Pop Culture Will Eat Itself » Spotlight

Sunday Music Spotlight – The Tallest Man on Earth

Sean — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 03:58:24 +0000

I have to admit, when it comes to Sweden I have a bit of a musical bias. I don’t think I’m alone though. Abba has emotionally scarred a lot of people, and I think it’s fair for all of us to hold a grudge. Plus, the country is also home to a thriving death metal scene. But I suppose I should ease up on the Swedes a bit, and take a bit of time to explore the rest of their music, which lies somewhere between the polar opposites of 70s synth-pop and gloom, doom, and screaming. Nestled deep in that musical valley is Kristian Matsson, aka The Tallest Man on Earth, a man who holds little in common with Abba or In Flames.

Matsson’s stage name is misleading, because he’s apparently quite normal in height. What he lacks in extraordinary height he makes up for in songwriting ability though. With just his distinctive voice and an acoustic guitar he’s able to command a stage and tell an audience a complete story. He draws a lot of comparisons to Bob Dylan, and there certainly is something Dylan-esque about him. But Matsson is just beginning his career, so any comparison is going to be inherently unfair. He seems to recognize and acknowledge the comparison though, winkingly referring to Dylan’s song “Boots of Spanish Leather” in his song “King of Spain”.

Matsson’s recorded his debut album, Shallow Grave, in his home in Sweden, with just an acoustic guitar, a banjo, and his voice as instruments. The album’s simplicity is part of it’s power though. With nothing to hide behind the songs must stand on their own, and they succeed. Critics loved the album, and its success got Matsson a gig opening for Bon Iver on tour. Once he started playing for US audiences they started to realize that this guy is real. And they started spreading the word.

Fast Forward a year and Matsson is set to release his follow up album. The Wild Hunt sounds like a logical progression to Shallow Grave. The songs and production are a little more polished, though not distractingly so. He builds off Shallow Grave without losing the simple power that made it so good.

“The Wild Hunt”

“You’re Going Back”

Videos
“Where Do My Bluebird Fly?”, live on KEXP

“The Gardener”, live on La Blogotheque

“King of Spain”, live

Links
Buy Wild Hunt
MySpace
Facebook

Sunday Music Spotlight – The Little Ones

Sean — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:55:02 +0000

It’s a beautiful spring day here in the mid-Atlantic, full of blue skies, gentle breezes, and plenty of sunshine. So it seems appropriate to feature a band that comes from a land of sunshine and plays the kind of top-down pop songs that sound best under clear skies. The Little Ones hail from LA, and their songs are as bright and clear as the California sunshine.

The Little Ones make a type of music I tend to really enjoy: music that sounds simple, while actually being complicated. There are plenty of sing-along melodies, tight harmonies, and catchy lines. You can appreciate the songs as simple, mindless pop, or you can dig deeper and appreciate well-written lyrics. It’s the type of music that appeals to casual fans and snobby critics alike.

The band has only been around, in their current incarnation, for a few years. Before forming The Little Ones, singer Edward Reyes and guitarist Ian Moreno were in an emo band called Sunday’s Best, but found the genre too limiting. They added Ed’s brother Brian on bass, Lee LaDouceur on keyboards, and drummer Greg Meyer, and set out to make music that was a little more upbeat than their emo days. And they’ve succeeded.

The band put out an EP called Sing Song in 2006, and it established them as up-and-comers on the indie scene. They followed up with Morning Tide in 2008, and it cemented their reputation for producing solid, memorable pop songs.

“Morning Tide”

“Ordinary Song”

Videos
“Oh MJ”

“Lovers Who Uncover”

“Face the Facts”, live

Links
Download Morning Tide
Official Site
Facebook
MySpace

Sunday Music Spotlight – Tahiti Boy and the Palmtree Family

Sean — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:59:36 +0000

Editor’s note: I have to be on a plane in about 7 hours, so I’m going to rely on Terrorbird Media’s description of Tahiti Boy and the Palmtree Family:

It seems like we’re all waiting for a story these days, some dream to escape to. A tale told by the fireplace with its heroes and villains, a That’s-all-Folks kind of ending and a piano playing I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas with the whole family around it. Tahiti Boy dreamt that dream and turned it into Good Children Go To Heaven. Here’s how the story goes.

