Rawkblog » 2009

New Music: Gabe Hascall – “Just Dust” (Demo)

David Greenwald — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:00:24 +0000

You may remember Gabe Hascall’s voice, if not his name, as part of early ’00s duo Slowreader — a sort of King of Convenience for Figure 8 fans. Now based in Portland, the singer’s had a rough time these last few years — from the dissolution of his band (and prior outfit The Impossibles) to kicking a meth addiction. “Just Dust” and a handful of other fresh songs are the product of getting clean and getting inspired. He’s still double-tracking, still sincere and, unlike the late, lamented Elliott Smith, still here if you want him.

Gabe Hascall – “Just Dust”: mp3

(Hascall’s Just Dust EP is out now)

Rest Of 2009: Ghosty – “O Foolish Pride” EP

David Greenwald — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:00:32 +0000

While A Mystic’s Robe showcased Ghosty’s songwriting talents and ‘60s pop devotion, the O Foolish Pride finds the Lawrence, Kansas, band revealing their range. “Rose Colored Glasses” opens in traditional indie-pop fashion – open chords, melodic lead guitar line, the sort of thing straight off a Field Mice single. But the song opens up, adding backing harmonies and concluding with suddenly fiery guitar lines and frantic drumming. “Foolish Pride” comes on a borderline-funky Sea and Cake kick, an extra-chunky can of Jazz Noodle Soup. “Heybill,” the brief collection’s third and final song, with its springy slide guitars and shuffling drums, evokes Beulah’s lighter moments. As with the magic Mystic’s, it’s all essential.

Ghosty – “Rose-Colored Glasses”: mp3

(O Foolish Pride is available now on the band’s Bandcamp)

Rest Of 2009: Ghosty – “A Mystic’s Robe”

David Greenwald — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:00:52 +0000

The only thing scary about Ghosty is how long they’ve flown under my radar. The Lawrence, Kansas, band has been recording since 2001’s Five Short Minutes, with only scattered output over the years until joining More Famouser records for a trio of new EPs. Last year’s A Mystic’s Robe was the first of them, three tracks of semi-sweet pop with a craving for melody. Singer Andrew Connor’s sincere tenor ambles through turns of phrase reminiscent of the Zombies or the Beach Boys even as the music opts for a gently minimal indie-pop arrangement approach. He earns his membership in the Droll, Conflicted Singer Club (President: 1996 Rivers Cuomo; Vice-Chair: 2007 Jens Lekman) on the pro-female “My Girl Is Strong,” singing “I don’t want a sleazy sex thing.” Judging by the music, what Connor wants is beauty, best showcased in the spectacularly Brian Wilson-esque “Secret Language.” So nope, nothing scary here – except the thought that you, too, haven’t heard Ghosty yet.

Ghosty – “Secret Language”: mp3

(Buy direct from Ghosty)

More: New Music | 2009 Album Release Calendar

Premiere: International Waters – “Salt and Sea” b/w “Flashes”

David Greenwald — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:00:05 +0000

International Waters at SXSW 2010 / Photo by David Greenwald

SXSW’s biggest surprise, for me at least, was the discovery of International Waters — a Texas indie-pop act whose glistening major 7th chords pulled me off the street and into Plush for the remainder of their set. The band does have some pedigree — two members once played in Voxtrot — but the new act is very much its own nerdy, bossa nova-loving animal. Here are two of their 2009-released jams; keep an eye out for a 10″ release as soon as April.

International Waters – “Salt and Sea”: mp3
International Waters – “Flashes”: mp3

(Hear more on the International Waters Web site)

More: New Music | 2010 Album Release Calendar

Old Music: The Middle East – “The Recordings of the Middle East” (2008)

David Greenwald — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:00:36 +0000

I wonder if it ever dawned on Andy Warhol that someday, everyone would have their 15 minute of fame… simultaneously. Indie rock’s greatest problem at the moment, whether one’s in a band trying to signal through the noise or a listener trying to sort through the muck, is the sheer glut of material: in any given day, Pitchfork (just for instance) reviews five albums, three tracks and drops another half-dozen MP3s on Forkcast. And they’re supposed to be the filter! No wonder Best New Music bands become such lightning rods for sales and attention: it’s too much fucking work to listen to the rest.

