2006 August archive at Candied Pop

Archive for August, 2006

Our Lady of the Highway - Beauty Won’t Save Us This Year

Published by David August 21st, 2006 in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2005. 0 Comments

A prayer before I put in my earbuds: “Our Lady Of the Highway, may you be with me on this journey, which does not leave the confines of this room for fear of taking off my headphones as others my hear the desolation that tears apart my wretched heart. Amen.” Back when I was kid when musicians got all sad and mopey they wore black and started a band, covering nothing but Joy Division and wore makeup like Robert Smith, and we used to walk to school - up hill both ways. Today depression comes in all shapes and genres, and San Francisco’s Our Lady of the Highway heaves it out layered in alt country, mainstream pop, a little faux punk and some emo, all mixed together with oppressive lyrics. The lead singer, Dominic East writes all the songs in his bedroom and that fact is clearly apparent in this 2005 release.

Although East’s vocal stylings have a similar quirkiness to bands such as Modest Mouse, Built To Spill and the Mountain Goats, the lyrics are immensely personal, as most of the songs are about breakups and of course the inevitable broken heart. Musically they sound like a lot of current acts that are mainstream which surprises me they haven’t hit it yet. The band has the capacity to rock out but the high parts are too short: the intro to “End of the World” has a dub/funk/reggae jam which lasts only 23 seconds. Right now this album, Beauty Won’t Save Us This Year, is available for free on eMusic as well as the band’s website when you purchase their latest release Kill You With Numbers. From one free track, I Get The Sense it appears the band is beginning to branch out but they still need to reflect on other things than that girl that broke his heart years ago.

Free album: Beauty Won’t Save Us This Year

Elf Power @ 40 Watt 8/5/06

Published by Scott August 15th, 2006 in Free Tracks, Review and Concert. 2 Comments

Elf Power recently headlined a night of the Team Clermont Ball at the 40 Watt in Athens and played two sets. The first consisted of their own material and the second was all covers, including eyebrow raising fare like “Ghostbusters” (actually a lot of fun) and that annoying theme song from The Greatest American Hero. I finally got a chance to listen to the whole show, generously made available by Sloan Simpson at his great Southern Shelter blog.

I jumped on the covers set first because I was very curious to hear the band’s versions of those songs. Novelty tunes aside, Elf Power has excellent taste. They play loose and likable versions of The Beatles, VU, Dylan, Stooges, Sabbath, Neil Young, and Bowie among others. Their take on My Bloody Valentine’s “When You Sleep” is especially good. Nothing’s Going To Happen, their ‘02 covers album, is also worth checking out if you can’t get enough of them playing other people’s songs.

The first set is pretty cool too. They give a nice sampling of their catalog, with a song or two from each of their albums except for their debut, Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs. (That’s the only one I haven’t heard, incidentally. I’m still hoping for a reissue that lands on eMusic some day.) The band sounds like they’re having a fine time as they run through some of their best material. “The Separating Fault” and “Skeleton” are particularly strong. But the real standout for me is the jangly, slightly faster version of “All the World Is Waiting” from their most recent album, Back to the Web. It loses most of its glam swagger but the scrappy, stripped down translation calls attention to just how good a song it is.

Elf Power has played several times in Atlanta or Athens in the last few months, but I haven’t caught any of their shows. I hope to get another chance to, not only because I want to see them again, but also so I can get my hands on a copy of their tour only rarities collection, Treasures From the Trash Heap. I must have that album!

Murder Mystery

Published by James August 14th, 2006 in Free Tracks, Review and 2006. 2 Comments

From Amanda UnBoomed comes this tip off for her brother’s band, Murder Mystery, whose music is delightfully unassuming and unpretentious little nugget of guitar driven candy-coated pop. I found them to be a bit of a time warp that wraps together the sounds of the past several decades of music into a neat little package.

Some quick thoughts about the four free tracks on their website:

Honey Come Home could be classified as jangle but the guitars are less bright being more focused on a low-key crunch.
In A Sentimental Mood is a mid-tempo pop number that possesses a sheen of Northwest post-punk-Sixties-pop revival.
Think of Me is a soft foot stomper that has a touch of country shuffle with its slightly twangy guitar lick.
Who Doesn’t Want To Give Me Love? Glossed over with an early 80’s British Pop feel.

It is the sort of music perfect for whiling away the time on a lazy weekend or sing along to on a drive to the beach. Give it a shot.