After spending a few years in New York City and working with some of NYC’s best underground acts (Mike Ladd, Antipop Consortium, TV on the Radio…), Tahiti Boy aka David Sztanke came back to France with a head full of new music and beautiful melodies. Setting up in Paris, he started to gather musicians from some of the coolest indie bands around (Jamaica and Syd matters to name but a few) and in no time found himself heading the best backing band in town. They called
themselves the Palmtree family. On top of the traditionnal pop combo, they’ve added percussions, a cello, and Tahiti Boy’s keyboards, central elements of their signature groovy psychedelic pop sound inspired by Sly Stone, the Beatles and the Supremes .

Their debut album was released locally to critical acclaim last year and find them swimming in the same musical seas as The Flaming Lips, Of Montreal with an added obvious Michel Legrand and Serge Gainsbourg inspired french touch. Tahiti Boy shoots the whole scene and each song is like a pop gem.

“1973″ is everyone’s favorite, a great pastoral and psychedelic tune with a great video. “Brooklyn” features a perfect summer pop melody as Tahiti Boy sings about his years spent in NYC, between his classes at the Juilliard School and his job in a music shop. Last but not least, Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio) joins the family on “That Song”, a more introspective and minimalistic affair. This US Edition comes packed with 4 exclusive songs, including Para One’s brilliant remix of “1973″ an eerie feeling in total harmony with the family’s spirit.

At this point, you would call the whole thing a divine blessing. Good children go to heaven. And according to Tahiti Boy, we’re all good children.

“You Make Me Blush”

“Time”

Videos
“1973″

“Brooklyn”

“Palmbelt”, a rockumentary

Links
Download Good Children Go To Heaven
MySpace
Facebook

Sunday Music Spotlight – Said the Whale

Sean — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:54:10 +0000

Canada is very big right now. Despite the fact that their Winter Olympics lacked snow, and their women’s curling team choked in the gold medal game, they got a ton of positive international exposure. My guess is that British Columbia will have a bunch of new folks coming to visit in the next few months, and hopefully they’ll take the opportunity to check out the local music. One of the bands they should really see is Vancouver-based quintet Said the Whale.

They haven’t been around that long, but Said the Whale has made the most of their few years. Since forming in 2007 they’ve released two full-length albums and six EPs. Any way you slice it that’s a prolific run. It could kind of by forgiven if, while writing so many songs so quickly, there were a few clunkers in the mix. If not every song was up to the same standard. If, as so often happens these days, the albums consisted of two good songs and a bunch of filler. But they don’t. They’re good from top to bottom. Which makes it all the more remarkable.

This level of prolificity probably wouldn’t be possible if the band didn’t have two strong songwriters. Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft joined forces three years ago, and have added and removed band members over the years. Together they’ve written songs that cross genres and resist classification, ranging from bubblegum to rock, with the occasional ukulele ballad thrown in for good measure. It’s all good, and most of it is difficult to pin down, which keeps things interesting.

The band’s most recent album is Islands Disappear, released last year:

“Camillo (The Magician)”

The lead single from Islands Disappear sure has a catchy chorus. For some reason it reminds me of something Hall and Oates would have written. And I actually mean that as a compliment.

“Out on the Shield”

Videos
“The Light is You”

“This City’s a Mess”

Links
Download Islands Disappear
Official Site
Facebook
MySpace

Sunday Music Spotlight – The Bamboos

Sean — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:41:51 +0000

Funk. I can’t think of another musical genre where the name so accurately and succinctly describes what it is. You can try to use other words to describe it, but none of them really fit. When it’s done right the only word that truly encapsulates the music is “funky”. If you don’t know what that means, just listen to The Bamboos and you’ll get it.

They may come from a land down under, but The Bamboos share more in common with James Brown than AC/DC. They have all the makings of a classic funk band: a killer horn section, soulful vocals from Kylie Auldist, a rock-solid rhythm section, and scorching rhythm guitar from bandleader Lance Ferguson. Together they mix originals with homages to funk pioneers and create music that practically forces you to get up and dance.

The Bamboos formed in 2001 and are already getting ready to release their fourth album, creatively titled 4, and it shows that the band is evolving into a true tour de funk. The albums are great, but their reputation is built on a live show that feature non-stop action, with one song seamlessly blending into another, forming one long soundtrack for an endless dance party. That’s fitting because that’s what funk bands do: they make you dance.

“You Ain’t No Good”

This track sounds like something you would find tucked away in a old box of 45s, collecting dust in someone’s basement. And I mean that in the best possible way.

