Coltrane Motion

There’s something about 3hive’s hard drives and Coltrane Motion. Sam’s crashed three years ago shortly before posting about Chicago’s Coltrane Motion, and mine recently had to be replaced, too, shortly before posting about them. I had intended to also post some photos I took of Coltrane Motion when I saw them in May 2006 while in Chigaco, but I may have to blame a different hard drive crash from last summer for misplacing most of those. Which is rather unfortunate, as they played in an old church, and I got a sweet shot of Michael Bond bouncing under an enormous lighted cross while still trying to keep his mouth at microphone level and not tipping over his laptop stand. Michael, the driving force behind Coltrane Motion, is also a dead-ringer for 3hive’s Sam, but alas, that photographic evidence is also missing. I did find an poor quality shot I took with my phone inside the church, which is below. Sam’s description of Coltrane Motion still holds true, as further demonstrated by their first 7″ release “The Year Without A Summer b/w Maya Blue,” out tomorrow.

Original Post by Sam on 14 Jan 2006:
My hard drive crashed this week which, as reliant as I am on my PowerBook, is like suffering short-term memory loss. One of the few artists I remember having on tap for 3hive is Coltrane Motion, who are members of a Midwest artist-run collective/label called, irony of ironies, datawaslost. These tracks are a good representation of Coltrane Motion’s “sound” — in quotes because they seem to have as many “sounds” as they have songs, due in part to their habit of making their own software and instruments. This makes remembering what I wanted to say about Coltrane Motion even more difficult. Was I pogoing to the urgent dance-punk of “I Guess the Kids Are OK” or singing along to the sizzling crooner pop of “Pi Is Exactly Three”? Cutting rug to the cheeky Beck send-up “Supersexy ’67” or stroking my chin to the backmasked glitch ‘n’ beats of “The End of Every Movie”? Couldn’t tell ya. So I guess I’ll own up to liking all four. And, please, before you start downloading: a moment of silence for my hard drive…

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Rae Spoon

Rae Spoon is, according to the publicists, “one of the world’s only transgender country singers.” He’s also a clever songwriter and a bit of a wit, and really not all that country, at least on his most recent release, superioryouareinferior. This disc is a trip through musical styles, from lo-fi indie pop to mod folk. Drop a buck and download “If You Lose Your Horses” if you’re looking for a classic country track, or check out the album’s opener for an example of Spoon’s songwriting smarts — I never knew I wanted to write a song for the Great Lakes until I heard his. Oh, and if you’re looking for a record full of what it means to be a transgender country singer, you might want to keep on looking, because this isn’t it.

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Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Here’s one that’s long overdue for an update and what do you know we’re just in time for Casiotone’s single collection due out this week. It’s called Advance Base Battery Life. The opening track, “Old Panda Days,” is classic CFTPA and highlights Owen Ashworth’s cunning command of couplets rhyming “boyfriends I shouldn’t have kept” with “stupid flatbeds we never swept.” You’ll have to listen to get the context. Not one to leave us hanging, Ashworth will quickly follow his singles and rarities collection with his fifth album, Vs. Children, of which “Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm” is part and proof that while Ashworth may be a one-man band, a one-trick pony he ain’t.

Note: Be sure to check out the SXSW Megamix from Tomlab, K Records, and Asthmatic Kitty. No medley nonsense here, just lots of full-length gems.

Old and Panda Days [MP3, 3.2MB, 192kbps]
Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm (When The Saints Go Marching In) [MP3, 2.1MB, 160kbps]

Sam’s original post 2/4/2006::
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone has been one of those monikers that kinda gives away the ending before you even press play — like Rage Against the Machine, or Insane Clown Posse. I say “has been” because now Owen Ashworth (who from some angles looks remarkably like 3hive’s Jon Armstrong, see for yourself) has joined forces with producer Jherek Bischoff to expand his sound beyond its lo-fi trappings. “Young Shields” is the lead-off single from the resulting album, Etiquette, which by all indications still speaks to the Painfully Alone, just with less Casiotone (and a lot more of everything else) than before. “Cold White Christmas” is also from the new joint… Where was this track when I was putting together my Christmas podcast? Oh well, this one defies seasonality. When isn’t a good time for some chilly melancholy?

Young Shields [MP3, 2.9MB, 128kbps]
Cold White Christmas [MP3, 4.6MB, 128kbps]
Bobby Malone Moves Home [MP3, 2.5MB, 160kbps]
New Year’s Kiss (version) 4-track home recording [MP3, 2.5MB, 160kbps]
Graceland [MP3, 2.5MB, 160kbps]

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Helicopters

Man, recessions suck. It’s all work, work, work. I’ve been woefully ignorant of all of these Internet happenings except perhaps Twitter because, y’know, that’s just quick random thoughts, right? But what we could really use in these lean times are free MP3 downloads. So god bless you for going strong with 3Hive, Sean and Joe and Clay, because there’s so much great music out there and, long hours be damned, we gots to share the sharing! Like Chicago’s Helicopters, a group that got its first major exposure by winning a battle of the bands contest that gave them a slot at Lollapalooza. And they didn’t stuff the ballot box, either. Like the Chicago Man of the Decade, Helicopters offer a complex yet accessible brand of hope that is a sea change from a cynicism that has prevailed for too long. It’s no small feat considering they have three primary songwriters. Such musical trinities can lead to a garbled mess of influences. And while you’ll get a smorgasbord on Sizing Up the Distance, from synthed new wave reduxes to driven guitar anthems to emo wails, there’s a common thread of pop craftsmanship that pulls it all together. These are some finely crafted gems, and at least one of them is free. The Spring thaw is upon us, and hopefully the financial thaw is about to follow – and with Helicopters, my thaw soundtrack is coming together nicely.

