In May 1996 I wrote this in grid magazine about the Super 5 Thor song below: “The Space side’s “Superstar” is a brilliant example of Super 5 Thor’s delicate Velvet Underground-meets-The Jesus and May Chain brand of rock. Sparse, vibrato-tinged and soaring guitars and drugged-out vocals that the Reid brothers can be envious of are backed up by simple, steady drumming.” After many years of hiatus, Manny and Scott are getting the band back together! Actually, Super 5 Thor wasn’t really a band. Manny and Scott had been in the Miss Alans together in Fresno, California, my wife’s hometown (she was a fan), but by the time they got around to Super 5 Thor, they lived in different states and traded tapes in the mail. So until they get going again, enjoy “Superstar,” with Manny’s permission, and also check out their only live performance on KCRW’s Brave New World. It’s what’s kept me going all these years.
The Linemen
Full disclosure: I know Kevin Butterfield, the lead singer of St. Louis’ The Linemen. I don’t know him well, but I did once make him pancakes. And before you go getting ideas about this happily married man, I’ve made strictly platonic pancakes for plenty of people. You could even say it’s a specialty of mine. Kevin seemed to like them, at least. Anyhow, The Linemen are good old-fashioned country (think Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, George Jones) in both sound and spirit: Butterfield’s crooning tenor favors the kind of heartbreak that’ll get you down without putting you out and Scott Swartz’s pedal steel seems to be singing the melodies rather than twanging them. It’s a toe-tapping affair just right for road trips through the heartland. And if that ain’t your cup of tea, you might consider switching to whiskey.
Marla Hansen
Lately, my picks have all been male artists and it was feeling like high time to revisit my (your?) girlier side. Marla Hansen, who sings soft and quiet folk-inspired songs and is also part of team-Sufjan-My-Brightest-Diamond, is a perfect return. She sounds like tea and flowers and a good book in bed when you are tired. Oddly positioned on my iTunes next to Marlene Dietrich’s raspy, vaguely mannish “Sag Mir Wo Die Blumen Sind”, “Wedding Day” felt like something we women can celebrate our peculiar chromosomal dispositions to and her tone is something that the men can daydream about (note: no letching)–even more so from the comparison to Dietrich. Hansen has a honeyed voice and sings delicious little songs as though she were singing to herself, for herself. There’s no clever hook here, no steamrolling vocals, no unexpectedly jarring electronic sounds, just simple, strong singing, songwriting and her viola. And throughout, she is exquisitely feminine. It’s charming.
The Red Button
I’m always in the mood for this sleepy sort of pop song, this time from The Red Button. Principals, Mike Ruekberg and Seth Swirsky, have been writing and producing music in L.A. for more than a decade: composing soundtracks and writing songs for the likes of Al Green, respectively. The two met in 2004 when Seth was working on a solo record and discovered they had a mutual love for concise, melodic pop songs. So they began creating just that. Their album, She’s About to Cross My Mind, reminds me of a mix between the woefully obscure song-crafting wizard Erik Voeks on his album, Sandbox, and seminal pop-rockers The Posies. Coincidentally, those last two artists were in heavy rotation on the college radio station (AM 960: The Student Underground Network) Sam, Clay, and I launched way back when: sharing the sharing v.1. The Red Button’s retrospective melodies have me reminiscing like that today, the day after 3hive quietly celebrated our third year of existence. We hope to instigate more intensive festivities in the near future once our lives, mine in particular, settle down a bit. The proverbial dance card’s been booked lately.
The Scarring Party
“Fortelling certain doom to the bouncing rhythm of tuba, bass, accordion, banjo, and tongue drum.” That’s how The Scarring Party describes “No More Room,” as in no more room in hell. You could add the following: Tin Pan Alley, Tom Waits, gothic slaughterhouse, phantasmagoria — it’s like, make sure the hatchet is safely in the garage, the double-barrel in the gun safe. There will be quite a party on the ship when the Scarring Party sets sail from Milwaukee for Singapore, but with evil lurking everywhere, will anyone survive the journey? Though not for everyone, these tracks should give you that little extra twist for which you might be searching.
Sparrow House
It seems that with all this frantic social networking going on in the world (umm, the internet?), musicians are following suit. One search leads to the other in an endless maze of “who plays with who.” Sometimes you find yourself following the trail until you end up at a Lynard Skynard tribute band and you wonder where you went wrong. Not so with Sparrow House (which is actually just Jared Van Fleet, of keyboards and guitar for Voxtrot). When I finished following the trail of crumbs, I just listened, smiled and said “sweet!” Apparently, we were a little late on sharing some Voxtrot with you all, but this time I think we’re right on point. The track below reminds me of Elliot Smith, and since I pretty much wish that man was alive every day, I say, yes, Jared, lets please revisit. But the rest of the EP is varied, folky, dark and stormy. The kind of stuff you can close your eyes and be happy to listen to when you just need a moment. The cool kids totally love him and me too. Thanks Jared, I totally needed a moment.
MudKids
Perhaps many of you are too young to remember the “Super Bowl Shuffleâ€, that perpetual answer to a trivia question that took the nation by storm in 1985, the last time Da Bears were in the big game. Sweetness talkin’ about how “runnin’ the ball is like makin’ romanceâ€; Jim McMahon, who is so white and uncool that the Utah high school where he graduated is named “Roy,†wearing his glasses and rappin’ anyway; Mike Singletary trying hard not to look like Urkel before there was even such a thing—in other words, it was to 10-year-old boys and 40-year-old men what “We Are the World†was to 10-year-old girls and 40-year-old women a year earlier. But that was two decades ago. Rex Grossman? Sorry dude, but you’re no Mac. The real QB is down the interstate in Indy, and now he’s got a fight song by Indy homeboys the Mudkids, part of the capital city’s Musical Family Tree. This sorta-crunky version may not feature any of the players, but when you’re droppin’ lines like “We love the Colts ‘cuz the blue’s the hottest part of the flame,†you don’t need no stinkin’ Chi-Town shufflers!
Bridges and Powerlines
NYC style power pop, a touch of 80s British post-punk rock with driving Strokes-like sensibilities, courtesy of Bridges and Powerlines. For fans of The Rakes, We Are Scientists, and like-minded bands. So that’d be me, a fan, then.
WJ Kington
WJ Kington spends lots of time around his house recording found sounds, tapping on walls and household appliances and recording the results. Sometimes he just sits at the piano and records his improvisations. Rather than “perfecting” the recordings he’ll leave in sounds of passing trains and the crows scratching at his roof. What’s left are highly engaging compositions. I found these tracks via boingboing.net (if they’re not already a habit don’t start!) which linked to “I’m Talin,” a track made from samples of his young son ripping apart a cardboard box which he’d strung with rubber bands. Be sure to stop by his site for stories on each of the songs.
qr5
I was cleaning out my suggestion file from 2006 this morning, bringing the number down to a manageable 227 bands left to check out, when I came across qr5. The Canadian pop-reggae outfit suggested themselves in the sunny month of May, and I finally gave them a listen. (Sorry it took so long! Do you have snow yet? We got a little bit yesterday.) Since then, “Revisited Gone” has been the groove of the moment. Here’s what they had to say about themselves: “Introspective music you can dance to, qr5 is a singular combination of reggae groove, pop contagion, and folk sensibility. With their new album Pharmakon the Toronto 4 piece mixes a positive feel and engaging arrangements with tight rhythms and deep thoughts.” Right on. You know reggae sounds better in January anyway.