The Dudley Corporation. The name alone sounds like something out of “The Office” (the original British series, which I just spent all weekend watching for the first time ever…eerily genius). Their website gives off a similarly ironic corporate vibe. Musically, these Irish lads have a wonderful pop-hazard sensibility, recalling at times The Smiths without being redundant. Watch for East Coast dates with Pinback in May. Album’s in stores today.
The Foxymorons
While their name is more befitting a rec league softball team than a lo-fi pop duo from Mesquite, Texas, don’t go writing them off as a novelty act (unless, of course, you’re into that sort of thing — in which case you should skip straight to their covers album). These guys take their craft quite seriously, as evidenced by the warm, inviting hooks and smart yet honest lyrics. Their newer material is more polished, relatively speaking. “Harvard Hands” mimics early Wilco and “Hesitation Eyes” is pure power pop a la Posies, Cheap Trick, et al. But, no matter how you package it, the honesty goes down smooth and easy. As referenced earlier, the band’s site features an entire album’s worth of MP3 covers — including some fractured renditions of Sonic Youth, Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston, and more. Play ball…
Lilys
I just love it when people ask me, “What’s your favorite kind of music?” It’s always people who really don’t know me, and I love it even more when my hesistation to answer immediately leads them to further clarify. “Rock? Rap? What about Jazz?” But I always answer, simply, “Lilys.” Kurt Heasley, the force behind Lilys, is a musical chameleon, changing colors and styles at will. He started as an American My Bloody Valentine, then shifted to psych-tinged Kinks, then drifted into Pink Floyd, came back again to the Kinks, then passed on into mellow pop-influenced electronica, and with the last release, 2003’s Precollection, touched on UK indie pop. Each shift usually throws me for a loop, but I keep coming back, and I keep answering, “Lilys.”
Malcolm Middleton
Malcolm Middleton is one half of Scotland’s Arab Strap. On his second solo album, Malcolm expands on his earlier work and the sounds he churns out for Arab Strap. Folksy one minute, almost danceable the next, Malcolm shares the highs and lows with equal beauty. But make no mistake, this being Scottish, the self-loathing is still there; just listen to the chorus of “A Happy Medium.”
The Happies
A handful of us here at the 3hive were involved, musically, many years back. First, at an AM radio station we basically hijacked for a summer, then at a CD exchange (remember those?) called Sonic Garden. Blurb designed the logo. Soon after that fell to pieces, Sam and I started up an indie distribution company called Happyville (I’m sure we’d unanimously agree that 3hive is our best venture yet). ANYWAY, The Happies are sorta namesakes, and are not-so-coincidentally, from the state of Utah, where we initially made our acquaintances. They also make endearing, quiet, lo-fi pop songs, for which I am a complete sucker. Thanks to Todd Simmons for dropping this into the ol’ s-box.
The Weakerthans
In light of the recent discussion in Wisconsin to legalize cat hunting (if you haven’t heard about this, check here), it seems appropriate to post The Weakerthans, whose “Plea From a Cat Named Virtute” is actually told from the perspective of a cat. Katherine slipped me a disc of their melodic Canadian punk/pop, replete with a little steel guitar here and some blazing noise there, and it’s been the only rotation in my car’s CD player for a few weeks now. As for the licensed hunting of feral cats, it seems like The Weakerthans would likely not approve. To my knowledge, 3hive has no official position on the matter.
Swoon
Need another reason to move to or at the very least vacation in Sweden? Swegazers. Yeah, that’s Swedish shoegazers, and our pick today from the suggestion box, Swoon, have coined the term. Like one of the masterpieces of shoegazing, Lilys’ 1992 album In the Presence of Nothing, which deliberately mimicked My Bloody Valentine, Swoon are not ashamed to show their influences, and like Lilys, they do it so well that their songs can stand alone on their own merit. So those of you wondering what your band would sound like if you were raised in Sweden on Chapterhouse, Ecstacy of St. Theresa, Ride, and even Lilys, that’d be Swoon.
Bettie Serveert
My brother-in-law Pete has been wanting to suggest something for 3hive for awhile now, I think, and although he’s pretty much committed to the music of his glory days in the mid- to late-80s — think U2’s Boy or Rum, Sodomy and the Lash by The Pogues — he pulled through with Bettie Serveert. “Attagirl,” off the Dutch band’s recent album of the same name, kind of has a new wave groove going, maybe. Anyway, Pete’s a hero of mine, along with my sister-in-law Cindy, because they actually hired a babysitter(!) for my favorite niece and nephew and went to see Bettie Serveert live(!!) not too long ago. They even got her autograph(!!!). I can hardly remember those days…
Smoosh
Yeah yeah, I know they’ve hobnobbed with Katie Couric on “The Today Show,” that they’re a couple of preteen sisters, and that they’re all the rage these days, but Smoosh are pretty damn good. Let me share something I learned from listening to “Massive Cure”: Asya and Chloe are not scenesters, hipsters, teenstars, or fakers. They’re in this for the music, the very purest motive there is. Sure, there are lots of indie band comparisons, but 12-year-old Asya sings like a 12-year-old PJ Harvey, and 10-year-old Chloe shuffles the drums like nobody’s business. Girl power!
Kid Lunch
People ask me where we come up with all the good stuff we post on 3hive. It’s hard to explain except to say that we sometimes seem to benefit from some sort of collective stream of consciousness. To wit: spring springs in Detroit, which reminds Joe of Hayden’s music; Joe posts Hayden, which reminds Eli of Kid Lunch who is a Canadian colleague of Hayden’s; Eli drops us a note about the Kid; I like the name and download some tracks from his 1999 self-titled debut; I like them enough to download the entire thing (it’s available for free on his website); I scrap together a post which says nothing about the music itself and voila! It’s just that easy! Kid Lunch may be in semi-retirement — his last live gig appears to have been in 2002 — but his sonically diverse album holds enough promise to leave me wondering if/when he’ll return with more good stuff. In the meantime, let’s see what kind of associations this post triggers… The suggestion box is open.