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Jesse Futerman


For years music critics have loved to handicap grown-folk-music-performed-by-young-folk. It’s as though the younger a musician is, the more forgiving we should be of their songwriting (remember Ben Lee?). With that, I won’t even mention Jesse Futerman’s age because his deep, soulful music speaks for itself. The Toronto-based producer has been building a following through his SoundCloud mixes and finally pulled together an EP you can download for free here. I can’t tell if it’s the seasoned groove or the painfully short playing time of these tracks that leaves me yearning for more. Either way, I hope to hear from Jesse again soon.

Driva’man from Super Basement (2011)

jessefuterman.bandcamp.com
soundcloud.com/jessefuterman
www.juslikemusicrecords.com/

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Library Voices

Here’s a glimpse into the highly structured publishing process that powers 3hive: if one of us wants to call dibs on an artist we create a draft post in WordPress. As you might imagine I’m notorious among the more active authors for squatting on bands way too long. I swear I posted about Library Voices back in August but Sean sternly pointed out that the only thing I did in August is prevent anyone else from doing so.

Library Voices are a seven-piece outfit from Regina, Saskatchewan. The warm, spunky pop on their second album, Summer of Lust, belies the fact it was recorded in the deep cold of Canadian winter. There’s a lot to love here – bouncy rhythms, swirling synths, saxophone accents, swelling harmonies – but the lyrics, rich with literary and cultural references, pay dividends with repeat listens. Where else can you find yourself drumming on the steering wheel and singing along to a skewering of Canadian PM Stephen Harper’s cuts to arts funding? Or an homage to Miles Davis and Juliette Gréco’s tragic romance? Or a Gen Y take on the short stories of Raymond Carver? (I’m guessing that last one is why Sean was bummed I was sitting on this post for so long.)

As good as those tracks are, I’ll let you discover them on your own. Turns out Library Voices write their best lyrics when they’re not trying to be topical. I leave you with one of the best pop songs I’ve heard all year…

Generation Handclap from Summer of Lust (2011)

www.summeroflust.tumblr.com
libraryvoices.com
facebook.com/libraryvoices
www.myspace.com/thelibraryvoices
www.dinealonerecords.com

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Soft Science

I’ve been trying since June to find time to post this. Meanwhile, if MP3s were tapes, I’d have already worn out my copy of Soft Science’s debut Highs and Lows. Their sound is a checklist of my vulnerabilities: melancholy lyrics, soaring harmonies, confident percussion, fuzzy guitars. Plus, singer Katie Haley’s delivery evokes at moments St. Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell or The Raveonettes’s Sune Rose Wagner. So I was smitten from the start. Love is the recurring theme, in all its many flavors. There are healthy doses of power pop and dream pop treatments here, but the most memorable songs are the nuanced and restrained ones. “Better Be Good” draws its strength from the smoldering embers of a broken relationship with an startling honesty that recalls “Voices Carry” (before you heard it a million times on ’80s rewind radio). “Put Your Arms Around Me” holds back in all the right ways – all that is left is Ms. Haley whispering sweet somethings in your ears, leaving you wanting more. Speaking of wanting more, this is only the second LP from Sacramento’s Test Pattern Records. Here’s to more where that came from…

Better Be Good from Highs and Lows (2011)

Put Your Arms Around Me from Highs and Lows (2011)

testpatternrecords.com

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Socalled

On paper, Socalled’s bio reads like an elaborate art hoax: he’s a producer/ composer/ arranger/ rapper/ singer/ journalist/ photographer/ filmmaker/ magician/ cartoonist/ puppet maker – oh, and Yiddish music enthusiast! – who, for his fourth album, invited 34 collaborators from all ends of the musical spectrum into the studio. As a whole, Sleepover is disjointed – sounding like “Prairie Home Companion” one minute and “106 and Park” the next. There’s a recurring thread of humor and pastiche on many of the tracks, but others stick out as being quite earnest. So it’s difficult to nail a unifying theme. However, taken individually, each song holds its own, and some even stand out. Take these two examples, where the eclectic ingredients come together nicely into a singular concept. The title track is a send-up of ghetto-tech anthems, with none other than Detroit’s own King of Booty, DJ Assault, serving up hypnotic refrains over a frenetic klezmer loop. (The joke wouldn’t be complete without puppets freaking in Socalled’s apartment – so be sure to watch the video.) By contrast, “Work With What You Got” is a positive vibration calypso-hop jam featuring Roxanne Shante and The Mighty Sparrow on vocals that would feel at home on the soundtrack to a feelgood children’s movie.

Socalled || Teaser Sleepover #2 from Dare To Care Records on Vimeo.

Sleepover (featuring DJ Assault) from Sleepover (2011)
Work With What You Got (featuring Roxanne Shante and The Mighty Sparrow) from Sleepover (2011)

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Miracle Fortress

The sophomore record by Montreal-based Graham Van Pelt (dba Miracle Fortress) is single-handedly satisfying my seasonal synth-pop jones. The single, “Miscalculations”, is an achingly perfect jam that sounds as right today as it would have 25 years ago. It will ease its way into even the hardest of hearts, mark my words. Miracle Fortress is currently touring with Junior Boys, which should make for a double scoop of synth-pop goodness.

