So one of the band members of Earth Program, I won’t identify her specifically, has been pestering me for this post for some time. I think she didn’t really realize that I had quietly retired from 3hive as a way to maintain sanity. Seriously, how can anyone actually listen to even a fraction of the music that’s out there and keeps on coming every day? It was her quasi-anonymous e-mail that did it; “Dear Editor, ” it began. Come on… As a disclosure, I knew this band member before there was an Earth Program, back when she was the complicated girl in the back of my high school Creative Writing class. She was as awesome then as her band is now, and I’m glad I unretired just to share some tunes I think a lot of you are going to like. I mean, just listen to “Eat Your MakeUp,” ok? Earth Program is pop enough to be bearable and strange enough to keep things interesting. Sounds like a fine time to be 20ish in Chicago. Oh, and hi Jen.
Inlets
Inlets’ first full-length album has been over three years in the making, and now fans can finally hear why it took so long. Sebastian Krueger is back with a lush slice of pastoral pop called “Bright Orange Air”, a teaser from the forthcoming Inter Arbiter LP. Equally gorgeous is the accompanying video, directed by Benjamin and Stefan Ramirez Perez. For those who geek out on this sort of thing: it was filmed, rotoscoped, separated into layers, and then run through AfterEffects to create seven different color textures from which they created a rich range of color. Yummy.
Lisa’s original post from 01/31/07:
Sebastian Krueger is the man behind what he calls “the bedroom fidelity project” Inlets. This perhaps makes him both faithful and musical? Ladies? He is also a generous man, and we here at the ‘hive appreciate good music even more when the artists who make said music decide to make their EP’s available for NO dollars to music lovers of the world. Krueger gets “sharing the sharing.” He just gets it. Back when I was a 3hive fan and not a participant, I used to be totally charmed by all this “this is totally a Clay band”, “oh such and such is Shan music for sure” business. Since I’m still pretty new, I’ll just say that Inlets is Lisa music–moody, instrumental, a touch earnest, but musical in a way that avoids sappy sweet sentimentality. And who doesn’t like a man who cut his teeth with My Brightest Diamond? So snatch up the Vestibules EP at luvsound while the gettin’ is still good.
The Royal Chains
Sorry for the hiatus. Life got a bit hectic the last couple weeks, and since I’m pretty much navigating this ship solo (alas!) it doesn’t take much for it to veer off course. Queue The Royal Chains. I pulled this out of the latest stack of mail at random and the lack of effort and forethought paid off. They’re just a couple boys from Nashville via Brooklyn, Dan on guitar and Adam on drums and vocals, who describe their musical MO in the third person this way, “They write pop songs that are probably more rock. They write rock songs that are probably more pop.” I struggled to chose a song to post. The whole five song EP is pop rock solid. I decided on “Lucy Takes the Dare” (which leans toward the pop end of their spectrum), because I think it’s the hit. Which is funny because it’s not structured like a hit at all. The song builds slowly, taunts you with a couple pre-choruses, a meandering bridge, then finally, two minutes in, the title is sung three times, and the song keeps building right into the outro and it’s over and you have to hit repeat. There’s some nice texture looping in the background which reminds me of Howard Hello and if you mix in a touch of Superchunk, minus a bit of tempo, you get pretty close to how great The Royal Chains is/are (depending on your plural band moniker usage preference).
Phantogram
Phantogram sets the bar high for new music in 2010. Obvious comparisons to Portishead aside, this young duo easily hold their own. It’s a fine distinction, but Phantogram is more space-hop than trip-hop and “When I’m Small” throws down a groove of heavily plucked bass that brightens up the bedroom vocals and scratchy record sample circling its way through the track. About a third of the way through everything drops out except soft synth pulses and echoing guitar to highlight Sarah Barthel’s voice. Diamonds spill from this woman’s mouth every time she opens it! My limited judgment is based on this and a couple other tracks, but I’m happily prejudiced and waiting to be fully abducted by Eyelid Movies on February 9th (vinyl via Ghostly). East Coast dates begin shortly before.
We just included Pocket’s Top 9 of 2009 in our on-going Best of 2009 lists from friends of the ‘hive. Be sure to take a gander that way for his take on art, apps and laughs along with his cover of New Order’s “Sub-Culture” for next year’s tribute album from 24 Hour Service Station. If you don’t already have any of Richard Jankovich’s songs in your pocket, now’s the time to start squirreling. Formerly of Burnside Project, Jankovich began remixing tracks for oh, folks like Beck, Radiohead, Cat Power and Antony & The Johnsons. And now he’s putting his depth of musical taste and history to good use in a series of singles marrying vocalists from bands like Dag Nasty, The Church, Shudder to Think, Liquid Liquid and Asobi Seksu with his own blend of electronic beats, blips, and blasts. I noticed he dropped a Human League sampled beat in one of his tracks as well—it’s like he’s curating the Gen X museum of music geekdom with his Warhol-esque pastiches of the past and ever evolving present.