Daniel - The Sounds In My Head

Published by David August 14th, 2006 in Random and Meta-Chatter. 0 Comments

Being a fan of eclectic, non-mainstream music throughout the years people always ask me, “How do you find out about stuff like this?” There is no one answer since they are so many sources that influence musical tastes. Like most people who love music, I enjoy stumbling upon things myself. Of course there have to be other sources involved or I would be living in bubble not discovering anything new. I occasionally listen to the radio: two great stations in my area WFMU and WFUV are great jump starts because they have real DJs picking out music. Some other essential learning places can be small record shops, eMusic, independent magazines and now podcasts are great place to absorb the knowledge of others and become influenced by something unexpected. When podcasts first became popular at the end of 2004 I jumped on the bandwagon and subscribed to a bunch of them. I had a shows synched in iTunes and to my iPod set for my morning commute: my local weather, headline news, movie reviews and of course some music programs, all managed to refresh after I listened to them. Within a very short time it became a hassle to skip forward through last month’s out-dated news, old weather reports and reviews of movies now already on DVD. Now less than two years later there are only a few podcasts that I am still “subscribed to” and are in my regular listening rotation. A magician doesn’t reveal his secrets unless he’s Penn Jillette or that masked guy from Fox a couple years ago but I am going to let you in on a little tip. One of the few podcasts that I am still listening to regularly is a treasure trove of new discoveries. It’s a short podcast called The Sounds in My Head put out weekly every Monday by a guy named Daniel in Brooklyn.

Daniel begins each of his shows with his slogan is “A weekly music show featuring songs and bands you might have missed.” He doesn’t just play stuff that is brand new but TSiMH features music that we may have overlooked. Daniel buys all the music himself which means he is a true music fan and is doing this because he loves it, just like us here at C-Pop. He doesn’t bombard his listeners with tons of songs as the shows are usually under 20 minutes and some random theme specials throughout the year under 40 minutes. Taking cues from hip radio stations, Daniel doesn’t use a fake announcer voice or try to sound like someone he’s not; which means he talks like a real person. He has a relaxed, amiable, smooth voice, which is the glue of his program. He doesn’t focus on one particular genre but seems to prefer indie power pop. Some of his favorite bands are Luna, They Might Be Giants, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Rilo Kiley and C-Pop fav Holly Gollightly. Although he doesn’t play these artists every week, or even every month for that matter, as a listener to his show you become aware of what his favorite music is. Sometimes he’ll play more than one song by an artist if he’s really digging the music to show the depth of an album. He gives you a little tidbit or some history, so you begin absorbing his knowledge whether you realize it or not. Daniel will let you know when album contains only one good song or if it’s chocked-filled with goodies. In between songs he likes to segue in topical snippets from the Daily Show, CNN, Air America that most certainly reflect a liberal opinion; which is fine with me. He’ll also throw in some funny stuff by comedians; lately he’s been featuring Patton Oswalt. Through TSiMH I have discovered new and old artists such The Bees, Jamie Lidell, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Research, Bettye Swann among many others.

He tries to play music that isn’t on the Top 40 but doesn’t always succeed since he doesn’t listen to radio. His July third episode featured two songs by Gnarls Barkley’s. I missed that show; but on that day I gave one of my mixed CDs featuring new stuff from 2006 to all of my friends at a July fourth party. One of my friends, who I was unsure of his musical tastes, said, “I really like that new song Crazy”. His daughter and him caught it on the radio and downloaded the video. I said, “Yep, it’s on there track two!” Although I had read about the song in Entertainment Weekly a couple weeks earlier, which is not always such a great source for new music. I didn’t think the song was popular yet or if it would ever be after reading the review, so I was taken back a bit even though I was aiming for a general audience. A couple weeks later I heard Daniel apologizing for putting “Crazy” on his show explaining that he heard it in on a Top 40 station while he was in a cab after publishing the show. I have come to the conclusion that it’s okay to play stuff that is popular or suddenly becomes pop, it just means we’re right.

Earlier this year Daniel had a friend of his take over the show for one episode. His friend did a great job but what I found interesting was his opinion of Daniel’s show. As TSiMH’s guest host would play his music picks he apologized for playing music that Daniel never would. Curiously, I wondered about that since Daniel seems to play everything which is why I’ve been a listener of TSiMH for such a long time. When you’ve listened to a bunch of his shows and have invited the sounds into your head, I urge you take a listen to his show 30 Hours In Prospect Park which is really long with no songs, except background music and features Daniel talking about his cat; Yes his cat! When I read description I thought I would have no interest and would end up turning it off. Within a few minutes I was captivated and felt like I was listening to an old Jean Shepherd radio show.