Miscalculations from Was I The Wave? (2011)

www.secretcityrecords.com
www.miraclefortress.com

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Boris

As I mentioned last time I posted Boris tracks, what little I know about modern metal I learned from the Aquarius Records newsletter. I thank their metal-obsessive staff for putting me on to Boris all those years ago. At the same time, classifying Boris as “metal” is like calling Beastie Boys “rap” – while technically accurate for the most part, it’s underselling to a point of deception. So when Boris drops not one but two albums at once, it’s cause to celebrate. Heavy Rocks, not to be confused with their 2002 album of the same name (and cover art, except for the color), evolves the raw sound of its predecessor while nonetheless rocking your face off. Attention Please showcases guitarist Wata’s heavenly voice which until now has taken a backseat to her violent riffs. These two representative singles give you a sense of the results, and of Boris’ vast range: “Hope” is an urgent shoegazer beauty while “Riot Sugar” is as gentle as a charging rhino. Enjoy.

Hope from Attention Please (2011)
Riot Sugar from Heavy Rocks (2011)

http://sargenthouse.com/
www.borisheavyrocks.com
www.myspace.com/borisdronevil

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Japandroids

Japandroids are singer/guitarist Brian King and drummer/singer David Prowse of Vancouver, BC. We all know how big a drum kit and guitar can sound (thanks to godheadSilo and some duo from Detroit). So I won’t belabor that aspect of the Japandroids story. What I will say is that their songs burst with youth – all earnest, raw, wistful – and just the right dose of self-deprecation. In fact, if “Younger Us” doesn’t get you screaming along at the top of your lungs and drumming on your steering wheel you may want to check your pulse.

Younger Us from Younger Us 7-inch (2010)
Art Czars from Art Czar 7-inch (2010)
Darkness on the Edge of Gastown from Lullaby Death Jams (2008)

polyvinylrecords.com
www.myspace.com/japandroids
japandroids.com

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Junk Science

My problem with a lot of so-called “avant-hop” music, even some of that released on our beloved Anticon label, is that it’s just not funky enough. To quote that great skit from De La Soul Is Dead: “Maybe if you flipped it on 45, so I could dance to it…”

The Brooklyn duo known as Junk Science has been typecast as avant-hop thanks to intricate (and sometimes arrhythmic) production and autobiographical (and sometimes heavy) lyrics. What they should be known for is their ability to move a crowd, in both senses of the word. DJ Snafu is a sample connoisseur — dusting off everything from AM Gold to deep jazz to informercials — and puts a little “whazzat?” into every drum pattern he lays down. Baje One has an easy flow with lyrics that are at once approachable and hard to touch. And they know it, too.

In fact, MC Baje One regularly puzzles over his strictly underground status, as he does in the soulful shimmy “Do It Easy”: “Tryin’ to sell a couple records/At the club they come to check us/But dog, what kinda money do y’think I’m stackin’ y’all/Coachin’ JV high school basketball?” But he isn’t about change his style to goose his iTunes royalties: “Vitamins and nutrients, static in the bass/Plus I get extra points ’cause I ain’t rappin’ in your face.”

Baje One is taking matters into his own hands now, shedding their decidedly underground label, Embedded, for an imprint of his own making called Modern Shark. There’s a whole page of freeMP3bies to be had over at modernshark.com/free. From the sounds of it, his financial future looks bright.

That said, based on the clever punchlines of their latest single, “Millins”, even if Junk Science were to start making dollars we probably wouldn’t see a spike in Hennessey sales. But you better believe that JV team would get the finest throwback Nikes money can buy…

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Cap’n Jazz


Cap’n Jazz were such a short-lived band that their entire musical catalog fits on a double album. But what a double album it is – a sloppy, cryptic, energetic, engaging masterpiece – and it’s being reissued by their erstwhile label, Jade Tree, as a double vinyl LP on June 15, 2010. To celebrate, the boys are getting the band back together for a set of reunion shows in select cities, including two sold-out shows in their hometown of Chicago. Cap’n Jazz’s influence extends well beyond those 34 songs. Their musical family tree includes other Monsters of Emo – Make Believe, The Promise Ring, American Football, Owls, Ghosts and Vodka, Joan of Arc and Owen. This is the kinda musical act you make a road trip to see. And, unless they add a Detroit show, I will have one in my future. Or maybe I’ll cash in some SkyMiles so Sean and I can geeeeek out at the LA show, the way we did when we saw The Promise Ring in Austin back in the day.

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Let’s Say We Did

Sebastian Fors, Sweden’s answer to Jeff Tweedy, used to roll with a revolving cast of characters called The Ones That Got Away. He now leads a group called Let’s Say We Did. Fors’ groggy vocals and lovelorn lyrics cast a nice shadow against the band’s bright Americana pop. Frayed edges in the production make it feel old and familiar, like flannel on a cold day. Cozy up.

Buy the EP here.

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