Weekly Release Spotlight

Weekly Release Spotlight: Atlas Sound

Posted on 11/01/2009

Atlas Sound

Logos

[Kranky]

Bradford Cox is the shapeshifter of the modern music scene. He's considered elusive rock royalty by the most influential hipsters, but he's one of the nicest, most genuine and humble people you'll ever meet. He's worshipped by fans and other musicians as the genius mastermind behind Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, yet he's blundered by accidentally leaking demos onto the internet and for a while used Deerhunter's blog mainly as a medium for discussing the band's bodily functions. Not only can he write an upbeat rock song that will stick in your head for days, he excels at creating inescapably haunting melodies that are ethereal at best and unsettling at worst. With Deerhunter and with his solo project, Atlas Sound, Cox has made a career out of getting under people's skin and staying there, whatever way he can.

Cox started using the Atlas Sound name as a teenager in Georgia for the songs he recorded in his bedroom. For years it's remained a way for him to give life to the songs that don't quite work with Deerhunter. Logos is technically Atlas Sound's second full-length record, however quite a few EPs and split releases have come out over the last few years. While Atlas Sound isn't quite freak folk, Logos recalls the freakier moments of artists like Bill Callahan and Animal Collective member Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear). There are definitely pop songs on the album - "Criminals," "Shelia" and "Quick Canal" (featuring Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier) could easily fit in on any Deerhunter record - but the rest of the album evokes exactly what Atlas Sound is: an eccentric guy alone in his room, writing and recording songs about his life. While Logos might wander into idiosyncratic territory, that is balanced by the comforting control in Cox's voice and his cool, deliberate delivery. From the first few seconds of "The Light That Failed," alien-sounding noises propel the album toward the darker side of Cox's musical spectrum. But by the third song, "Walkabout" (which features Lennox), he's brought us back safely to familiar territory.

That he's managed to hang on to this part of his musical personality through Atlas Sound while turning indie rock upside-down with Deerhunter is a testament both to Cox's shapeshifting nature and to the idea that it's important to remember where you came from. Even at its most peculiar moments, Logos reminds us that no matter where we end up in life or how hip we get, we've all been that eccentric guy or girl alone in our room, and part of us always will be. And if Bradford Cox says that's OK, it must be.

Stream: Atlas Sound - Walkabout (feat. Noah Lennox)

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: Brother Ali

Posted on 10/27/2009

Brother Ali

Us

[Rhymesayers]

At first glance, Minneapolis doesn't seem like a hip hop city, and Brother Ali (born Jason Newman) sure doesn't seem like a hip hop artist. But it's Newman - a white, albino Midwesterner dad who converted to Islam - who is making huge waves in the local and national hip hop scenes. Newman may look very different from a typical rapper, but his music stems from the same places from which some of the most profound hip hop has ever come: pain, redemption and hardship. And he knows these places well. Newman lived in several Midwestern towns but his family settled in Minneapolis in the early '90s. Because of his albinism, he was excluded by many of his white peers and has said he's said he often identified more with black culture. Also because of his condition, Newman's race isn't apparent at first and unfortunately, questions about his background have often overshadowed his music.

But none of that matters to Brother Ali. On Us, his fourth album, he's beyond proving himself. He's ready to tell all of our life stories, especially those without a voice of their own: immigrants, children of divorce, closeted gay teens ("Tight Rope"), slaves ("The Travelers"), sexual abuse victims ("Babygirl") and hustlers ("Games") alike. Whether his own experience or just an uncanny empathetic ability is what allows him to do it, Brother Ali has a way of channeling almost anyone's pain. He also has an uncanny ability to coolly convey that emotion through smart rhymes adrift a sea of R&B- and funk-tinged beats. Produced by Ant of Rhymesayers labelmates Atmosphere, Us can be enjoyed purely for its lyrics or for its beats and samples, but it's best when appreciated for both. The album isn't without its stereotypical hip hop references to guns, pimps and Newman's perceived "badness," but these moments are just brief repreives from the intensity of rest of Us.

The scrutiny Newman has received throughout his career would be enough to drive most people away from the spotlight, but he's gone the opposite way. Through his refusal to fit into a convenient category (musical, racial, geographic or religious) and his insistence on telling the stories of the oft-forgotten "Us" (even if they are uncomfortable ones to tell), Newman commits an act of defiance - he continues to exist.

