Lia Ices’ Grown Unknown, the follow-up to 2008′s underrated Necima, reminds me most of vintage Sarah McLachlan. Though Ices trades in her predecessor’s Vh1-ready pop momentum for more intricate, idiosyncratic ballads, both have a way of wringing subtle but serious anguish out of every syllable. Ices is unlikely to play any of this record at awards ceremonies or public funerals over the next decade, but if I had to pick an “Angel,” it’s the trembling “Love Is Won,” a song that begins with a piano and voice and makes its way through a gentle Procul Harum daydream. Ices continues to thaw on “Daphne,” a finger-picked folk song not even a Bon Iver appearance can ruin, and the click-clacking title track bristles with danger as it shifts from a rain of percussion to galloping guitar chords. She may grow further still, but Lia Ices’ latest is an album that demands to be known.
“Let’s Go” by Mike and Cody is like if the entry-level alts Hipster Runoff used to make fun of circa 2K9 tried to make a Daft Punk song in their frat house and it turned out to be a total jam. Yes, it’s about one step away from Ke$ha and two from Owl City, but given the genre, that’s probably better than being closer to the grave (via LCD Soundsystem).
If you’re as surprised as I was on the arrival of Brave Irene, the new band of Rawkblog heroine Rose Melberg (The Softies, Go Sailor, Tiger Trap), here she is on why the band started:
“‘I want to make noise.’ It started out like that,” laughs Melberg… “I want to be in a band. I want it to be loud. I want to use my electric guitar. I want to use my distortion pedal.”
Given the thoroughly great results, nothing wrong with that. Click over to Exclaim for the full interview. Brave Irene is due March 15 on Slumberland.
The Warm Hardies’ “Fast and Heavy” is the best song about locomotives since Bob Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”; it is the best Death Cab song since “405″; it is a song that will fill your eyes right up as you reach to press play again and again. (It is not a Death Cab song. But it comes close enough.) The Warm Hardies are a Seattle girl-guy duo who sing with quiet, untrained passion, their harmonies brushing against each other like a cashmere cardigan against oxford cloth. “Fast and Heavy” is their first song; the band tells me a full-band version is on the way, which would be exciting if it wasn’t already completely perfect.
No way! Way. Rawkblog and our pals at TwentyFourBit are proud to present our first-ever unofficial SXSW day party, Waynestock, sponsored by Etnies, thinkThin and Origami Vinyl. It’s all happening at the Liberty on Thursday, March 17, and we promise to make Wayne and Garth proud. Here’s the lineup and set times:
12 p.m.: LA Font
1: Scott Bartenhagen
2: Little Scream
3: Ravens & Chimes
4: Pepper Rabbit
5: ARMS
6: Sondre Lerche
We’ll have free Pabst Blue Ribbon until it runs out, free (and gluten-free) protein bars from thinkThin and free shirts from Etnies, so come early and often. You can get to-the-minute updates at our official Twitter page, @waynestockSXSW, and RSVP on Facebook. We’ll obviously be covering the event right here and via @DaveRawkblog and @TwentyFourBit as well.
Local Native’s “Cubism Dream” slipped by me on the band’s Gorilla Manor, but this version — aided by a string section, a preview of this weekend’s Disney Hall performance — is just stunning. Hear the full Morning Becomes Eclectic session on KCRW’s site.
Wet Years are a San Diego band with a lot in common with L.A.’s Young Hunting: lonesome, lingering vocals, existential angst and guitars that sound like clouds. On “No Surf,” Wet Years’ turn dark and stormy, stopping just short of a thunderclap. It seems our chillest waves have been lost at sea. (Huh Magazine via Get Off the Coast)
On March-due sophomore album Actor-Caster, Generationals flip-flop between charming indie-pop that scratches that obligatory early Beach Boys itch and songs that just don’t sound like they’re trying very hard. Live, it became clear that effort isn’t the problem. The band members are all reasonable commanders of their instruments and took the stage with considerable energy, if not with Zeusian thunderbolts. No, the problem is simple: Generationals, like most blogosphere flashes-in-the-pan, have all the personality of a ham sandwich. (In this metaphor, Beulah are Langer’s pastrami and Pants Yell! are chicken pesto with melted havarti.) So see them, if you’re starving for new guitar-pop, but keep the rest of the menu in the mind. (Not to mention Satellite-mates MINKS, whose ’80s revivalism had charisma to burn.)
Lia Ices’ Grown Unknown, the follow-up to 2008′s underrated Necima, reminds me most of vintage Sarah McLachlan. Though Ices trades in her predecessor’s Vh1-ready pop momentum for more intricate, idiosyncratic ballads, both have a way of wringing subtle but serious anguish out of every syllable. Ices is unlikely to play any of this record at awards ceremonies or public funerals over the next decade, but if I had to pick an “Angel,” it’s the trembling “Love Is Won,” a song that begins with a piano and voice and makes its way through a gentle Procul Harum daydream. Ices continues to thaw on “Daphne,” a finger-picked folk song not even a Bon Iver appearance can ruin, and the click-clacking title track bristles with danger as it shifts from a rain of percussion to galloping guitar chords. She may grow further still, but Lia Ices’ latest is an album that demands to be known.
“Let’s Go” by Mike and Cody is like if the entry-level alts Hipster Runoff used to make fun of circa 2K9 tried to make a Daft Punk song in their frat house and it turned out to be a total jam. Yes, it’s about one step away from Ke$ha and two from Owl City, but given the genre, that’s probably better than being closer to the grave (via LCD Soundsystem).
The Warm Hardies’ “Fast and Heavy” is the best song about locomotives since Bob Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”; it is the best Death Cab song since “405″; it is a song that will fill your eyes right up as you reach to press play again and again. (It is not a Death Cab song. But it comes close enough.) The Warm Hardies are a Seattle girl-guy duo who sing with quiet, untrained passion, their harmonies brushing against each other like a cashmere cardigan against oxford cloth. “Fast and Heavy” is their first song; the band tells me a full-band version is on the way, which would be exciting if it wasn’t already completely perfect.
Wet Years are a San Diego band with a lot in common with L.A.’s Young Hunting: lonesome, lingering vocals, existential angst and guitars that sound like clouds. On “No Surf,” Wet Years’ turn dark and stormy, stopping just short of a thunderclap. It seems our chillest waves have been lost at sea. (
