Lord only knows if the Ohio basement legends are still relevant, and only the same lord knows if relevancy is still relevant. Alls I know is that the adventurous stew of riffs, hooks, and twee vocals will cause an involuntary reaction from me as long as my feet can tap and my head can nod. There are a ton of archived MP3s at both Matador and gbv.com, so stick around for a while.
A.C. Newman
The New Pornographers resident pop auteur lead singer guy puts together his own set of finely polished gems that have the get-up-and-go (“Miracle Drug”) of his best efforts with the “supergroup” and the jaded sunshine (“Drink to Me Babe, Then”) of the late-great Zumpano. A few more like these from Newman and Ben Folds will have to work harder to get our attention.
Royal City
I stumbled upon these tracks (if one can call a mis-click of a mouse a stumble). Of course, you can’t be without their great cover of The Strokes, “Is This It?” — but that’s no fluke. More pop than country, more lemonade than bourbon.
Coastal
Coastal’s second full-length album, released this week, shows the gang venturing into new orbits, incorporating more instruments and complex harmonies while remaining hauntingly simple. And beautiful.
Osymyso
Dangermouse messes with Britain’s biggest export since, well, since a bunch of disenfranchised chaps bailed the island to follow their own nation start-up dreams, the web goes grey for a day and the masses are alerted to the mash-up. No newcomer to the genre, Osymyso, messes with your head and record collection with these two takes on the same theme.
Against Me!
Opening with the same explosive chord as the Pixies’ Bossanova, riffing right into a Killing Joke-like hook, and finally settling into Billy Bragg at 78 rpm, this brand of punk rock revolution is, regrettably, rare.
Tortoise
Tortoise’s latest track cuts to the chase with a tight, driving dose of spacial jazz. While you still won’t hear them on commercial alternative radio anytime soon, it’s as close to a “single” as you’ll ever get from these cats.
Fernando
Fernando plays geetar with the skill and freewheeling spirit of a Crazy Horse by the name of Neil, and that deep and raspy voice of his is begging for an arena with cavernous acoustics so it can get lost in the reverb for a while. Anyone waiting for the second coming of Mother Love Bone, now’s a good time to pull your lighter out and lift it to the sky.
Azure Ray
Not just for fans of “Felicity.”
n.ln
A prolific chap, Nyles Lannon (Film School, n.Lannon), a double major (how far can a I push the collegiate allusions?), hard at work in his computer science courses (I can run them into the ground I tell you).