Iron Hero

Sam from Iron Hero got my attention with two words and one number: Athens, 40, Watt. Although I’ve never been there, the 40 Watt Club is a hallowed place for me since my teenage years spent worshipping Love Tractor, Pylon, and many other Athens, Georgia, bands who played there. Iron Hero, you see, had a CD release show just recently at said 40 Watt Club. Then Iron Hero got my adoration with two things: delightful pop and some oh so delightful fuzz. With songs like “Heart of a Ghost,” surely Iron Hero’s days of self-releasing albums will be a thing of past, ie., there’s a label somewhere out there who has gotta snatch them up soon.

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Mike Ferraro

Tim O. and I were sitting in the office listening to Mike Ferraro’s “Lovers Only Love,” and he was like, “Hey, all this guy needs is hand claps,” and I was like, “Yeah.” And then I started wondering how Mike Ferraro’s songs ended up on my computer, and I found an old e-mail he sent to 3hive on 8.14.05. That explains that. And then I dug around some more and saw that David — of the wonderful LargeHearted Boy MP3 and other stuff blog — wrote about Mike Ferraro way back when, too, and then I felt really scooped. But you know, that was last year, and this is now, and Tim O. and I are digging these songs so much and hoping you people will go to Mike F’s website and buy his demos, go see him live, or whatever, and clap your hands at all the right times. Yeah.

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Shotgun and Jaybird

Lo-fi music from “smalltown Canada.” That’s how Paul from Shotgun and Jaybird described Sackville, New Brunswick, in his e-mail pitch to 3hive (I added the lo-fi part). It seems like these guys are kind of into the small — small sound, small town, a new EP of (only) 6 songs. Even their wonderful crayon slideshow bio is too short, in the sense that it’s not long enough. What happens next? Do they still live in the Road King? Download “Secret” for a Pavement-inspired soundtrack of what’s going on in Sackville.

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Trace Wiren

When the tunes are coming out of Salt Lake City, it’s hard to resist a little comparison: “I’m a little bit country, I’m a little bit rock and roll.” Trace Wiren has that in common with Donny and Marie, that’s for sure. However, she’s also a little bit folksinger, a little taken with the blues, and a whole lot fresh. Download “Trouble at Home” now and start preparing your summer roadtrip mix.

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Protokoll

Given the Great Polarizing Talking Heads Comparison of 2005, I will attempt to describe Protokoll without referring to any beloved bands from the past four decades. Okay, here goes… Protokoll is a GANG OF FOUR scrawny, unshorn lads from Boston. It’s a real JOY to see such a young band blur the DIVISION between style and substance. While Protokoll’s nervous, synthy punk often bears all the charm and warmth of a BAUHAUS structure, one mustn’t INTERPOLate from that a lack of feeling. Jose De Lara’s dark, stoic vocals belie very simple and very HUMAN sentiments which alone puts Protokoll in a LEAGUE apart from the more fashion-conscious derivative acts of their vintage. This will set them apart down the WIRE, if they continue writing such memorable songs. There, that wasn’t so hard.

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Scotland Yard Gospel Choir

Ahhhh, the sounds of Sunday. Brothers and Sisters, put your hands together for the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir! In reality, there’s no choir, the gospel they preach is the saving grace of rock ‘n’ roll (“Yet you’re saved by the graves/Of old men whose names play on the jukebox”), none of the members are incarcerated, and they’re based in Chicago (although one of the principal members, Elia, was born in Wales). A couple years back the band found themselves supporting bands like Arcade Fire, Spoon, Olivia Tremor Control and seemed to be well on their way to indie rock success. Then in October of last year, co-founder Matthew Kerstein left the band to pursue his own project. Elia continues recording under Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, and should have a new album out next year. Not that I advocate taking sides, but Matthew wrote the first song offered here, Elia the second. Both songs will suck you into this unfolding drama.

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50 Foot Wave

Some of you youngsters may not immediately recognize the name Kristin Hersh. I hate to sound all grandfatherly and stubborn, but you should. She and Throwing Muses were the ’80s indie rock antitode to the Pixies: less visionary loose screw with arena-sized riffs than enigmatic everywoman of chilling insight who could rock with the best of ’em and lay down heartbreaking four-track ballads. Well, she’s still rockin’ with her new band 50 Foot Wave, and she’s doin’ it for free. “Money has so polluted the music world that my overwhelming urge right now is to divorce money from recorded music…So we’re sending free recordings off into the world to do their work. If people enjoy these songs and are excited by them, we ask that they share them with others. The music business is about fame and huge profits — egos and greed — music itself, is not.”

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The Valentines

Two events, no, three events have created this post about the Valentines. One, WindyLou, a 3hive reader, asked why my year-end list did not include more Memphis bands. Two, my friend Vince made a submission about the Valentines, a Memphis band who moved to Washington state. Three, the Monday holiday completely messed up my schedule so I’m a little late today. I really thought it was Tuesday.

So the Valentines (formerly the Dearest Darlins) make fun music with simple keyboards, guitars, and a crappy microphone. A little indie, a little rocksteady, a little toe-tappin, that’s what the Valentines are all about.

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Madman Moon

A good friend of mine used to regularly harp on me using the line, “Sean, you don’t know anything about music before 1979.” He was referring to the year XTC released their album Drums & Wires, the first album I ever bought with my hard-earned, paper-route cash. In a way he’s right. I didn’t have older siblings whose album collections I could pilfer from. I started with XTC and moved forward, not looking back much. Admittedly, my ability to reference back to classic ’60s and ’70s rock is lacking. Had I ever gone back and done a bit of homework I’d be able to better situate Madman Moon in that spectrum, because they fit in there somewhere. Shades of Bowie, ELO, and even The Doors come through, but there’s another connection or two in there that I just can’t nail down. Anyone else care to take a stab at it?

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The Sweet Hurt

There’s an aspect to The Sweet Hurt’s bio that’s, well, sweetly endearing. After going through the ususal personnel problems that bands have, there emerged an opportunity to play a show that pushed Sweet Hurt founder Wendy Wang “to get the band back together.” So, when I was a kid, I loved The Blues Brothers, especially the car chase scenes, and while The Sweet Hurt sound nothing like Jake and Elwood, I appreciate Wendy’s effort.

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