Over the transom
Even a small-timer like me gets all kinds of unsolicited e-mails urging mp3s upon me, more than I can keep up with. Most of what gets sent ain’t my cuppa tea, but lately a few things that have crossed my desktop have also caught my ear.
The album is Are You Ready for the Heartache Cause Here It Comes and you can buy it here. The band is from NYC (info here), but to me this sounds like pure Midwestern power pop, openhearted & guileless.
Clarification: guileless in that they’re having fun and they’re just hoping you will too. But guileless doesn’t mean they’re not savvy. Boy, are they savvy. They know when to accentuate the drumbeat and add tambourine shakes, when to swivel the spotlight over to the bassline, when to bring in the female backing vocals and when to keep them down to one word per line. Mostly it’s about canny use of negative space.
Reminds me of a really good action movie (a rare rare bird, I know). You watch it and you see that they’re following certain conventions and you spot the tricks they’re using on you, but that doesn’t make the tricks any less pleasurable, just more so.
Oh, and at its best the record’s stratagems are supported by solid hooks. Don’t take my word for it.
Don’t know much about this outfit, but there’s some info here. These are from an album of short instrumental electronic pieces called Model City, and that sounds about right. Except for the occasional bass pulse or groan of reverb, there are no dark corners here: everything is disorientingly bright. As billed, it has kind of a noir feel, but it’s noir for the future, one of those visions of the future where the hallways are all pure white and everyone wears identical jumpsuits.
That sounds like I’m down on this, but I’m not at all. There’s a lot going on there musically, and I find it really compelling.
This one especially has been on repeat in my heart lately. The Superfantastics are from Halifax and I’m curious to hear the album – which, I know, I know, has been out for months, just like this song.
The band name & song title suggest sugar rush, and sure, the elements of twee guitar pop are in place, but here they’re played understated. Everything chugs along in lockstep, softly crackling, tugging the diffident vocals along, and it sounds great, melancholy but not a downer.
And then there’s that great fakeout with the “happiest time of the year” line, which rises up all uplifting & makes me think of nothing so much as a McCartney or Lennon Xmas song. But then things drop again – “I don’t see anyone smiling” – and keep chugging along.
Oh, and props to the the guitar solo, too. I’ve always liked that particular sound, and that minimalist style.
- Murder Mystery, “Love Astronaut”
- Murder Mystery, “What My Baby Said”
The album is Are You Ready for the Heartache Cause Here It Comes and you can buy it here. The band is from NYC (info here), but to me this sounds like pure Midwestern power pop, openhearted & guileless.
Clarification: guileless in that they’re having fun and they’re just hoping you will too. But guileless doesn’t mean they’re not savvy. Boy, are they savvy. They know when to accentuate the drumbeat and add tambourine shakes, when to swivel the spotlight over to the bassline, when to bring in the female backing vocals and when to keep them down to one word per line. Mostly it’s about canny use of negative space.
Reminds me of a really good action movie (a rare rare bird, I know). You watch it and you see that they’re following certain conventions and you spot the tricks they’re using on you, but that doesn’t make the tricks any less pleasurable, just more so.
Oh, and at its best the record’s stratagems are supported by solid hooks. Don’t take my word for it.
- Cagey House, “Alarm Decisions”
- Cagey House, “Mrs. Otisphere”
Don’t know much about this outfit, but there’s some info here. These are from an album of short instrumental electronic pieces called Model City, and that sounds about right. Except for the occasional bass pulse or groan of reverb, there are no dark corners here: everything is disorientingly bright. As billed, it has kind of a noir feel, but it’s noir for the future, one of those visions of the future where the hallways are all pure white and everyone wears identical jumpsuits.
That sounds like I’m down on this, but I’m not at all. There’s a lot going on there musically, and I find it really compelling.
- The Superfantastics, “Tonight Tonite”
This one especially has been on repeat in my heart lately. The Superfantastics are from Halifax and I’m curious to hear the album – which, I know, I know, has been out for months, just like this song.
The band name & song title suggest sugar rush, and sure, the elements of twee guitar pop are in place, but here they’re played understated. Everything chugs along in lockstep, softly crackling, tugging the diffident vocals along, and it sounds great, melancholy but not a downer.
And then there’s that great fakeout with the “happiest time of the year” line, which rises up all uplifting & makes me think of nothing so much as a McCartney or Lennon Xmas song. But then things drop again – “I don’t see anyone smiling” – and keep chugging along.
Oh, and props to the the guitar solo, too. I’ve always liked that particular sound, and that minimalist style.
posted by DW | 16.9.07
2 Comments:
SUPERFANTASTICS indeed. I have had this song on repeat at work all morning. I can't speak for my cubicle-city neighbours, but I am a very happy man right now.
Liable to get my identity card revoked for this, but:
I just realized that I have been hearing A-ha's "Take on Me" in the back of my head during the last few listens to the still-on-repeat SUPERFANATICS.
That's not a criticsm, mind, though it will likely be taken as such...
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