I’m normally a patient guy. I coach a soccer team of sixteen 3-5 year olds for crying out loud. But I get impatient in two areas: waiting for new albums to come out, and waiting for my rare eBay purchases to arrive. We here at 3hive just love the Swedes; in fact, I’d expand that to all Scandanavians. In the midst of Sam’s Swedish shoegazing frenzy this past week, I finally lost patience in waiting for the new Citizen Bird album to come out before I put them on 3hive. (Plus, I didn’t want him to beat me to them, cause you know, that happens here at the 3hive; insults and fisticuffs have been know to fly.) I’ve read anywhere from spring 2004 to spring 2005 for the release of their sophomore effort. While Swedish but not exactly shoegazers, they do follow in the footsteps of Loop, Suicide, Spacemen 3, Stereolab, and the Stooges, with their throbbing rhythms, pulsing Farfisas, and fuzzy guitars. That should hold me over until the album finally comes out. Now if I could only do something about the USPS…
Benzos
It’s been one of those weeks. The kind of week you can only get through thanks to beautiful pop and/or German ska. As for the German ska, I’ve been relying on the Ska..ska..skandal series from the ’90s. And for the pop, there’s Benzos. They play a soaring, shimmering pop (they even say so on “Glass Souls,” off the soon-to-be-released Morning Stanzas) that’s somewhere between Radiohead and The Autumns. And to get me through coaching my first peewee soccer game today…well, I’m not sure anything can do that.
Singapore Sling
This one goes out to my man Adam Filipkowski, wherever you may be. Adam tried to get me in trouble in high school and, for the most part, failed miserably — unless of course you count my otherwise inexplicable love for dark, brooding rock ‘n’ roll. Adam forced me to listen to his favorite band at the time, Sisters of Mercy, until something in me clicked. He also taught me how to make homemade mashed potatoes. These days I don’t know how much Adam, who last we spoke was spinning/producing some wicked drum ‘n’ bass under the moniker Ego Rock, would care for Singapore Sling. But the fact that they’ve burrowed right into my earhole can be credited to him nonetheless. Good lookin’, Adam…