I’ve spent the last three days down at 27th Street in Newport Beach, California. Hurricane Howard is much nicer than his East Coast cousin and is brewing up some great waves for us. So between too much sun, some really big waves, and helping a poor soul out of a rip current and onto shore, I’m beat. But 3hive knows no holidays and I’m happy to offer up four fine MP3s as the reality of 9 to 5, or another school year, sets in. If you enjoy The New Pornographers, Bob Dylan, and/or Mazzy Star, or any facsimile thereof, The Mendoza Line is sure to please your punch.
Suburban Kids With Biblical Names
Suburban apologist I’ll cop to, but Suburbanite with kids with Biblical names I ain’t. Cairo we got from a Cure song; Pallas, well, email me if you don’t have to Google the name to know where it came from and I’ll be really impressed; and Jasper — although the word is found in the Bible it’s not a name — is named after the artist Jasper Johns.
This band is a MUST download. Their name says it all. A delightful sense of humor to go along with their keen sense of melody and wit. A musical embodiment of why I do 3hive. Discovering SKWBN gave me a third wind and kept me way up past bedtime…
The Decemberists
Get this: Trumping all other religions, Target is extending their holiday season from October through February. Five months of worshipping the almighty dollar! It’s in this spirit that 3hive brings you The Decemberists in August. A delightful hybrid of folk, pop, and prog rock, The Decemberists create a rich, musical world that you’re happy to be sucked into. Their last album, Her Majesty The Decemberists, sounds something like The Great Appalachian Novel, and their recent offering, The Tain, is loosely based on the epic book of the same name (considered the Illiad of Irish mythology). Literate, intelligent pop at its finest.
Talkdemonic
Imagine DJ Shadow swearing off turntables and samplers and turning to live instruments. Talkdemonic’s Kevin O’Connor doesn’t work completely sample free, but he does play live drums over what sounds like proprietary guitar loops and sequencing. I’ll be damned if Thom Yorke’s vocals wouldn’t fit these tracks like a glove.
n.Lannon
Film School member, Nyles Lannon, graduates, goes solo and trades out a few guitars for a computer and puts a tech touch to his homestyle melodies.
Two mp3s added. Original posting: 06.15.04.
Minmae
Fragile vocals over fragile guitars, Minmae’s songs could fall apart at any moment. Make one mistake and face utter cacophony. It’s in the band’s unflinching push to the next chord, verse, or just to the next riff that these songs transcend the notion of popular music and teeter on the verge of pure art.
Tommy Guerrero
Like his Southern California counterpart, Ray Barbee, Tommy Guerrero is a skateboarder turned musician, using simple, 4-track technology to capture his loose, laid-back grooves. Between the two they’ve practically defined a new genre: skate-soul.
Two Gallants
Young and well-read, this San Francisco duo have, thankfully, spent very little time listening to (and even less time being influenced by) their rock ‘n’ roll contemporaries. Instead they’ve forged these songs from their own blood, sweat, and tears, and brought them to life with the simple tools of voice, guitar, and drums.
The Red Onions
The Red Onions dice up rock ‘n’ roll with their own raw, Los Angeles flavor until all that’s left is rhythm and blues.
Pilot to Gunner
Seaweed + Fugazi + Quicksand + Superchunk = Pilot to Gunner. Hey, this ain’t mathematics; no equation is perfect, but I’ll be damned if PtG aren’t channelling shards of four of my absolute favorite bands from the ’90s.