Richard Swift has gone to great lengths to make his music sound seventy years old. Whether hacking a Victrola into an iMac, or fudging the fuzziness of decades into his recordings, Swift distresses his songs with just enough texture to make you doublecheck the copyright date. None of these lo-fi antics however overshadow the songwriting skills of this post-modern troubadour.
The Insomniacs
Many years ago Sean introduced me to The Three O’Clock, a mod-influenced power pop trio who were strong in the music but displayed a common shortcoming of mod bands: the lyrics were just stupid. “Jet Fighter Man/that’s what I am/cause tanks go too slow.” That’s actually my favorite song by them, but I mean, come on. The Insomniacs are another mod-influenced power pop trio who I turn to when I miss one of my favorite all-time bands, the early ’90s British mod-influenced power pop trio Five Thirty. (I recently had the priviledge of introducing Sean to Five Thirty, a little quid pro quo.) The Insomniacs have almost got it all: bass-shaking snarling (in the mod sense of the word) guitars, tight Small Faces harmonies, enough hooks to knock out Pete Townshend, and a singer whose voice makes him a dead ringer for the singer of Five Thirty. Let’s just not discuss the lyrics.
A Girl Called Eddy
I first heard A Girl Called Eddy when, several months ago, my wife randomly and luckily checked out her CD from our local public library. Seeing as it’s a public library and not a small, financially-strapped indie record shop totally devoted to offering the freshest new sounds around, I imagine many of you are already familiar with the smooth vocals and ’60s pop sensibilities of Erin (Eddy) Moran. Many of you know her solid songwriting skills, her stellar pop craftsmanship, her classic sadness. All I want to know is, why didn’t anybody tell me sooner?
Let’s Go Sailing
Some bands blend well with their surroundings. The bright melodies emanating from Let’s Go Sailing make the perfect soundtrack to their perpetually sunny Los Angeles. Their laid-back, surf pop songs makes you want to say, “Sure! Let’s Go Sailing.”
Snowglobe
Remember those “Dirty Boys” mentioned in Wednesday’s Of Montreal post? Oh, how we loved to tease them by calling them hippies. Well, a few of them make up the band Snowglobe. No surprise then that Snowglobe is heavily influenced by the sounds of Elephant 6. Warm, poppy, psychedelic-y, and even a little bit hippy. They also blend in shades of jazz and hard rock, with touches of horns, strings, bells, whistles, and whatever else was lying around the house to create a masterpiece of music that’s all their own. Damn hippies…
Of Montreal
There’s something about good music where you can always remember the circumstances when you were first introduced to it. More than a few years ago, my brothers and their friends, collectively known as the “Dirty Boys” for their fear of bathing, would gather for weekly soccer games while they were still in high school. I always played with them, despite being the only one who owned a proper pair of soccer boots, and boy did we have some good games. After one of those games, we having defeated a neighborhood Hispanic team who just showed up that day, BW Appleseed, as Brian was called, pressed into my hand a Holly Johnson tape. Holly Johnson?!! Well, on one side was handwritten “The Minders,” and on the other was scrawled “Of Montreal.” Of Montreal have their roots in Athens and the Elephant 6 collective, and they make just wonderfully eclectic pop. And I’ve still got that tape.
Pine Marten
Another offering from the California music collective The Ship, Pine Marten has a sparse and creepy sound that knocks around inside my head (not running into much, eh?) long after their songs end. For example, I tend to get lost in the five and a half minutes of “Hey Misty, What Do You Think?” and alternately think the song either just started or has been playing for an hour. I guess I kind of like that feeling.
Blanket Music
Hush honcho, and artist extraordinaire, Chad Crouch, thinks vocal comparisons to Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian) have worn thin. I hate to perpetuate the problem, but the similarities are quickly apparent. Reminds me as well of a not-so-cynical Stephen Malkmus. More important, however, is the wonderful, and varied, pop sounds he and fellow Portland pals put together in his basement. Blanket Music is a pop Sno Cone to which brightly colored flavors are added: jazz, country, bossanova, and funk. You’ll have to pick up their new album, Cultural Norms, to taste all the flavors.
Hood
Hood, well, they are simply one of the greatest. Hailing from Bristol, England, Hood have been putting out rural noise-pop (much like Flying Saucer Attack was rural psychedelia) since 1994’s epic Cabled Linear Traction. I say noise-pop ’cause they go from beautiful noise to pop and back again. Unfortunately for us, the only MP3 available from their brand new LP Outside Closer is at an unlistenable 48 kbps, so our selections cover an older range, from “Her Innocent Stock of Words,” one of my personal favorites from 1996’s Silent ’88, to softer fare like “Cross the Land.” Many more rare and miscellaneous MP3s are available at the sites listed below.
Built to Spill
“OH MY GOD!” (do I have to, like, pay royalties or something to Dooce for using all caps in a blog post?) I thought when I found “Joyride,” off Built to Spill’s The Normal Years, a K Records gem. (Thanks to Jared and his homemade K Recs t-shirt for the reminder to check their website.) One of my favorites from a thoroughly brilliant collection of random tracks, “Joyride” is a perfect representation of its title — exuberant, juvenile, and out of control. I’d love to put the whole album up here; IT’S THAT GOOD! (The check’s in the mail, Heather & Jon.)