Reports from those who have seen Le Loup live say the album sounds thin compared to their shows. That’s because the album, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, is the handiwork of frontman Sam Simkoff pre seven-piece live band. Simkoff, if you buy into the focal points of the band’s promo shots, looks like the indie rock version of Woody Allen: horn-rimmed glasses, basic collared shirts and khakis. In fact, the band’s bio, not to mention the album title, reads like a set up to a Woody Allen joke: inspired by Dante’s Inferno and and ’50s folk artist James Hampton, Simkoff the banjo player… The outcome is anything but comical. Flying solo, Simkoff succeeds at creating small epics like “We Are Wolves! We Are Gods!” spaced-out pop songs sounding like a hybrid of Devendra Banhart and Say Hi To Your Mom with the jamming tendencies of Animal Collective. With his trusty troupe of troubadours in tow I have no doubt he can translate his bedroom vision into something grand.
Múm
For the uninitiated: Múm makes music that would emanate from Willy Wonka’s jewelry box. I can close my eyes and actually see their music. It looks like a found object sculpture, with various instruments, kitchen utensils, and all manner of gadgets (analog and digital) piled high and held together with catgut and twine. A marvelous contraption set in motion and song by dropping a large marble into a bright chrome cylinder soldered to the top. As the marble travels down the sculpture, in, out, and back in again, it triggers notes, chords, voices, tiny starched flags adorned with glitter and stars and fastened to thin gold poles, flickering in and out of view—an explosion of sparkles signaling each change of timbre and tone, beat and bell, melody and mood. In a word, or two, utterly fanciful. Múm is the music of the butterflies that tickle your heart when you’re in love. If this is the first Múm song you’ve ever heard, please don’t let it be your last…
Mobius Band: New MP3s, Album + Tour
Red Collar
I feel Clay’s pain. My ears have been ringing steady since February 2006. And I play guitar even worse, way worse, than Clay, but I do wear earplugs. Like a religion. Tinnitus still struck. It doesn’t bother me during the day, just when I lie down at night to sleep. The remedy? MP3 player of choice. Just be sure to keep the levels down so you don’t further ruin your hearing. I just found what I’ll be falling asleep to this evening: Red Collar. These Durham, NC rockers take me back a decade or so, sounding like a solid Dischord band if Dischord were down south in Alabama. Country Fried Hardcore? Springsteen fronting Fugazi? Sacrilege? Perhaps. I’ll definitely be breaking the first aural health commandment tonight: keep it below 11. This’ll drown out the ringing nicely.
Mojib
Staffan Ulmert (aka Mojib) shares a taste in music with many of us here at 3hive. He lists Explosions in the Sky, UNKLE, Sixtoo, and The Avalanches as inspirations. Instead of blah, blah, blahgging about about these artists however, Ulmert settles down in front of his computer in Gothenburg, Sweden, and composes his own music and remixes some of his favorite artists (check out his remix of Ian Brown and his UNKLE / Notwist mashup). No new formula here: solid hip-hop beats, pop melodies, strings, pianos, and samples galore (what’s that main riff in “Break of Dawn”??? It’s driving me nuts. Sigur Rós? Radiohead?) Mojib provides plenty of teaser tracks on his website, but the litmus test, his first proper full-length (Whimsical Lifestyle) drops next month on Canada’s Non-Existent Recordings.
Ghastly City Sleep
Clocking in at a hair under 30 minutes Ghastly City Sleep’s debut can be considered, to tweak a literary term, an album-ella. An itty bitty album in number of tracks only (four), the self-titled work otherwise towers in sound and scope, but leaves one wanting more. The song featured here, “Hushing Weight,” lumbers open with slow bass blows underneath haunting vocals. Layers of tones, synth and piano, sneak in and then the song rises into a sweeping Pet Sounds-like chorus, but slowed way, way down. Sweet, reverberating harmonies frequently shine through the droning, post-rock fog of these Virginian sons. From the brief glimpse their debut offers, Ghastly City Sleep are working towards re-making the Beach Boys in Sigur Rós’s image. I should also mention that anyone who buys the CD is in for a treat. The artwork is a 12 panel poster of a painting by band member Brandon Evans, which is tucked behind a frosted transparency etched with the band’s name and logo.
