Next up, Nino Moschella. More low-key than Bing Ji Ling, but all up in your groove nonetheless. Moschella offers up a smooth blend of electronic and acoustic elements while channeling the raw, gritty funkmasters of the ’60s. He keeps the instrumentation minimal which leaves more room for the soul, baby. The Fix, his debut album, is out next week on Ubiquity.
The Silver Hearts
We’ve done some orchestral pop here recently, with posts on Architecture in Helsinki and The Heavy Blinkers. The Silver Hearts — an Ontario ten-piece band — use a lot of the same instruments, but really without the pop part. Think a hundred years ago and you’re headed in the right direction. Think Tom Waits vaudville and you’re even closer to home. In fact, available from The Silver Hearts is their own song-by-song interpretation of Waits’s 1985 classic Rain Dogs (click here if you’re curious). Their “beer and brothel orchestra” sound is probably a pretty good fit.
Beirut
Zach Condon is an A-student from Albuquerque who bummed around Europe for a few months and came back with a head full of Balkan harmonies just begging for a pop reawakening. With the help of Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeremy Barnes, who lends lovely layers of percussion, they’ve gotten just that. Condon’s melancholic, lazy-tongued crooning owes more than a little to the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, as does his ability to turn the oddest mix of melodies into an aural box of chocolates. From a hodgepodge of musical traditions, and without a single traditional pop rhythm, Beirut creates little gems that will stick in your mind as much more than just quaint novelties from faraway locales.
The Heavy Blinkers
People seemed to like the orchestral pop of Australia’s Architecture in Helsinki the other day, so I thought I’d pitch a Canadian take on the same genre to you. Hailing from Halifax, The Heavy Blinkers have some serious ’70s pop sensibilities — I mean, there’s even a smooth trombone solo in “Try Telling That To My Baby,” title song of the newest Blinkers’ album. With all the strings, horns and soft backing vocals, you practically have an ELO record. Not that I remember ELO, but my dad did have one of their 8-tracks, which would probably be the ultimate medium for The Heavy Blinkers.
Sub Dub
First DJ Wally, now another from my mid-’90s rotation… Not just a clever moniker, Sub Dub is fairly descriptive of the musical niche that Raz “Badawi” Mesinai and John “J-Dub” Ward carved out for themselves. Though laced with dub’s signature buoyancy, their sound is inspired by the grit and murk of urban life — as opposed to the cosmic influence of some of their neo-dub contemporaries. And speaking of Wally, there’s a possible thread here: the strange caterwaul sample that emerges with about 1:00 left in “Dawa Zangpo” sounds uncannily similar to the one found in DJ Wally’s “Outta My Head.” I could be wrong though, as I don’t have the latter track with me as I write this. I’ll get out my forensics kit and get back to you…unless, of course, someone out there beats me to it.
Subcity Dwellers
Being around my old college friends a few weekends back brought back a craving for cheap Mexican food and ska-punk, which I’ve had a hard time satiating for some reason. So I was stoked when Grant Lawrence included this scorching new (to me, at least) track from Vancouver, B.C.’s Subcity Dwellers on the latest Radio 3 podcast. Now Grant, where’s my bean and cheese burrito?
Charles and Annette May Thomas
Sunday morning gospel courtesy of funk-blog-master-deluxe, Oliver Wang. I’ll leave the description of this track to Mr. Wang himself, since he’s been there, done that. What I will give you is the skinny on O-Dub’s newest project. He’s teaming up Soul-Sides with Zealous records for a hand-picked compilation of classic soul old school style—that’s right, straight outta the blogosphere to vinyl and CD. A portion of the proceeds will go to The Rhythm and Blues Foundation, a charity assisting R&B artists from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s who lack healthcare and income. Also check out the jukebox for the rest of the album. Guaranteed to fill your soul.
DeVotchKa
Theatrical like Rufus Wainwright, musically nimble like Calexico, Eastern European like my grandparents — that’s what we’re talking about with DeVotchKa. (And again with the name confusion… is it Devotchka or DeVotchKa? Filter says one, the SF Bay Guardian says the other, I say whatever.) Aram and Megan both suggested this band of Denver Gypsies (are they really Romani?) with crazy instrumentation and rollicking melodies, and I say wspanialy! Imagine the theme music for a Belgrade barfight in a Bond movie directed by people with too many consonants in their names, and the band on the stage, the one hiding behind the ripped and stained maroon curtains, is DeVotchKa.
The Special Guests
I found an old tape in my parents’ garage that I’d made for my brother years ago. While it had Wire and Yello on it, it led me down a train of thought that eventually inspired me to dig out Desmond Dekker’s song “Reggae Recipe,” which naturally led to more ska listening. Yes, it’s been a while since 3hive’s last ska post, so something special was needed. Something authentic, something true to roots of ska, something with a rocksteady soul, and Germany’s The Special Guests are the perfect fit. Plus, they’re the only thing keeping me going after 15 hours at work!
Twink
Boston native Mike Langlie, a.k.a. Twink, has quite the collection of toy pianos and he’s not afraid to use them — the last six tracks here are proof of that. On his new album he picks apart the childrens’ records he’s used over the years as inspiration for their melodies and moods and rebuilds a dusty, playful romp.