“Typhoon”

It’s an instrumental, but that’s ok. It just shows that sometimes words would only get in the way of the groove.

Videos
“On the Sly”

“Hot Pants Breakdown Medley”, live

Links

Pre-order 4
Official Site
Facebook
MySpace

Sunday Music Spotlight – Mighty Tiger

Sean — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:57:23 +0000

Music, like fashion and politics, goes in cycles. What was once popular, having faded out of fashion, will likely make its way back to the forefront at some point. But when it comes back it has usually mutated, changed itself in the long journey from obscurity. The new musicians add bits and pieces of other things that have come along since it was first popular, and the end result is something that looks an awful lot like what you remembered, but has changed just enough to be interesting again. Progress is made. The new style that has been created will fade, only to come back later as something new. The cycle begins again.

What does this have to do with Mighty Tiger? They have managed to add a contribution to this cycle, this evolutionary process. They take sunny 60s pop, with it’s simple structures and cheery sound, and add some 80s synths and other eclectic modern elements. The results is something new, but comfortable, like a brand new pair of jeans that’s almost exactly like your favorite old pair of jeans. Or just something fun to listen to.

The fine folks of Mighty Tiger come from the midwest and the southwest, but they met up in Seattle. They haven’t been together all that long, having only formed in 2008, but they’re getting set to release their first album, Western Theater on March 8th.

“33 1/3″

Maybe it’s just the piano, but this really sounds like Ben Folds to me. No, it’s not just the piano, the singer’s voice is definitely Ben Folds-esque. But I like Ben, so that’s a good thing. Oh, by the way, this is a damn good song.

“Voyeur Heaven”

The album’s opener is upbeat, cheery, and downright fun. It almost sounds like Tally Hall. And that’s a good thing.

Links
Download Western Theater
Facebook
MySpace

Sunday Music Spotlight – Frank Fairfield

Sean — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:01:33 +0000

Frank Fairfield may well be the best evidence we have that time travel is not only possible, but has already sent folks to us from the past. He looks, sounds, acts, and dresses like a Depression-era blues man, yet he’s a young man living in LA. His music sounds like it should come from a scratchy 78, not an iPod, yet if it wasn’t for YouTube and the internet nobody would have heard of him. While many musicians immerse themselves in a genre, then add a modern twist to it, Fairfield seems intent on keeping a genre alive, exactly as it was. And he’s doing a damn good job of it.

Fairfield may only be in his early 20s, but he’s already mastered several banjo, fiddle, and guitar, and learned a hefty repertoire of classic folk, country, and blues songs. He seems equally comfortable singing songs by Leadbelly and The Carter Family, or even old prison work songs. His eponymous album sounds like it should have been cut into wax, not recorded digitally, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

“John Hardy”

This is a classic folk/blues murder ballad, made famous by Leadbelly, but performed by everyone under the sun. Fairfield’s banjo and warbling vocals make his rendition fit among the best.

“I’ve Always Been a Rambler”

Switching to the fiddle, Fairfield shows he is as comfortable with a bow as he is with his banjo. This tune dates back to the 19th century, and you could imagine Fairfield sitting around a campfire playing it around the turn of the century.
Videos

“The Winding Spring/Nine Pound Hammer”, live on KEXP

“Short Life of Trouble”

“Nouveau Oldtime Jam” with Blind Boy Paxton and Dom Flemons

Links
Download Frank Fairfield
MySpace

Sunday Music Spotlight – The Heavy

Sean — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:45:16 +0000

Part soul, part funk, part punk, The Heavy is all good. The Bath, England, band mashes all of those influences into a thick paste of awesome. They feature searing horns, crunching riffs, and powerful vocals.

Since I’m on the road this weekend (I hate it when work gets in the way of updating the site), here’s the band’s official bio:

Prepare to burn. Sorry. Don’t wanna put you off or nuffink. But prepare to burn.

The Heavy make the kind of dirty, guitar-scorched hip hop soul which leads you into temptation. And then you’re going to burn. The dark side of four boys from the arse-end of Bath, the beast of Bodmin Moor, half man/half wolf, The Heavy specialise in making everything wrong sound right. So successful are they, so good does it feel, so natural, that voodoo filth will be pouring through you before you know what’s going on.

