely the other bands on the bill.) I had to dash off to the Music Hall of Williamsburg after their set, so I didn't get to see the other bands (maybe I would've stayed if they'd brought Novillero and the Bicycles back this year) but my second night of CMJ definitely started on a good note.

MP3: DBella - Give it a Night (Buy it)

Bumpershine was there too, and pretty sure I saw the Modern Age, but no posts by her on it so cannot confirm or deny.

Caribou | Bowery Ballroom | 10.06.2007

Saturday night was Merge Records night in New York with three of the label''s biggest band in town playing separate shows. Most indie lovers went with Option 1: The Arcade Fire at Randals Island. (Apparently some other bands played too.) Option 2, if so lucky, was to see Spoon perform on Saturday Night Live. Some of us, those who don't like standing in a field for five hours or have friends at NBC, went for Option 3. I think I made the right choice.

Last time I saw Dan Snaith was at Bowery Ballroom in 2001, back when he was still using the Manitoba moniker. More has changed since then than just the name of the band. After two albums of albums of laptop cacophony with hints of melody, Caribou has gone pop for the just-released Andorra, which I think is one of the year's best. Mind you, he still makes room for the psychedelic freakout, and his idea of Pop is not the same as, say, James Blunt's, but its still loaded with undeniably catchy tunes.

The psychedelic freakout aspect plays a little more heavily in Caribou's live show, which features lysergic projections and an overload of percussion. Two drum kits were front and center, with dedicated man Brad Weber on one and the second for Snaith, who played it at least part of every song, when he wasn't on guitar or keyboards.

I have stated many times before that two things that push my buttons are a) putting the drums at the front of the stage and b) two drummers. So this was my kind of show, even if all this pounding turned some of the tight, perfect songs on Andorra into longer, wilder things... with false endings. Every single song had a point where at least one person in the audience clapped before it kicked back in, usually with another three minutes of double-drums and flashing, seizure-inducing lights.

As I'm not an epileptic, I found it all awesome. If Snaith and Weber weren't so good on their kits, it wouldn't have worked. But they were so in synch, it was a thing to behold. And the rest of the band, guitarist Andy Smith and bassist Andy Lloyd, were nothing to sneeze at either. I left quite happy about where I had chosen to be that night, and even though the show was indoors, I still found Caribou outstanding in their field. Wah wah!

MP3: Caribou - Eli (Buy Andorra)

And here's video from the encore, the last six minutes. I'm pretty sure there was a song attached to this...

SoundBites Best of 2005 | Albums

Don't let anyone say 2005 was a crummy year for music. I coulda done a Top 50. But that takes too much time. Here's my Top 20 Albums of 2005, which probably changed more than NME's lineup right down to posting.

Elbow – Leaders of the Free World (V2) | Elbow's third album is not only the best thing they've ever done, it was the best thing I heard anyone do in 2005. Gorgeous melodies, inventive arrangements and musicianship, and some of the most heartfelt (without treacle) lyrics around. And Guy Garvey's amazing voice on top of it all. Album of the Year by a mile. Best songs: "Station Approach," "The Stops," "Mexican Standoff," "The Everthere."

Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock and Roll (Fierce Panda) | The year's most flat-out enjoyable record. The humor in singer Eddie Argos' lyrics hits you first ("I've seen her naked...TWICE!") but these are songs that are funny, not novelty rock. (Some may disagree.) And, as Argos sings on their manifesto "Formed a Band," this is not irony. "We're just talking to the kids!" The hits keep coming through all 12 tracks, from "My Little Brother" through "18,000 Lira."

 

New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (Matador) | Not as immediate and crammed with hooks as either The Electric Version or Mass Romantic, album number three for this mostly-Canadian supergroup seemed like a bit of a dud on arrival. Weeks of play, however, and songs constantly coming up on shuffle on the iPod, have proven Twin Cinema to be another batch of winning songs with perhaps the most staying power of them all. Dig new New breed: "Sing Me Spanish Techno," "These Are the Fables," "The Jessica Numbers."

Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins (Polyvinyl) I remember seeing Of Montreal back in 1999, playing with Ladybug Transistor. There were props and slide-flutes and other twee type things. I didn't like them. But somewhere down the line they transformed from utter whimsy into a band capable of filtering poppy, '60s-inspired melodies through Eno-esque new wave. I was hooked. One of 2005's earlier releases (well, April), The Sunlandic Twins has stayed with me for most of the year. Get some Sun:"Requiem for O.M.M.2," "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)," "Forecast Fascist Future."

The Rakes - Capture/Release (V2) | These guys have, so far, been met mostly with shrugs in America (the record's not out yet here), dismissed as the latest post-punk whatever. There may be a little disco hi-hat in the drumming, but The Rakes are miles better than any of the others and actually remind me of Pink Flag-era Wire with a working-class attitude and an articulate grasp of late-20s ennui. "Might as well go out for a fifth night in a row" indeed. Capture/Release is genius from start-to-finish and has some of the year's best singles, too, including "Work Work Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)," "22 Grand Job," and "Strasbourg."

Field Music - Field Music (Memphis Industries) | Despite having ties to both the Futureheads (singer Andrew Moore used to be in them) and Maximo Park (they share a drummer), Sunderland, England's Field Music sound nothing like them. It's all delicate, sparse arrangements (not unlike Spoon), nods to '60s baroque pop, and a cut-the-fat approach to album making. Debut album of the year, rock division. Choice cuts: "If Only the Moon Were Up," "Shorter Shorter," "Got to Write a Letter"

LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem (DFA/Capitol) | When LCD Soundsystem's debut got two Grammy noms, I began to question my own taste for including this on my best-of list but no, dammit, this is a great album. It still sounds great after having it for nearly a year, and being played at every party, before every show, and on The O.C. It will be interesting to see what James Murphy does next. Killer jams: "Daft Punk is Playing in My House," "Tribulations," "Beat Connection"

My Morning Jacket - Z (ATO) | Like The Clientele, My Morning Jacket dare to drop one of their calling cards (the gallons of reverb), then drop a key band member and pull a 180 musically. The result being the best album they've ever done and the first one I've truly liked start-to-finish. And yet they still sound like My Morning Jacket, thanks in no small part to Jim James voice-of-heaven vocals. Prime cuts: "Wordless Chorus," "Into the Woods," "Anytime"

Richard Hawley - Coles Corner (Mute) | Third album's the charm for this former axeman for Longpigs and Pulp, who once again leaves indie stylings behind in favor of full-on crooner mode, a la Roy Orbison, Burt Bacharach, Marty Robbins, or even Morrissey. Even though it was written about Sheffield, England, Coles Corner makes a gorgeous soundtrack for NYC too, and sounds even better after midnight. Swoon: "The Ocean," "Hotel Room," "Born Under a Bad Sign," "Coles Corner"

Malcolm Middleton - Into the Woods (Chemikal Underground) | If you read the lyrics sheet, you may wonder about the state of mind of Arab Strap's Malcolm Middleton on his second solo album. For example, on "A Happy Medium" he sings, "Woke up again today/Realized I hate myself/My Brain is a disease." But Into the Woods is not a dreary exercise in woe-is-me-isms. Like so many before him, Middleton turns his pain, fear and doubts into something beautiful. Even those who have never had any time for Arab Strap should give this one a chance. Get into: "My Loneliness Shines," "You're Gonna Break My Heart," "A Happy Medium"

The other 10 after the jump...