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Belleisle

In college I was a creative writing major, and that same subject was my favorite class ever to teach in high school. Were I to still be teaching the class, I think I’d probably use the text to Belleisle’s track “Talks a Lot” as a classroom sample of the “every poem is a song” idea. The song, from the 2008 album Longstanding, exhibits a narrative sense that I just love. Speaking of love, I’m starting to feel that way about Belleisle, (and it’s not just because I used to go to the Frederick Law Olmstead-designed Detroit park of a similar name when I was a kid). The Montreal-based team of Rebecca Silverberg and Tasha Cyr make up the core of Belleisle, and their smooth delivery and surprisingly tasteful moments of dissonance are making me smile a whole lot, making me want to wax poetic.

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New Phoenix Single

Phoenix | Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix | 3hive.com
Phoenix | Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix | 3hive.com

I like Phoenix. And they like you. To prove it, they just released their new single “1901” as a free download. Gotta go here to get it. No email or log in necessary. The band will issue their full album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix on May 25th.

Milke

My mother prides herself on being “with it.” And compared to 99% of mothers I guess she probably is, as far as any mother’s “with-it-ability” goes. People are still often surprised to find out that she’s my mother since she looks too young and flashy to have a son who looks as old and frumpy as I do. And she was quite the early Facebook adopter amongst her friends and her generation. Speaking of which, this morning she expressed dismay at the fact that one of our mutual friends would use a photo of herself with her tongue sticking out as her profile picture. “It’s sexually suggestive,” my mother said. She may be up to date on technology, but her sexual boundaries are still quaintly old-fashioned. No mother, Shari’s picture is fun and sassy, this is sexually suggestive and *gasp* highly androgynous.

This is the artwork to Milke’s new single, “Love Get Out of My Way.” The duo mix French electro with soulful pop vocals for a sound that’s sure to be burn its way through the club scene and get the blog-o-kids all geeked. The two principles behind Milke are from opposite ends of the music world: producer Andrew Friendly has been DJing and remixing his way around the world, remixing the likes of Justice, LFO, and Darren Hayes, while singer Ra has been holed up on his own, flying way below the radar, until Friendly heard his work on the Black Grass album. Now with Milke they’re writing tracks that transcend their former domains. It’s big, bold, and yes, suggestive, synth-y disco. My mother will love the music, but loathe the artwork. I’m bracing for the response she’s sure to fire at me on Facebook (Hi mom!) Speaking of which, here’s a reminder to join us there too.

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The Very Most

I don’t think anyone suffering through a harsh winter would think it’s too early to start dreaming about Spring. Boise’s The Very Most has been planning for this Spring for some time. In fact, they’ve got the next year planned out as four EPs celebrating the next four seasons. Spring is available now and Summer hits on May 1st.”Today It Is Even Better” shimmers as bright as any song ever posted on these pages. Warm and fuzzy indie-pop good the whole year round. They even take on Morrissey, the king of melancholy, and sweeten up the Smiths “Cemetry Gates.” If you think this sacrilegious, then you especially need a dose of The Very Most. Prepare for an imminent cheering up by the band that makes dying sound like a jangle of a good time.

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Laura Gibson

Since everyone else is doing it — all the other reviewers and critics and press types, that is — I’ll avoid comparison when discussing Laura Gibson, and instead just say that her smooth, precise, detached vocal styling should appeal to anyone who likes an eccentric female singer-songwriter. “Spirited,” off the forthcoming Beasts of Season, suggests an orchestrated lushness to this young Oregonian’s songs, as opposed to the more classic shuffle of “Hands in Pockets,” from 2006. Speaking of the new album, NPR will feature it next week in streaming audio as part of its Exclusive First Listen series.

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Jason Holstrom

Clay recently wrote about not being able to post the bands you’d really like to, and I can sympathize. A few years ago I wanted to share The Hazzards, a ukulele-playing pair of girls from, of course, Brooklyn. Alas, nothing was available. If you’re looking for a uke fix, though, a little Jason Holstrom can do the trick. While decidedly more island-themed than The Hazzards, who were, you know, ironic (from Brooklyn), Holstrom plays it kind of straight, dishing up clean pop songs with some palm-inspired lilt. A veteran of a bunch of Seattle bands I’d never heard of, Holstrom gave us a travelogue with his 2007 album The Theives of Kailua. Uke it up!

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