From the moment you hear first single, “That Kind of Man,” you know only exorcism can save you. Combining the gritty bottom end of classic Wu Tang with wall-of-sound guitar wailing and raw blues-soul, it’s instantly recognisable and utterly addictive, Swaby’s sweet-yet-threatening vocal raising it to another level. “Coleen” is a more stripped-down hip hop groove, with backing singers giving the tune a Stax-on-acid feel. “Set Me Free” throws acoustic guitar in to the mix for a more laid-back (though still rhythmically driving) number. “You Don’t Know” shows heavier rock influences, a building pile-up of riffage. “Girl” gives Swaby a chance to show off his (slightly tongue in cheek) rapping style, over a rhythm which can only be described as Kinks-meets-Marly Marl. “Doing Fine” is the emotional centrepiece of the album, a downhome blues straight outta the West Country. “In The Morning” is frugging and flithy. “Bruk Pocket Lament” sounds like classic blues brought bang up to date and reeling from too much meths. And the raging “Dignity” ain’t going to stand no fucking with it, seen? The album finishes with “Who Needs The Sunshine,” which carries echoes of the Bristol scene of Massive Attack and Tricky, but reconstituted as an epic country blues.

The core of The Heavy are Swaby and Taylor, who have known each other for a decade. Swaby’s parents were one of the first West Indian families to move to Bath. One of eleven siblings, he grew up surrounded by reggae, Prince and Two Tone as well as the hip hop he embraced so fervently. When he met Taylor they bonded over vintage rhythm and blues and the movies of Jim Jarmusch.

Despite starting with an Atari and a four track, the pair soon recruited Ellul(drums) and Page (bass) and began gigging as a four piece. Perhaps their unique sound is in part the result of coming from a town they describe as “the graveyard of all ambition”. Or some West Coutry leyline shiznit. Either that or they’re just sex-crazed lunatics. At the end of the day, who cares as long as it sounds this good?

“Oh No! Not You Again!”

“Sixteen”

Videos

“How You Like Me Now?”, on Letterman

“Big Bad Wolf”, live

Links
Download The House That Dirt Built
Official Site
Facebook
MySpace

Sunday Music Spotlight – The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir

Sean — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:58:45 +0000

Sometimes a band catches you by surprise with their music. You hear a song on the radio, on the internet, or in a tv show, and you’re hooked. Other times a friend, author, or website will refer you to a band. These are both relatively normal ways to hear about a band and come to appreciate their music, but they’re not the only ways. In rare cases it’s something else that turns you onto a great band. Sometimes you’re trolling random eastern European message boards looking for bands when a name catches your eye. Since the page is in a language you can’t understand you don’t know anything about them except their name. But what a name it is. So you look them up, track down some videos on YouTube, listen to some music, and you’re hooked. This is precisely how I found The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir.

Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, The Agnostic Gospel Choir is not actually a choir, and they don’t sing gospel music. What they actually play is a mix of country, bluegrass, blues, and general rowdiness. They’re obviously steeped in these musical traditions, but not necessarily beholden to any of them. They do their own thing, and they do it well. With a straightforward lineup of vocals, banjo, guitar, stand up bass, and drums, their music isn’t complicated, but it’s very effective.

“Preaching Blues”

From their debut album, 2006′s Fighting and Onions, “Preaching Blues” is pretty straightforward slide blues. It’s unpretentious, raw, a little bit messy, and it draws me in like a fly to shit.

“Never Be Dead”

From their latest release, Ten Thousand, from 2008.

Videos
“Empire State Express”

“Oh Sorrow”

Links
Download Ten Thousand
Official Site
Facebook

Sunday Music Spotlight – Alberta Cross

Sean — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:34:37 +0000

They formed in New York, named themselves after a Canadian province, recorded in Austin, and are led by a couple of Brits. Maybe that’s why their sound is hard to pin down. Alberta Cross released their first album last year, and it’s a great mix of influences and styles.

The band’s bio explains this better than I can:

More than clever verses and catchy choruses, truly timeless albums offer listeners the keys to another world; they catapult you into another frame of mind and jostle your soul a little bit along the way. Broken Side of Time, Alberta Cross’ ATO Records debut, is one of those albums.

A cathartic, kaleidoscope of influences, from Depeche Mode to The Band, it’s also the sound of Alberta Cross’ two principals-frontman/guitarist-vocalist Petter Ericson Stakee and bassist Terry Wolfers-going for broke and stumbling across the sound of their dreams in the process.

