Rogue Wave - Permalight (2010)

While reading the current issue of Under the Radar I saw an advertisement for Rogue Wave's new album Permalight and was almost instantaneously inspired to get the album and review it.

For those not familiar with them, Rogue Wave is a four person indie rock band that manages to combine the stripped down acoustic subtlety of folk music, the jangly guitar sound of garage rock, and the catchiness of a pop rock group. They even had their song "Lake Michigan" (from third album Asleep at Heaven's Gate) featured in a commercial for the Zune a couple years back. Permalight, the band's fourth full-length album, marks the bands return to the studio and features new bassist Cameron Jasper.

The album reminds me of their first album Out of the Shadows in the way that it mixes styles. It opens with "Solitary Gun" which after a barely audible whispered intro launches into a clap-happy, energetic pop rock styled song. What follows is "Good Morning (The Future)" which follows directly in the heels of the preceeding song with similar energy and a dance pop feel with techno-esque vocal effects. Next is "Sleepwalker" which slows the album down and gently coaxes the listen to the vocals with a barely there accompaniment. After things pick back up a little bit with "Stars and Stripes" which brings back the pop rockish feel. If you listen to lyrics, you'll find them to be rhyming nonsensical jargon. A song for pure enjoyment's sake, I guess. The title track returns to the dance pop feel but retains the lyrical complexity (or lack thereof) from the previous song coupled with several effects like futuristic beep chimes.

"Fear Itself" manages to ground the album after the ridiculous lyrics in the past two songs and like the second song on the album forces you to listen to the lyrics purely by stripping away all the fancy effects and instruments and reveals a vulnerability and emotional connection you haven't felt through the entire album as of yet. It's fitting that it's located at the exact middle of the album. The next song "Right with You" retains some of mood from its predecessor before becoming a beat more upbeat and picking up the tempo. Following is "We Will Make A Song Destroy" which manages to balance the silliness of the title, driving bassline, contrasting slow down and changes in tone, and effects. The emotional vulnerability returns in "I'll Never Leave You" which has the vocals accompanied by a quietly strumming acoustic guitar and claps to keep the beat. It manages to remain sparse but also have enough going on that you're not left pondering at strange silences. "Per Anger" manages to combine the enjoyable aspects of the first part of the album with techniques like allusion which the listener has come to expect from the second part. The rather somber mood disappears with the garage rock feel of "You Have Boarded" whose only compositional drawback is the repetitiveness of the title line. I mean it even modulates. The album ends with the exceptionally short track "All That Remains" which follows in the stripped down vibe established by several of the other song on this part of the album. The only accompaniment for much of the song is a solo acoustic guitar until the song briefly picks up with a far-away sounding acoustic guitar before ending abruptly.

The album follows this strange format of being split pretty much in half. The first half boasts popish, eventful though lyrically underwhelming content while the second pretty much tries to redeem itself by providing sparse tableaus which really give the vocals and lyrics their moments to shine. Overall an interesting listening experience that has a little something in it for everyone's taste whether you crave emotionally relevant folksy masterpieces or simple dancey pop-influenced ditties.

Left With Pictures announces new project

British chamber pop group Left With Pictures has a new project: In Time. Their goal: To produce a new song and new music video for that song at the end of every month for the whole year that is inspired by each particular month. To make sure they don't give up halfway through they've enlisted the help of Gideon Coe at BBC 6 who already made and announced slots for each new song on his show and the band has promised the videos will premiere on their website the day after. These songs aren't just half-hearted endeavors either. They have to be written, recorded, mixed, and arranged and the videos have to be filmed and completed by an already agreed upon date. Tough stuff espcially considering the Londoners just finished and released their debut album Beyond Our Means late last year and plan on still playing shows.

I must say that I love when bands do stuff like this. Not only is it a challenge both creatively and technically but it almost always ends with amazing result and while fans wait until the end of March for the latest song, they can enjoy February's song/video "St. Dominic":

Heart-Sick Groans - Gentlemen, If You Ain't Right, Get Right! (2010)

Heart-Sick Groans are an indie pop three-piece from Sweden. They just released a 7 song EP at the end of last month called Gentlemen, If You Ain't Right, Get Right! featured on it is lead track "Three Day Blow" which they recently made a video for and a favorite of mine "Suddenly Molly". This EP proves above all that these guys are indie pop masters. Crafting delightful and enjoyable though tragically short pop gems that'll only have you hungering for more after giving the EP a listen.

Heart-Sick Groans' recently released EP Gentlemen If You Ain't Right, Get Right! is available to download for FREE at their bandcamp website.

Give it a listen right here and if you like it, go ahead and download away!

Bowerbirds - Upper Air (2009)

Is Myspace Dead? I sure hope not because that's how I found out about a folk duo known as the Bowerbirds. Bowerbirds are composed of guitarist/lead crooner Phil Moore with vocal harmonies, accordion, bass drum, and piano provided by Beth Tacular; along with sometimes multi-instrumentalist Matt Damron (who replaced their previous jack-of-all-tradesman Mark Paulson).