As buzz band vehicle SXSW revs up this week, Australian act The Middle East are the latest act to land enough Internet praise to catch the scent of whatever “hype” means in 2010. But how? Their debut record, 2008′s The Recordings of the Middle East, is an intermittently solid record that wavers between wonderfully insistent harmonized folk (“The Darkest Side,” “Fool’s Gold”) and the milquetoast vocal post-rock available on any noise-oriented CD-R blog. However, that debut record was never released in the U.S. — and a trimmer EP, with some of the sub-Sigur Ros meanderings sliced off, made it here last October. A star is born! Rumor has it the band’s next record is done; if they bring the new songs and a sharper direction to SXSW, it may be clear if The Middle East are a project with a future (and as ethereal acts go at the moment, I’d rather recommend The Rest’s 2009 debut), but until then, The Recordings Of shows enough promise to justify these first few minutes in the spotlight.

The Middle East – “The Darkest Side”: mp3

More: New Music | 2010 Album Release Calendar

Rest Of 2009: Jim O’Rourke – “The Visitor”

David Greenwald — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:00:39 +0000

To call Jim O’Rourke’s The Visitor much anticipated would be akin to wondering if people are still looking forward to the second coming of Christ. O’Rourke fans are less multitudinous, and arguably less devoted, but nevertheless, after almost a decade of nothing but scattered vocal tracks on Loose Fur records since 2001′s Insignificance, we’ve been dyin’ over here.

But The Visitor is a maddening arrival. It is at once staggeringly ambitious — a single 40+ minute composition performed completely by the man himself, with nary a caustic vocal in sight — and curiously inept.

The lack of lyrics is disappointing enough, but Jim seems uninterested in anything approaching a pop structure even as he avoids the free range of his noise efforts. Melodies and movements start, stop and dither like Grandpa at Costco. A sad-eyed motif appears intermittently, but too often, the music flowers and wilts in a fit of desert pique before halting entirely and starting from scratch.

The Visitor is best compared to of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping, another record that seemed more concerned with birthing ideas than exploring them. Still, like that album, The Visitor offers haphazard rewards. At the 8:30 mark, the drums last for the first time beyond a teasing handful of bars; at 11:30, the momentum returns and the album lies resplendent in galloping pastoral-folk bliss, the sound Jim does best.

To its credit, the album grows more focused with each ensuing movement, with a dazzling turn around the 22 minute mark like to be intended as the album’s climax. That leaves the rest for a comedown, though things heat up once again as the track draws to a close. Would that he would have learned from Mogwai epics such as “Like Herod” and gone, well, epic before cooling off.

If you can outlast its slow start and occasionally aimless segments, The Visitor offers enough to make itself welcome. After this long a wait, after all, the least we can do is let it rest its feet. But one can only hope that when O’Rourke returns again (and please, Jim, do), he’ll have a cleared itinerary and some snarky things to say about his ex-girlfriends and/or existentialism.

(The Visitor is out now on Drag City)

Previously: Best Of 2009: Albums of the Year

More Words On: Pants Yell! – “Received Pronunciation” (2009)

David Greenwald — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Like the evenly cooked oatmeal in “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” so many things about Pants Yell!’s Received Pronunciation are just right. The guitars jangle along the edge of fuzz but not to the point of stylization; the vocals are sincere and dorky but not without confidence (at one point, singer Andrew Churchman sings, “Your boyfriend’s an asshole,” and on “Not Wrong,” drops the line “You had the gall to tell me I’m wrong / but I’m not wrong”); and the performances are joyfully loose even as the songcraft is sewn tight with care. Despite their links to twee labels Asaurus and now Slumberland Records, four albums in, Pants Yell! have risen above their indie-pop roots to the broader camp of indie-as-pop – the big tent of Pavement and Beulah. I will now listen to this album for the fourth time in a row.

Pants Yell! – “Cold Hands”: mp3

(Received Pronunciation is out now on Slumberland; the band plays in L.A. in March as part of the epic Slumberland 20th anniversary celebration)

Previously: First Look: Pants Yell! – Received Pronunciation

New Music: Jim Thomas – “Billy On 4th”

David Greenwald — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:00:17 +0000

Clean Equations member Jim Thomas set out to make a soap-scrubbed piano pop record with The Blue Floor, his solo debut. He landed just south, singing like a Tennessee-born Jackson Browne (who’s originally from Germany, believe it or not) and embracing bluesy Memphis guitars. He’s at his best on tracks such as “Billy On 4th,” a bright, Brion-esque song that leans closer to the modernist indie rock of his regular band, but the whole collection is miles away from running on empty.

Jim Thomas – “Billy On 4th”: mp3

(The Blue Floor is out now)