The New Pornographers
The New Pornographers were one of the earliest posts on 3hive, back three and a half years ago when Sam and I tossed up a handful of MP3s from some of our favorite albums from the year previous. We didn’t offer much in the way of commentary back then (not that we do presently either), so for those who’ve been hiding under a rock for the last three years, and have missed out on The New Pornographers, here’s a bit more to chew on. The sequence to their new album Challengers threw me off on first listen. It starts off with “My Rights Versus Yours” a familiar, subdued type of Carl Newman tune, complete with a french horn (used, surprisingly, for the first time in a New Pornographers’ song). It builds like a rock opera opener and sets up me up to bounce around to a frantic track like “All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth” or “Mutiny, I Promise You.” But my patience is tried and I have to wait through three more songs, including Dan Bejar’s “Myriad Harbor,” before my expectations are rewarded. Dont’ get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Each song is great! It’s just going to take repeated listens before I can appreciate the album as a whole, unlike the first listen ecstacy I experienced hearing Electric Version. Considering today’s song-based attention span, I must sound like an old man, talking about spending time with a whole album! Well, this codger appreciates the fact that Newman, Case, Bejar & Co. continue to create whole albums worth those repeated listens.
Nyles Lannon
Mr. Lannon needs to make up his mind! He’s released music under N.Ln, N.Lannon, and now, finally, under his full name Nyles Lannon. Whichever moniker he chooses you can expect moody, alluring songs with amazing melodies. Straight forward folk songs like “Did I Lose You?” quietly recall the work of Elliott Smith while “Next Obsession” punches a little harder and is not unlike another favorite of mine: Calla. It was news to me that he split from his band Film School, but now that he’s focused hopefully he won’t suffer from any further bouts of identity crisis. Because I’ll tell you right now Mr. Lannon, after this post, I’m not going to dedicate another one to any further name changes. As it stands I believe you hold the record here at the ‘hive with four different pages. And just in case anyone mistakes my tone: I jest. It’s all good. Thanks for the fine tunes __ Lannon.
The Caribbean
The Caribbean’s Michael Kentoff is man enough to admit Washington DC cliques like the Teen Beat, Dischord and Simple Machines crews intimidate him. Who wouldn’t be? Those three labels have fiercely defined, executed, and promoted the D.I.Y. aesthetic-ethic. You don’t get “cooler” than those folks. In the face of it all, risking potential hip-ness, Kentoff and his band mates, have consistently created smart, personal pop songs. Gentle, comfortable music you can cozy up to like you would with a “friend with benefits.” I get the same warm, fuzzy feeling from listening to The Caribbean as I do shuffling through discarded peanut shells and sitting down to a cheeseburger and bag o’ fries at Five Guys Burgers & Fries. I can’t hear about anything happening in DC without thinking about my favorite burger. The Caribbean may not fit in with the usual DC suspects, but they can take solace in their mutual vicinity to a tasty burger (I should never post while hungry…).
The Airborne Toxic Event
Any band using Don DeLillo references for their nom de plume are friends of mine. The Airborne Toxic Event is named after a chapter in DeLillo’s 1985 novel, White Noise. Their EP sounds as if it was recorded during that same era. The band has been wafting across Los Angeles airwaves and blogwaves with their upbeat yet dour songs, the tempo made for the dancefloor set, the lyrics for the brokenhearted. It’s still too early in their career to determine how things will pan out for The Airborne Toxic Event, they’ve only released four songs, but considering they’ve had a run of shows and a single release in the UK there’s a good chance they’ll be affecting a lot more people with their own White Noise.