Their second album Upper Air was released during the summer of 2009 and it can best be described as a direct follow up to debut album Hymns of a Dark Horse. It doesn't mark any radical changes in sound or composition but rather provides some more of the beautiful vocal harmonies, innovocative nature imagery, and stellar songwriting that fans of the band have come to love. Opening the album with the calmly stated and almost lackadaisical "One morning you wake to find you are shackled to your bed and bound and gagged/Oh my, what a predicament" of lead song "House of Diamonds" you're not exactly sure what to expect from the song or album in general but the somewhat shocking open and calm delivery of what should be a frantic realization merely helps to illustrate the song's message: That even though you're captured with no hope of escape by the devices of man, in a sense you're free of them as well. No longer having to worry about material possessions, upholding social norms, the list goes on and on. Other songs worth mentioning are "Beneath Your Tree" with a disarming and emotion-invoking conveyance of opening verse "I could bleed, bleed, bleed for days but my heart would still beat for you, dear" and single track "Northern Lights" which manages to combine lovely nature images with simple desires of love. Lyrics like these are a staple of this album and coupled with sometimes sparse arrangements seem to create an overarching theme of simplicity.

I've included the video for Northen Lights (shot by Matt Amato) here for your listening and viewing pleasure. Enjoy!:

Bowerbirds "Northern Lights" from matt amato on Vimeo.

Vampire Weekend on Saturday Night Live

So after Jennifer Lopez's performance on SNL I was hoping for anything. So long as it wasn't a repeat of the unspeakable horror was I was forced to endure from anywhere between 7-10 minutes. Now I have nothing against Jennifer Lopez. She's put out some good albums, she's a competent dancer even despite that falling incident at who cares what awards show that was but her performance two weeks ago was simply horrible. Like Adam Lambert live horrible. Her singing sounded strained and her accuracy of her notes are probably still being debated by musicologists far and wide. While not a trainwreck it was just not a good performance. I'll admit I watched them because I thought she was gonna sing one of her older songs which I liked "Do It Well" and I was sorely disappointed.

Anyway, imagine my surprise when after that I saw that the next week's guests would be Vampire Weekend. I was estatic. Fast forward a week later and Vampire Weekend did not disappoint. Singing their first single off the latest album "Cousins" and then "Giving Up the Gun", I was positively giddly with boyish glee. I wouldn't have changed a thing about the performances. Well maybe Ezra Koenig's tendency to have the strangest looks on his face when the camera closes up but that's not really all that important now is it?

In a world where MTV no longer plays music videos or is anyway affiliated with music in general it's nice to know there's a place to go where, while not always but often, there's high caliber live performances and good music. Thanks SNL.

Fanfarlo signed to Major Record Label

Earlier this year I found out that one of my favorite bands, Fanfarlo, was signed to a major record label. Sony I believe. This created a conundrum. Fanfarlo to me represents everything I love about music. Their songs are intelligent and well crafted (even their band name is a literary reference), they're charismatic and humble, and they're talented at their instruments (however many that may actually be). I first found out about Fanfarlo from Eardrums Music blogs compilation project where Fanfarlo's song and later single "Harold T. Wilkins" was featured on their fall themed compilation A Good Crop. It's mandolin laden intro had me convinced of the song's amazingness even before the first verse began. After that first listen, I'm not ashamed to say that I listened to the song pretty much repetitively after that. As for Fanfarlo themselves, the once-sextet-now-five-piece British indie pop-ers are a breath of fresh air in what seems to be an increasing generic sounding music industry. Based off the traditional rock standard of guitar, bass, drums, they also add in violin, trumpet, glockenspiel, mandolin, melodica, clarinet, whatever's necessary actually in a way that's not overwhelming but merely creates music that is enjoyable to listen to. Music that hooks the listener and makes them just want to listen to it for awhile. Only after actually listening for the lyrics (a feat that still took me looking up the lyrics to get) do you realize how genius the band is. Harold T. Wilkins is about what can only be called a ficitionalized account of the life of real life alien expert Harold T. Wilkins. Lead singer Simon Balthasar's somewhat strange yet entrancing voice describes the story of a lonely man who doesn't feel he belongs constant packing and repacking waiting for someone or something to come and spirit him away to someplace better. Who hasn't felt something like that before? It's almost a year to the day that Fanfarlo first self-released their debut album Reservoir and what with it's re-release and their recent string of US tours, and late night television performances, the future looks bright for these literate pop darlings. Perhaps their signing is a sign in and of itself; of new and excitingly legitimate stirring in the popular music realm. I'm no fortune teller but with a band like Fanfarlo around I think we can do more than just hope.

Though the overall results of Fanfarlo's major signing have yet to be seen, one benefit of it is a spiffy new music video:

First Aid Kit's Debut Album Out NOW!

So it's been awhile since I've written anything on here. I'm kinda getting used to this having a blog thing. Anyway I just heard some of the greatest news that I fear my young heart can't take it. Brace yourselves.

Swedish lovelies Johanna and Klara Soderburg of First Aid Kit just recently released their debut album The Big Black & The Blue this past Monday, March 8th [Edit: Their single "I Met Up With A King" was released on March 8th, the album was released January 25th]. Now I first found out about them about a year/year and a half ago from Eardrums Music blog and I have to say they are ridiculously talented. The girls were about 15 and 17 at the time and had already released their debut EP Drunken Trees. Now they're a little older, a little wiser, and still writing awesome songs it seems. While their EP boasted "You're Not Coming Home Tonight" which describes terse end to a marriage, they got surprisingly even more mature with their first single from their new album "Hard Believer" with lyrics like "I see you've got your Bible your delusion imagery/I don't need your eternity or your meaning to feel free/I just live because I love to and that's enough, you see/So don't preach about morality that's just human sense to me". Check it out!:


If you like folk, haunting vocal harmonies, or even just good aptly written music check out First Aid Kit and maybe give their debut album a listen.