If you don’t have time to discover music anymore because you’re too busy, you have kids or maybe a job, or if you can manage to find time to discover new music and your doing it all the time like myself take 20 minutes and listen to the sounds in Daniel’s head, some of them are in mine too.
The Sounds in My Head
Check out this weeks themed episode on Southeast Asian Music.

The Minders - It’s A Bright Guilty World

Published by Scott August 10th, 2006 in Album, Review and 2006. 2 Comments

It’s a Bright Guilty World has been my go-to album for the past couple of weeks, the latest recipient of my ever changing musical crushes. As with all of The Minders’ work, it’s another batch of 60’s/70’s inspired guitar pop crammed full of catchy melodies and riffs. This newest one also happens to be nicely varied. From fuzzed out rockers to delicate acoustic driven pop to spare and dreary ballads, the mood shifts often but never in an unexpected or jarring way. It’s expertly sequenced and gives the sense of gently pulling the listener from one pleasurable song to the next, like a host making the rounds with a late arrival to a swinging party, introducing one interesting and likable person after another.

As good as the songs are, two things really put this album over the top for me. First is the production, at least part of which the venerable Elephant Six co-founder Robert Schneider (Apples In Stereo) is responsible for. One of the drawbacks of purchasing music through an online service is the dearth of liner notes, so I’m not sure where It’s a Bright Guilty World was recorded. Regardless, they have achieved an incredibly warm and inviting sound, most likely using vintage analog equipment.

The second deal sealer is the charming anachronistic details, like the straight out of 50’s guitar solo on “Red Admirals (Gonna Pass Me)” or the oldest-trick-in-the-book key change near the end of “Don’t You Stop.” The most curious of these idiosyncrasies is the sudden fade out on “Accidental Joy.” No matter how many times I hear this great song abruptly tail off, I’m left puzzling over it. Couldn’t they come up with a last verse? How long did they keep playing? Who made the creative decision to end the song like that? I’d love to hear an outtake version for comparison’s sake.

With only a few reviews here and there so far, It’s A Bright Guilty World doesn’t seem like it has caught on yet. Hopefully it will start to garner more attention in the near future. And while I freely admit to being a strong E6 booster, I think I can objectively recommend this one to pop rock fans of all stripes.

Mixtape tracks- Don’t You Stop, Jenny, 357, Accidental Joy
Freebies- Check the fade out on Accidental Joy, courtesy of the Future Farmer label.

Fusion: From Shakti to Tabla Beat Science

Published by James August 9th, 2006 in Album and Concert. 2 Comments

The word fusion often conjures up images of well-meaning Westerners poaching and butchering musics from outside their cultural sphere or Jazz artists looking to throw everything into the mix including country pedal steel to look sophisticated and post-ironic. Most of the time that image is dead on. In the case of Shakti and Tabla Beat Science some of that is true but more often than not it is an experiment that works in that both groups manage to successfully blend two different musical traditions and in the case of the latter use those traditions as a bridge to another.

Shatki I first stumbled on Shakti’s live album about fourteen years ago as a freshman in college and maybe it was the environment where everything felt new and imbued with a sense of idealism but the album gripped me. With a scant three tracks sprawled over an epic fifty plus minutes it blended trance like percussion with perfumed violin passages and numbingly fast guitar parts. It was exotic and though, at the time had been released seventeen years earlier, it sounded so different as to surpass the stage of novelty and become something all together transformative.

Hyperbole aside, the album remains in my collection and finds itself pulled out at least several times a year which in of itself is a testament to its longevity. What drew me in was how McLaughlin approached the joining of his art with that of Shankar, Raghavan and Vinayakram, and Hussain. Rather than trying to force the music of Southern India into the Western Canon he looks to find ways to incorporate himself with the result being a blissed out journey through frantic and cracked ragas. It is a journey of equals as McLaughlin performs with the ensemble as an equal, trading licks with Shankar and as Hussain, Raghavan, and Vinayakram thunder in the background. By approaching the music in this manner the group has created a work that does not find itself sounding dated, a problem that plagues most fusion music.

