I’ll admit to occasionally hatin’ on NYC bands, usually of the gratuitously post-punk variety, what with their fashionable arrogance and snarls of prissy posturing. But, these days, it appears that “fun” is the new black. Case in point, Jupiter One, whose bounce-on-the-balls-of-your-feet numbers can stand tall alongside new wave forefathers like The Cars with nary a double-take. Lead singer K’s low tenor is as crisp as a starched white shirt and he can dodge canned guitar riffs (that’s a compliment), B-movie synth sounds, and even an electrified violin much the way Dave Derby did in the Dambuilders. All of it makes for great music to drink coffee to — or possibly a coffee substitute. Either way, things are looking up in downtown NYC.
Pyramid
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while now. Note I say “sitting on,” not “sleeping on,” which is an important distinction because it means I’m more of a jerk than a slacker. Unlike many of the emails we receive in the ol’ suggestionbox(at)3hive.com, I actually downloaded these songs mere moments after Ryan recommended the Charlotte, NC-based octet. So here I’ve been, soaking in their smoldering, headphone-friendly country goodness lo these past couple months without even telling my closest friends about it. Please accept my apologies and let me make it up to you by providing you with a direct link to purchase their fine debut, The First American, as those Amazon and Insound links below probably won’t help much until they land a label or distribution deal.
Self
Back it up about 10 years when Sam, Jon and I were all being paid for what we do now for free, a young man by the name of Matt Mahaffey was also, theoretically, getting paid for what he now does for free. His collage of organic and digital instrumentation, pop and hip-hop sensibilities, and his playful use of harmonic and discordant elements won us over immediately. Self was an essential artist in our soundtrack of those days at Acme. With Jon’s usual sarcasm, he remembers this time as “misty watercolor memories.” It took a loyal 3hive reader (thanks Josh!) to bring us full circle, back to Self. While selfies.com offers a veritable smorgasbord of free tunes, here’s a brief sampler of his classic and newest works. “KiDdies” was a literal hit on my nightly radio show in Salt Lake City and a great Halloween track, “So Low” and “Cannon” the singles from Self’s first album. The rest are from his most current album, this year’s Porno, Mint & Grime.
MC Frontalot
Emmett’s been on my back to post MC Frontalot, the self-proclaimed “world’s 579th greatest rapper.” I’ve been putting off Frontalot for two reasons: 1) he’s got A LOT of songs to choose from, all available for free download, and 2) I can’t tell if he’s for real, or if this is all just a way for some Cal Tech computer science Ph.D. candidate to let off some steam. Regarding the latter, the obvious next question is, “Does it even matter if he’s legit?” At least I’ve come to a decisive “Hell no” answer to that one. So here’s the nerdcore hip hop, ten songs worth. When you’re done laughing at the silliness you get here, go ahead and download the other 52 songs available at www.frontalot.com. Or, you could buy his record, I suppose.
The Lil’ Fighters
Upon seeing the Walkmen play the Hi-tone on Tuesday night, I was just blown away. They were so good and so loud live that I couldn’t even stand to listen their own albums the next day. So while we can’t post the Walkmen again, we can instead talk about the Lil’ Fighters, a New York band with links to the Walkmen. The Lil’ Fighters, however, don’t share that much musically with the Walkmen, prefering a pop foundation that lends to glowing warmth and feeling pleasant and singing lots of la-la’s, which is just what I need to let my ears recover.
Build Buildings
Sometimes I can only explain my bias for a certain artist at a certain moment by blaming the weather. Build Buildings to me is autumnesque in its flickering warmth. Tape glitches and synth chirps swirl around you like cool fog on a country road, with moments of bright melody and humanity bursting through the periphery like orange, red, and yellow leaves. Whether or not you buy the meteorological analogy, you have to admit Ben Tweel’s open-structured compositions are mature beyond the age of his laptop.
Song of the Lakes
Beware! Song of the Lakes is devoid of cynicism, coolness or hipness; the musicians probably don’t wear much black and they likely have a collective age of 200+ yrs. (for the four of them); the flute plays a prominent role in this song. Now that that’s taken care of, if you’re still interested, check out what this near-legendary live act from Up North (northern Michigan / the upper Great Lakes) has to offer. Besides the north woods and lakes, summer cottages and fall-apart piers, maritime traditions and the 19th century, you can hear influences from the British Isles and Scandinavia. More downloads with even more flute are available at the Song of the Lakes website.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
At some point I had to acknowledge the wonders of this band despite or due to the fact that every single one of my favorite music-related blogs has jocked Clap Your Hands Say Yeah — which I won’t acronym-ize because it ends up reminding me of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young when, in fact, they remind me of all that’s good about the Talking Heads, early Radiohead (yeah, Heather, I said Radiohead), and hazy, distorted memories of childhood.
Gardin
How do you like your slowcore? Gardin is delightfully simple, providing surprisingly lush soundscapes from fragile melodies and deliberate vocals, with an honesty that not’s hidden by fluff or distractions. A perfect recipe for the genre.
Captain Sensible
I thought I’d follow up my Sunday Damned post with an obvious segue to Captain Sensible, who, in the early ’80s broke off from The Damned to venture out on his own. He’s got two decades worth of charming, often biting, pop songs that hold up remarkably well. His song “Wot” made quite a splash in the UK and its ripples made it across to our side of the pond. I remember actually seeing the video on MTV. The story ends up quite cheery as Captain joined back up with The Damned for an album in 2001, where Captain questions British Democracy and gets his digs in on a little place called Neverland.