One last Memphis music history lesson. I saw Neighborhood Texture Jam at the Antenna Club in Memphis in 1988 (as nearest as I can recall), and one their most appealing features was the absurd song subjects, like “Torsoes of Murdered People” and my personal favorite, “Mall Boutique” on the life of a mall worker. The suggestion box at 3hive recently got an email about NTJ, so with their new website comes the opportunity to share the NTJ love. More MP3’s can be found at their website.
C.O.C.O.
C.O.C.O. play funky dance music, as does their lumberjack-soulman-boss Calvin Johnson, with an unselfconscious swagger that wears its anti-hipster lameness like a faded black t-shirt, not to mention on instruments that won’t be rendered useless when the power goes out at the house party (although their propensity for dub fadeouts might get lost with the lights out). Olivia Ness and Chris Sutton are a rhythm section in no need of melodies. It’s what all the Olympia kids are dancing to these days, and with any luck these rhythms will sweep the nation and set basement parties afire from coast to coast.
Bella
My most awesome musical dream right now is of Bella and Mighty Six Ninety doing a “Battle of the ’80s Cover Bands.” How cool would that be? M-690’d take on “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and Bella would do “Fascination.” Certainly, I could die a happy man after that show. I actually can imagine keeling over while dancing to “Give it a Night,” off Bella’s Mint Records debut No One Will Know. It’s a super-pop retro-blast, like a “Sweating to the 80s” exercise video soundtrack made in heaven (or would it be nirvana). All this means, of course, that Bella’s about to get a hundred million plays on the family iPod.
Biirdie
Biirdie’s brings the heartache like a slow-approaching thunderstorm. They lace their lush Americana sound with bits and blips of modernity a la fellow Californians Grandaddy. However, the double threat of Kala Savage’s angelic vocals and Jared Flamm’s world-worn pipes really put them in a class of their own. Plus they also made my baby girl sway at breakfast this morning while eating her Cheerios. So that’s a double thumb’s-up if ever I heard one.
Plus, I just read that Kala is Fred and Ben Savage’s sister…FTW!
Red Collar
I feel Clay’s pain. My ears have been ringing steady since February 2006. And I play guitar even worse, way worse, than Clay, but I do wear earplugs. Like a religion. Tinnitus still struck. It doesn’t bother me during the day, just when I lie down at night to sleep. The remedy? MP3 player of choice. Just be sure to keep the levels down so you don’t further ruin your hearing. I just found what I’ll be falling asleep to this evening: Red Collar. These Durham, NC rockers take me back a decade or so, sounding like a solid Dischord band if Dischord were down south in Alabama. Country Fried Hardcore? Springsteen fronting Fugazi? Sacrilege? Perhaps. I’ll definitely be breaking the first aural health commandment tonight: keep it below 11. This’ll drown out the ringing nicely.
Ladyslipper
This one’s perfect after a day of my better half and I struggling to talk to each. “What did you say?” “Can you say that again?” “What was that?” “I couldn’t hear you.” We’ve finally concluded that our poor hearing has a common cause: too much rock ‘n’ roll. Years of going to shows sans ear plugs. Years of head phones and ear phones and ear buds. Years of going to sleep with the stereo on. Years of car stereos on full blast. And in my case, years ago, not being very good on the guitar and trying to compensate for it through loud feedback. So what better anthem for the toll music has taken on our hearing than Ladyslipper’s “Tinnitus?” Tinnitus is ringing or buzzing in the ears and the reason that I recently purchased a twenty pack of ear plugs. But this Minnesota’s band’s melodic, fuzz-drenched indie rock with their proud, echo-heavy shouts of “tinnitus” hopefully will serve as a reminder to all of us to use ear protection when listening to loud, catchy music from Ladyslipper.
This public service announcement has been brought to you by Ladyslipper and 3hive.
A.A. Bondy
A.A. Bondy’s new album, American Hearts, is easily one of my favorites of the year, and it comes just at the right time. Summer’s going to fade soon, the leaves will change and Michigan will be at its absolute most beautiful before we get buried in winter. Bondy’s sparse folk rock will make a nice soundtrack for that transition, like Springsteen’s Nebraska or Will Oldham’s Days in the Wake. The other artist that comes to mind here is Steve Earle; “Vice Rag,” my favorite of the two songs below, is essentially a lilting country version of “CCKMP,” and is as disarming as the original. Bondy makes less more on American Hearts, much to this listener’s pleasure.
Ghastly City Sleep
Clocking in at a hair under 30 minutes Ghastly City Sleep’s debut can be considered, to tweak a literary term, an album-ella. An itty bitty album in number of tracks only (four), the self-titled work otherwise towers in sound and scope, but leaves one wanting more. The song featured here, “Hushing Weight,” lumbers open with slow bass blows underneath haunting vocals. Layers of tones, synth and piano, sneak in and then the song rises into a sweeping Pet Sounds-like chorus, but slowed way, way down. Sweet, reverberating harmonies frequently shine through the droning, post-rock fog of these Virginian sons. From the brief glimpse their debut offers, Ghastly City Sleep are working towards re-making the Beach Boys in Sigur Rós’s image. I should also mention that anyone who buys the CD is in for a treat. The artwork is a 12 panel poster of a painting by band member Brandon Evans, which is tucked behind a frosted transparency etched with the band’s name and logo.
Plane
“Blood on the Waves” starts with a guitar melody that anyone with the slightest knowledge of the Manchester sound will know. But just in case, Plane doesn’t make a mystery of their influences: listed right at the top of their “Sounds Like” section on MySpace is Joy Division. It would be slightly more accurate if they could convey that it sounds like that uncharted territory between the premature fall of Joy Division and the far-from-inevitable rise of New Order. And that should tell you a lot about the depth, intelligence and even newness that you can expect from Plane. That first tingling guitar progression is as familiar as they come, but what comes after proves that Plane is no nostalgia act. Chicago’s still a blue-collar town, like Manchester, and Plane is workingman’s new wave—you can take your nihilism to the dance-floor without feeling even a pinch self-conscious.
Cary Brothers
So, I’m clueless enough to not have realized for at least a year or two now that Cary Brothers isn’t, you know, like a duo of siblings or whatever. Anyway, here’s the story: Lisa S. gave me a copy of the Garden State soundtrack, and I love that song “Blue Eyes” and I’ve wanted to track down the singer ever since, but I just never got around to it. (See name of record label for full joke.) And then I’m looking through the 17,000,000 bands that played South By Southwest this past spring (all those MP3s are still live, by the way) and there they — oops, no — he, is. (This might be why 3hive writers don’t get paid.) So, here’s Cary’s track from the SXSW page, plus a few live & demo tracks from his website. He’s got a fabulous sad voice, perfect for this cover of “Skyway,” and good folk-country-rock sensibilities. He can even get a little trippy, like in “Ride.” So, yeah, enjoy the product of my cluelessness.