Tabla Beat Science is an evolution of Shakti’s work in that the compositions are not designed to force particular instruments into fitting a particular ideal rather it seeks to create another layer to their respective traditions. Live in San Francisco at Stern Grove sees the collective of Bill Laswell, Talvin Singh, Karsh Kale, Trilok Gurtu, Ustad Sultan Khan, and Zakir Hussain, the bridge between the two groups, branch out into a soundscape dominated by Hindustani music, Hip Hop, Drum and Bass, Dub, and Trance.

Laswell’s influence can be distinctly felt as the performance is a thick stew of sound where fragments of traditional structure float about occasionally only to be submerged under waves of rhythms and melodies. Where McLaughlin worked to insert himself into the music Tabla Beat Science appears to be trying to create a new language where the voices of the tabla are comfortable alongside a turntablist and aggressive breakbeats, though much of the groundwork for this was laid by Kale and Singh as individually each has extended dance music further into traditional South Indian music. The results are nothing short of transformative as the group captures the energy of Shatki’s recording some twenty-four years earlier and amplifies it to a joyful apex.

While both Shakti and Tabla Beat Science can be filed under fusion they restore more than a modicum of respect to the genre. If you often find yourself disregarding boundaries or feel most rewarded when you listen to music that takes chances these two albums are must haves that will not disappoint.

Michael Franti & Spearhead - Yell Fire

Published by David August 8th, 2006 in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2006. 1 Comment

When popular mainstream artists such as Bruce, Dixie Chicks, Neil Young or even Charlie Daniels and Toby Keith bring political matters to the stage or God-forbid into their music, it usually creates an uproar amongst their fans. For some strange reason naysayers think that a musical artist’s political opinions should be separate from their art. Regardless, controversy is most likely created because it is unexpected by these artists who for the most part stray away from political material. Michael Franti is no stranger to letting his fans know his opinions, he has been creating music with an underlying political agenda since his first band the Beatnigs in late eighties then in the early nineties with The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. The roots of protest music can be traced back to blues and folk music from the thirties through the seventies, then punk and reggae from seventies forward. With a sound that some classify as hip-hop, Michael Franti manages to incorporate all of these said genres into his sound.

Not an extremely prolific career, releasing only five albums with Spearhead since forming the band in 1994, fans wait at least three years between albums. Thankfully, but most likely also a contributing factor to the lapse in time, he is constantly on tour. His last album with the band was 2003’s Everyone Deserves Music the album in which he matured with an expressive sweet-sounding voice and this release continues in the same vein. Upon returning from a tour of war-torn countries in the Middle East, which is documented in the newly released film “I Know I’m Not Alone”, Franti began recording Yell Fire partially in Kingston, Jamaica and back home in San Francisco. With Sly & Robbie helping out on the Kingston tracks the album sounds more like a reggae album than any of his previous releases such as Home and Chocolate Supa Highway with the later containing a track with Bob Marley’s son Stephen on lead vocals.

Kicking the album off with a beat straight from the Joe Strummer handbook, “Time to Go Home”, calls for the return of our soldiers. The song “Yell Fire”, with obvious inspiration by Gil Scott Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, not only addresses the war in Iraq it also hits on our addiction to gasoline, tobacco, prescribed medicine and excessive commercialism. Franti has made it clear that he wants to start a revolution against wars but with “Hey Now Now” he’s also ready to fight to party all night. “Hello Bonjour” is a worldwide cry for peace layered with sappy lyrics and a repetitive chorus that sounds like a European cell phone commercial but after a couple listens I am hooked. “One Step Closer to You” one of the softer songs is coated with Jamaican roots and features Pink on background vocals; it cries out to be an instant classic.

The title of the album comes from the phrase, “Don’t shout fire in a crowded theater” an action that is not protected by the First Amendment. Franti isn’t calling for a hectic riot, he’s outside of that theater warning us not to go inside. His message may be peace but it is not a soft, flowery sixties approach; when it comes to pacifism Franti is tough. Not that this CD or any other will change the world, if just a few of us take this peaceful advice the world may be a better place. Surprisingly for someone who has seen war firsthand, Franti sings about such poignant subject matter in such a joyous voice, spreading good vibrations, while criticizing government and influencing people to get up and dance. At the same time this can also be considered the album’s major flaw since the message he brings can also be dismissed as background jargon. Like most reggae music this works great on hot summer day regardless of your political views. It’s like a watching CNN while your on vacation in the Bahamas. So whether your looking to relax sipping a cool island drink, running on the tread mill or marching in front of the Whitehouse Yell Fire will motivate you to do those things.

Freebies Yell Fire

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