She, Sir

Austin-based quartet, She, Sir recently built a lovely wall-of-sound EP, stacked with layers upon layers of guitars, modal harmonies, and hushed melodies. With the subtle hooks and deep atmospherics of Who Can’t Say Yes, She, Sir drop pop music to an even vaguer level than Loveless. She, Sir beautifully fractures music for the next generation of dream-pop connoisseurs.

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Urbs

Austrian hip hop and breakz DJ, Paul Nawrata, has been crafting mean sets since 1991. He’s been producing since 1997 and his first solo album, Toujours le Même Film, in a word, KILLS. Fans of film scores and other cinematic sounds are definitely gonna wanna jump in on this one. As are the hip hop kids. Quality downtempo, trip-hop for folks who are partial to Portishead, RJD2, and surround sound.

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Benjy Ferree

An interesting tidbit about Mr. Ferree to start things off, he’s Domino’s first American worldwide signing. Meaning, I guess, that Domino’s British mothership is finally warming to the American music scene. And Benjy Ferree’s got a solid, old fashioned, back porch, red, white and blue sound running through his songs. I can almost hear someone blowing into a moonshine jug in “Why Bother,” and a washboard player would fit in just as well. “Private Honeymoon” waltzes along nicely with the sounds of the West Coast’s neu-folk folks. Ah, it’s probably the playful, beatles-esque romp “In The Countryside” that’s got the label giving Benjy the green light for worldwide domino-ation. His tour of the Midwest and East Coast starts tomorrow with the Archie Bronson Outfit.

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Under Byen

I need to thank David Byrne for tipping me off to Under Byen. And more thanks is overdue to Mr. Byrne for tipping me off years ago to a tasty soup special at Shopsins, back when Kenny & Co. were at their original location (I’m dying to see “I Like Killing Flies,” dying harder actually for a plate of Slutty Cakes and a tall tumbler of their Horchata!). Under Byen is a Danish ensemble, who maneuver orchestrally, and percussively, in the dark end of the pop music spectrum. Beautiful, hushed vocals draw you in and keep you warm in songs which befit the cold, cold landscape of Denmark.

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T.S.O.L. (True Sounds Of Liberty)

Habeus Corpus R.I.P.

In memoriam, please enjoy 3hive’s soundtrack (courtesy of T.S.O.L.) to the new Military Commissions Act of 2006 that George W. Bush recently signed into law. It is the true sound of liberty according to our President and our Congress. Others disagree. Don’t forget to vote next month.

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Firecracker Jazz Band

I won’t bog you down with personal details, but I recently hit a speed bump in the road of life. No sympathy, please. It’s just one of those things that absolutely blows now, but with time will seem insignificant and trivial. Still, it’s got me feeling down, and these tracks from the Firecracker Jazz Band (featuring members of Squirrel Nut Zippers) fit the mood perfectly. The comic melancholy of the wa-wa trumpeting, horse clomping, and playful tickling of the piano keys leave me no choice but to laugh at myself and move on. So for anyone who’s been dealt a bad hand the Firecracker Jazz Band is here to tell you, no, really, it’s gonna be OK.

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The Baldwin Brothers

It’s late. I’m beat. I’m starting to hallucinate: flashing slices of pepperoni…But I want everyone to have a fresh, hot cup o’ music first thing on a Sunday morning. The new Baldwin Brothers album is appropriately titled The Return of the Golden Rhodes because as you’ll hear, just about every song has T.J. Widner ripping on his “main ax,” the Rhodes keyboard. Most of the tracks groove along like Starsky & Hutch, Welcome Back Kotter, or Sesame Street, except for the closer “The Party’s Over” which turns down the Rhodes and gets all Moody Blues on us. Mark Lanegan provides the moody vocals. The track does stop the party in its tracks, and frankly isn’t representive of the rest of the album. Even “Leave the Past Behind” fails to keep pace with the rest of the album’s block rocking funk. What’s a boy to do? Those are the tracks we get to work with. Sharers can’t be choosers. Just make a note, if you like the tracks from their EP, know that most of the new album is similar rug-cutting material.

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