Broken Side of Time took root in an April 2008 jam session, Stakee and Wolfers’ first with three players they would quickly enlist-guitarist Sam Kearney, drummer Austin Beede and keyboardist Alec Higgins. With the aid of a little drink and a little smoke, the five jammed on a group of Stakee’s then-new songs, giving birth to Alberta Cross’ second incarnation almost immediately: “I remember thinking that night, ‘This is gonna be insane,’” remembers Stakee.

It was a time of upheaval for Stakee and Wolfers, ex-pat Brits living in Brooklyn. They had moved to a new, tough city, lost the major-label record deal they had moved there with, and were in the midst of reinventing both their band and their sound, while sleeping on friends’ couches. Their well-received debut EP, 2007′s The Thief & the Heartbreaker, was a modest, folk-minded, acoustic-based disc that garnered glowing reviews. But, for Stakee and Wolfers, it was a baby step.

Broken Side of Time, meanwhile, is a giant stride ahead, one that marks the band’s official introduction to America. Grand in volume and vast in vision, it’s an inspired set of electric songs that finds the intersection of The Verve, My Morning Jacket and Neil Young (with or without Crazy Horse). Recorded in Austin, produced by the band with Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Dead Confederate, Heartless Bastards) and mixed by John O’Mahoney (Depeche Mode, Coldplay, Kasabian) at Electric Lady Studios, the album melds propulsive, throbbing bass lines and crashing waves of guitar to a haunting, impassioned voice that can sound ancient and Appalachian.

Something of an about-face from The Thief & the Heartbreaker, the album, says Stakee, bears the influence of years of frustration logged in the shadow of Manhattan: “It’s kind of a desperation album, a darker album; it’s definitely angrier. We’ve been in a crazy place during the whole album, and you can hear that.” Appropriately, Stakee was listening to Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and the grimmer, gospel songs of Depeche Mode while writing the songs of Broken Side of Time. On songs like “Rise From the Shadows” and “Ghost of City Life” he speaks directly of their situation and surroundings.

Despite any struggles, Wolfers and Stakee in many ways have had a charmed career thus far. Born in Sweden-where he spent a childhood on tour and in studios with his musician father before moving to London in his late teens-Stakee and Wolfers-a Brit charmed by everyone from Prince and My Bloody Valentine to Metallica and Ride as a teen-were playing in a guitar-rock band in London’s east end some four years ago, when Stakee brought some new songs and ideas to the band. When all were roundly rejected, Wolfers invited his bandmate to record those humble, acoustic songs on the makeshift equipment in his apartment.

“Right then and there I instantly realized that he was an extremely talented fellow,” Wolfers says. “That’s when I realized I had found someone who I could create some really great music with-after just jamming on a few things.” Those demos would become The Thief & The Heartbreaker-featuring Petter’s brother, John Alexander Ericson, on keyboards-released via Fiction in the U.K. and re-released by popular demand on the bands new U.K. label, Ark Recordings

Bored with the scene in London and in need of a burst of energy, Stakee and Wolfers moved to New York, where they immediately created a buzz, playing spellbinding acoustic shows at venues like The Living Room, en route to capturing a new deal with ATO Records. Seeking to create more of a band vibe-”and we wanted it to be a family,” says Wolfers-they added Beede, Higgins and Kearney and a louder, grittier sound was born. “We had a show at The Mercury Lounge [in New York] like two days after that first jam,” says Wolfers, “and, without really any real time to rehearse, I remember being onstage that night thinking, ‘This is the best I’ve heard the material.’”

Alberta Cross has toured extensively through the U.K., sharing the stage with Oasis, The Shins, Bat for Lashes and Simian Mobile Disco, among others. “If we weren’t playing for people every night, we would be going mad.” Stakee says. Adds Wolfers, “We do it, because we have to.”

“I remember going to see The Verve on the Storm in Heaven tour, and I stood right in front of [guitarist] Nick McCabe the whole night,” the bassist continues. “I remember walking out of that show feeling like I had just seen a group of people pour their heart and soul out, and I felt it. It changed my life. And that’s what we want to do: We want to give people something honest, and move them, make them feel.”

“Old Man Chicago”

“The Thief & The Heartbreaker”

Videos
“ATX”

“Taking Control”, live

Links
Download Broken Side Of Time
Official Site
Facebook