Total Babe
Compared to the bands I’m about to use to describe them, Total Babe could be named Just Babes. Still in their teens, this Minnesota quartet just performed their EP release party in their hometown and one of their mother’s baked brownies for the event. But their songwriting skills belie their ages. Oh the hooks! I was just listening to The Wishing Chair by 10,000 Maniacs and there’s a similarity in the two bands’ vocal deliveries, the languid enunciation, the stringing together of syllables from adjacent words, the way the vocals sound as if they’re sung in some other Germanic language. Or imagine Lush unplugging and dropping their tempo a notch. That’s it sort of— Total Babe strips away the feedback, the distortion, and the droning from the shoegaze aesthetic, leaving room for their heavenly vocals to breathe. Surprisingly, mature musical decisions for a young, fresh band.
Atlas Sound
What does it take to to wake me from a 3hive coma? One simple tweet: “@diplo: i wish atlas sound would ask me to make them a mixtape.” Which got me thinking, How friggin sweet would that be? Which got me thinking, Wait, none of us have posted Atlas Sound on 3hive?? Which got me thinking, Where’s my login??? So here goes…
Atlas Sound is what the crazy prolific Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox calls himself when doing the home recording thing. It’s hard to put a finger on his steez cause it morphs based on his mood and whatever’s moving him at the time. To get a sense of his wide range of influences, just check the playlist to his latest “micromix“. The common thread is a drowsy, droney, and often messy sheen to surprisingly tuneful and hypnotic song structures.
“Doctor” covers an obscure single from ’50s/’60s doo-wop act The Five Discs. “Walkabout” is a pop chant that’ll shimmy its way into your head and stay a while. And, given the season, I threw in Bradford’s oddly sentimental “holiday” tune from 2007. Now, I’m heading back to Twitter for more inspiration…
Netherfriends
After a few days of obsessing over categorizing Netherfriends’ sound, I realized such efforts were unnecessary and that the six tracks on this EP were strong enough to stand alone. As vain as my attempts at classification may have been, I still have to try. Here goes: the majority of the Netherfriends EP is an exploration of pop possibilities. It’s an addictive mix of Animal Collective’s meandering instrumentation and the Elephant Six Collective’s tendencies to pay homage to ‘60s era pop. “Mom Cop” leans towards the latter. However you decide to categorize them, listener beware: I ended up memorizing the lyrics to all six songs in a day. Netherfriends exposed the addictive side of my personality.
– By Brie Roche-Lilliott
Patrick & Eugene
Don’t hit the download link unless you adore:
1. Ukeleles
2. Banjos
3. Bongos
4. Slide whistles
5. Bells
6. Super cheery pop music
7. Trombones, clarinets and a variety of horns
Because those are the tools that Patrick & Eugene use to transform Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” into a bouncy klezmer romp. When left to their own songwriting devices P&E create equally breezy tracks, varied in tempo, but not tone. These are happy songs. Sunshine songs. Glass half full songs. Dixieland jazz songs. If you’re old and jaded, grumpy, too cool to smile, or maybe just mean you’ll want to hit someone after hearing the twin songs “Altogether Now” and “The Birds and the Bees,” but maybe, just maybe if you listen long enough you’ll offer a hand to the poor soul you just floored with your fist. Post Patrick & Eugene as the marching band to next month’s Afghanistan surge and Obama very well may start bringing troops home in 18 months. They’ve got that kind of feel-good power.
Neon Indian
Does time seem to move too slow for you? Do your days and weeks drag on? If you’re interested in making time move faster I’ve got a piece of advice for you: make some babies. Probably not the best solution for everyone, but let me tell you the last thirteen years of my life have skated by. Yesterday I worried whether or not my kid would keep breathing throughout the night; today I worry whether or not he’ll be able to find and hold down a job. It’s not the economy that makes me anxious, but the teenagers I’m surrounded with everyday and their work ethic or lack thereof. So lately I’ve been on the lookout for tips on teaching kids how to work and why they should care about the quality of their work. Let me share what I learned today: don’t introduce your child to Neon Indian!
One quick glance at these track names and I think you know where I’m going and what Neon Indian, né Alan Palomo, is selling. These playful, lilting pop songs and their psychedelic synth flourishes will do nothing but encourage your youngsters to raid your medicine cabinet, string up a hammock out back and sway their days away. He uses subversively cheerful melodies and samples of bird songs to lead your children away on a breezy headphone trip, far away from their duties and responsibilities. I’d like to see you get your children to make their beds to this music, let alone pull a shift at Mickey D’s! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he’s perfected the aural aura Cornelius has taunted us with for years. Whatever you do, don’t listen to this! And be sure to keep your iPod and prescriptions locked up tight.