Okay, all you saps, here’s one for your Valentine’s Day playlist… Portland’s Parks and Recreation craft completely over-the-top pop pastiche with a wistfull underbelly. Fits nicely alongside Jens Lekman. Oh, and go grab The Valentines. Happy lovin’, lovers!
Ex-Boyfriends
Cory over at Absolutely Kosher brought Ex-Boyfriends to my attention with perfect timing considering my re-kindled interest in XTC and the accompanying power-pop kick I’m on. Dig their Drums and Wires era vibe—mixed in with a touch of Archers of Loaf and 999. Album’s available next week and in March the band begins making rounds out West. Ready, set, pogo!
Moose
I thought of this the other night while watching this new show about an A&R guy who leaves his major label and goes indie. No comments about the show itself, but in one scene, his love interest rattles off her Top 5 songs. Dylan, Beatles, Starship, I can’t remember the whole list, but it inspired me to compose my own Top 5 list. One of my Top 5 is Moose’s “I Wanted To See You To See If I Wanted You,” the version on their Liquid Make Up single. I remember everything about the first time I heard Moose. I was in Sean and Jan’s living room in Dublin, Ireland, in March of 1991, throwing things at (and having them thrown back at me by) her daughters Aisling and Niamh. The television was showing some program about up and coming bands and Moose was one of them. I was in love. Somewhat bizarrely, I recall scenes of Moose walking through a park. Although grouped with the shoegazers, Moose really had their own version of pop, combining delicate melodies crafted in some complicated noise.
The rest of my Top 5? Lilys’ “Any Place I’ve Lived”, Acetone’s “Come On”, Spiritualized’s “Run”, and The Stone Roses’ “I Wanna Be Adored.” Anyone wanna share their Top 5?
XTC
Full-circle moment happening for me here. I believe I’ve mentioned before that XTC’s 7″ of “Ten Feet Tall” was the first record I ever bought. I remember hearing the B-side, “Helicopter” on this old AM San Diego station called Mighty 690. I wore the grooves out on that thing listening to it non-stop on my parent’s stereo console that looked a lot like this. Needless to say, XTC played a huge part in my musical coming of age. And this new track, “Spiral,” (a bonus download to accompany the band’s Apple Box Set, released last year) is an unabashed homage to the narcotic effect of listening to one’s favorite songs — pure, pardon the pun, ecstacy. All this is a clumsy way to say that my love affair with music blossomed with XTC and this song is a fitting soundtrack to where that relationship has lead to. Right here. 3hive.
Destroyer
Destroyer is Vancouver’s own Dan Bejar. “European Oils” is taken from the seventh Destroyer album. If you’ve yet to hear of Destroyer and you’re thinking SEVEN ALBUMS ALREADY?? where have I been?, fret not. Bejar keeps a low profile. He even downplays his involvement with another Canadian band, The New Pornographers. I love the opening jam of this track. Feels like you’re comfortable and couched and about to spend the next half hour with a witty gang of characters on a ’70’s sitcom. Then Bejar comes in with that voice of his–a mix of Bowie and Dylan maybe. Quirky, odd, and completely satisfying.
Mike Ferraro
Tim O. and I were sitting in the office listening to Mike Ferraro’s “Lovers Only Love,” and he was like, “Hey, all this guy needs is hand claps,” and I was like, “Yeah.” And then I started wondering how Mike Ferraro’s songs ended up on my computer, and I found an old e-mail he sent to 3hive on 8.14.05. That explains that. And then I dug around some more and saw that David — of the wonderful LargeHearted Boy MP3 and other stuff blog — wrote about Mike Ferraro way back when, too, and then I felt really scooped. But you know, that was last year, and this is now, and Tim O. and I are digging these songs so much and hoping you people will go to Mike F’s website and buy his demos, go see him live, or whatever, and clap your hands at all the right times. Yeah.
Pelle Carlberg
A Swedish boy and his guitar. Former leader of the Swedish band Edson, Pelle Carlberg, is out on his own now, finding his way in the big world and singing about it all with warm, personal, and calmly infectious pop.
Eef Barzelay
Whadya know? Eef Barzelay’s modern-life-is-rubbish lyrics sound as good stripped down to just him and a guitar as they do with the full Clem Snide players behind him. Granted, Clem Snide is never more than half-dressed anyway, but it’s quite nice hearing the intricacies of Barzelay’s fractured wails so intimately. Pretty, insightful, lovely.
Head Like A Kite
My only uncle by blood recently passed away after a sudden and brief battle with cancer. Over the past few years I had been trying to get copies of his old home movies because I made frequent cameos in them as a young child. It’s very rare, early footage of me on film or video. Yes kids, I remember the days before everyone had video cameras in their cell phones! While he was living the last weeks of his life, my uncle, Erich, made me copies of those films. I was floored at his complete unselfishness and I was fortunate to be able to thank him on Christmas day, the last time I saw him. Each brief clip of our families is pure magic in today’s saturated world of moving images.
It was timely then for me to come across Head Like A Kite, the solo project from Dave Einmo. His debut album Random Portraits of the Home Movie was inspired by the economy of Super 8 movies. Combining samples from the movies, filtered through various guitar effects and gadgets, and a keen sense of well-honed pop songs, Einmo cut and pasted together a musical homage to the vintage format. It’s a rich reflection on how the past inevitably textures the present.
Doveman
Doing a little bit of cleaning up around here and I was gladdened to come across The Acrobat and immediately horrified upon realizing that I’ve had Doveman queued up on our back-end of Moveable Type for SIX months. Doveman is slowly orchestrated pop, not unlike Belle and Sebastian dropping it down a notch for ladies choice at the skating rink. (Wow. I have no idea why that rollerskating image popped in my head). If you liked Neil Halstead’s (Slowdive, Mojave 3) solo record, and you should, you should find Doveman aurally satisfying. A little blogosphere trivia, vocalist Thomas Bartlett keys the Audiofile column over at Salon.com — another fine, clean and quick MP3 fix.