The latest from these fashionably flip young men takes on a new-wave polish that accentuates the hooks and speeds the rhythm section to heel-popping precision. Precious, but in a savagely catchy way.
Guided by Voices
Lord only knows if the Ohio basement legends are still relevant, and only the same lord knows if relevancy is still relevant. Alls I know is that the adventurous stew of riffs, hooks, and twee vocals will cause an involuntary reaction from me as long as my feet can tap and my head can nod. There are a ton of archived MP3s at both Matador and gbv.com, so stick around for a while.
A.C. Newman
The New Pornographers resident pop auteur lead singer guy puts together his own set of finely polished gems that have the get-up-and-go (“Miracle Drug”) of his best efforts with the “supergroup” and the jaded sunshine (“Drink to Me Babe, Then”) of the late-great Zumpano. A few more like these from Newman and Ben Folds will have to work harder to get our attention.
Fernando
Fernando plays geetar with the skill and freewheeling spirit of a Crazy Horse by the name of Neil, and that deep and raspy voice of his is begging for an arena with cavernous acoustics so it can get lost in the reverb for a while. Anyone waiting for the second coming of Mother Love Bone, now’s a good time to pull your lighter out and lift it to the sky.
Meow Meow
Christopher O’Brien’s gently wilting vocals find uneasy peace around screechy, scratchy, scrunchy sounds from a guitar that, like a good cowboy, just canít be tamed. Fans of dissonance, Meow Meow give you a twister-full of noise. Fans of pop craft, Meow Meow give you the bittersweet sunny day after the storm.
Dave Derby
The former lead singer of The Dambuilders (if you don’t have Against the Stars, you’re not really living life to the fullest, are you?) and solo-monikered Brilliantine assumes his own name for his token easy-on-the-ears acoustipop record — except this is one token that shines.
The Silent League
The former keyboardist for Mercury Rev creates his own sweetly damaged sway-songs for kids who prefer Brooklyn to the metropolis across the river.