Having previously confessed my love for Mark Robinson, founder of Teenbeat Records and driving force behind Unrest, Flin Flon, Air Miami, among others already listed elsewhere on these pages, I must share my excitement over the Teenbeat release of two previously unreleased Air Miami albums, Fourteen Songs and Sixteen Songs. Robinson started up Air Miami with fellow Unrest member Bridget Cross after that band’s breakup, and “Airplane Rider” is the single that preceded their 1995 LP Me, Me, Me. I still use their wonderous song “World Cup Fever” and all of its remixes to help me get through non-World Cup summers.
The Bell
Despite my penchant for cheerful pop I do enjoy moody sounds more than occasionally. The Bell joins fellow Swedes, The Mary Onettes, as another Scandinavian ’80s flashback band with a darker edge. Who am I kidding? The Bell is about as dark as a fluffy white cloud getting between you and the sun. It may throw a shadow, but it won’t ruin your picnic. The Bell is as threatening as anything on the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. The Bell does capture the mood, what you remember as melancholy when your mom made you tear down your Cure posters or when she drove you to the barber to “fix” your self-coifed Tears For Fears hair-do, you may have often experienced as a teenager during the Reagan Years. This is all speculation of course, because really, what would I know about that?? Watch for The Bell’s U.S. release in February, twenty-two years after Andie, Duckie & Co. hit the big screen, on Badman Records.
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
There used to be a bunch of MP3’s available for Stephen Malkmus so that you could get a great sense of what the erstwhile Pavement frontman has been up to for most of the last decade — and if you haven’t been keeping up, you’re missing out. We’re down to one: the sprawling, guitarilicious Randy Newman cover (!) “Baltimore,” all 6 minutes and 37 seconds of it. The new album is called Real Emotional Trash and as far as I can tell there is no release date yet, so don’t wear out this stocking stuffer too soon because it may be all you get for Christmas.
New Grenada
We’ll go Detroit local for today’s post, and check out New Grenada’s punky rock riffs and rips, boops and bips, toy instruments and just about anything else they dig out of the closet. Like a lot of awesome indie rock outfits, John Nelson, Nicole Allie and Dave Melkonian seem to make a lot more sound than you’d expect from so few people. With three LPs and a handful of 7″ and other recordings to their credit, New Grenada seem to be about to hit the sweet spot (even if their photo suggests they’re survivng solely on the kindliness of others). Check out their latest tracks — “Emergency Brigade” and “Meat is Murdermobile,” from the 2006 release Modern Problems — for a sense of their sonic range.
Plastic Passion
On these very pages I have previously used the term “dance punk disco funk” to describe the Rapture. So please pardon me for applying the same label late on a Sunday night to London’s Plastic Passion. Owing an obvious debt to the Cure for inspiration and the name of their band, Plastic Passion are a rough and raw complication of their post-punk/new wave influences in an age where similar bands are perhaps a bit too slick in their production. I can unfortunately only imagine what grand fun their live shows are, combining said roughness with the palpable energy of their songs.
Springfactory
I dragged myself out of my toasty-warm bed this morning only to be welcomed by a rare Southern California chill and this early holiday treat. Springfactory! And they’ve got what I never tire of: bright, sunny, Swedish-pop, delivered to the U.S.A. this winter, just in time to warm the fingertips and toes, via Series Two, a Nebraska-based CD-R label. Among the members of Springfactory are singer Lina Cullemark and Peter Gunnarson from Suburban Kids With Biblical Names. Lina also plays in a band called This Big Picture and boy it’s about time she’s got the mic. Her voice is playful and sweet and is especially endearing in the rousing “Get Out of Bed.” Springfactory released their first EP in 2005 and Series Two just put out a limited run of handmade, 10 song CD-Rs featuring the band’s two soldout EPs and two unreleased songs, including the glitchy and oh-so catchy “Peggy Pear,” an eleventh hour entry to my year-end favorites.
The Swimmers
The Swimmers released a pretty darn good MP3 EP back in August. It’s a fun piano pop romp, and I probably should have posted about it back then. But I’m glad I waited because now I have even more praise to heap on these kids from the Illadelph. As some of you know, I”m a complete nut for Christmas music — especially fresh, new Christmas compositions that capture the magic of the season, rather than the uninspired covers that bombard me everywhere I go these days. And that’s just what The Swimmers have created with “The Christmas Sound”: a buoyant Christmas hit replete with sleigh bells, drum trills, and a sing-along chorus. As we all learn in the movie Elf, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.” Word to Buddy…
The Swimmers’ next present to the world will be their debut album, due out in March.
Albert Hammond, Jr.
Greg is having a good day. He won a debate on global warming, wasting his opponent, and will soon gorge himself on all-you-can-eat Chinese. Furthermore, he’s got the chance to tell the whole Internet about Albert Hammond, Jr.: “This is so much pressure… You actually typed that? Well, for lack of better words, Albert Hammond, Jr. is like The Strokes in caffeine-free form. Which makes sense, considering that Albert Hammond, Jr. is, in fact, the lead guitarist for the band mentioned prior. And, you know what, I’m gonna get Guitar Hero for my mom for Christmas.” Thanks, Greg. You rock. Thanks also to AudioExposure, where we noticed that this song was posted.
Hey Hey My My
Every once in a while, something pops up in my inbox and completely catches my eye. In this case it was the music of two Parisian musicians who improbably have same first name and last initial, who have referenced Neil Young in their band name and who make music that is alternately sober and peppy. Even if I didn’t harbor closet francophilia, a tendency toward melancholic-yet-oddly-upbeat music, and and a predilection for bands with “Hey” “My” “Clap” or “Ra” in their titles–they still would have had me at the opening of “Too Much Space”. I hear they will soon be descending upon the states for a tour and that is good news indeed–these guys make me feel like I’m gonna be able to gloat about knowing about them first.
Pet Politics
Magnus Larsson, as Pet Politics, is the Swedish Jeff Mangum. Fortunately for us, Magnus is presently recording music, unlike the reclusive founder of Elephant 6’s Neutral Milk Hotel. I don’t mean to say that Pet Politics is a copycat, but while Magnus’s songs stand on their own, they also share the best traits of NMH, as in haunted, bizarre lyrics, pleasantly-driven pop, and that sturdy, powerful lead vocal with a unique cadence. The song below is a b-side to a limited 7 inch pressing on the London label the Great Pop Supplement. More songs available for download on the myspace page.