Stream: Brother Ali - Tight Rope

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: The Raveonettes

Posted on 10/19/2009

The Raveonettes

In and Out of Control

[Vice]

The Raveonettes may have a gimmick, but it's a good gimmick, and it's one the band will freely admit to. The Danish duo pulls its simple structures, stunning harmonies and dark imagery from '50s and '60s rock and adds a layer of '80s and '90s-inspired shoegaze to it. At first it might seem like an unlikely combination, but considering The Jesus and Mary Chain's reverence for all things Phil Spector, it makes perfect sense. Sharin Foo and Sune Rose Wagner are not simply building not only on their own influences, but also on their influences' influences.

Swinging between noisy, wandering feedback and cool Scandinavian restraint, In and Out of Control is an apt title for the duo's fourth album. Heavily influenced both by the tragic tales of Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes, as well as the gloom and doom of the Velvet Underground and Suicide, even the Raveonettes' darkest lyrics are delivered matter-of-factly. The blatantly violent "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)" is a happy-sounding singalong, with the angelic refrain of "Those fuckers stay in your head." The song titles alone set the theme – "Suicide," "Oh, I Buried You Today," "Gone Forever" – but the album isn't a downer. The songs have just the right amount of energy to keep them upbeat with just a hint of something sinister in the background.

On paper, In and Out of Control sounds like a throwback to bygone eras. But listening to it, it never stops sounding distinctly like a Raveonettes album. While they do draw heavily from the past, Foo and Wagner have struck that delicate balance of modernity and nostalgia that is so rarely successful. Maybe it's the logical and detached nature of their Nordic roots, or maybe it's an innate coolness – but whatever it is, it works.

Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: Yo La Tengo

Posted on 10/11/2009

Yo La Tengo

Popular Songs

[Matador]

Yo La Tengo has been humbly cranking out experimental noise rock for nearly as long as Sonic Youth has. Both bands feature highly-respected guitarists and a married couple. Both have had a huge influence on the bands of today. So why is Sonic Youth a widely-recognized cultural fixture and a touchstone of adolescence for anyone born after 1965, while Yo La Tengo is relegated to "critics' darling" status and a cult following? Honestly, it's probably because they're from Hoboken.

Toiling away in near obscurity for 25 years, Yo La Tengo has always been the (literal and figurative) New Jersey to Sonic Youth's New York City. The NYC no-wavers have spent much of their career on a major label while their bridge-and-tunnel brethren have spent the last 16 years on small, yet dependable Matador. You won't catch the members of Yo La Tengo hobnobbing with fashion designers or naming their child Coco. Georgia Hubley probably won't ever show up to a gig wearing a miniskirt. Sonic Youth has Thurston and Yo La Tengo has, well, Ira.

Popular Songs might seem like a tongue-in-cheek album title for a band of underdogs, but the fact is that it's really hard to find a reason not to like Yo La Tengo and if they weren't so humble, maybe they would be more popular. Their 12th album (as well as their more garage-leaning covers project Condo Fucks) makes it clear that age has not diminished the trio's ability to rock while remaining simultaneously catchy and avant-garde. Strings add a layer of complexity to Popular Songs, which ventures into dream-like territory with the 11-minute 'The Fireside" and the nine-minute "More Stars Than There Are in Heaven." But as far out as the band may wander, it always comes home to the textbook Yo La Tengo method, as heard on "Avalon or Someone Very Similar" and “"othing to Hide" - simple rhythms, three unassuming chords and sweet harmonies.

As uncool as it may seem to live in the suburbs, truly cool people know hipness is in the eye of the beholder. You don't necessarily need a scene to surround you or to even pay attention to what everyone else is doing. True artists stay true to their art and wait for others to inevitably follow. So maybe it's not such a coincidence that Sonic Youth recently signed to Matador and Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore now live in Massachusetts. Just saying.

Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: WHY?

Posted on 10/05/2009

WHY?

Eskimo Snow

[Anticon]

WHY? songs have always gone beyond verse-chorus-verse structure, beyond drums/bass/guitar, and beyond the comfortable - especially in terms of singer Yoni Wolf's subject matter. On the Oakland band's fourth album, Eskimo Snow, acoustic guitars, piano and live instrumentation have taken the place of the hip hop loops and beats of past WHY? albums. In the past, the band never made songs in the traditional sense of the word, but created vignettes – the music serving as a backdrop to Wolf's half-sung, half-spoken poetry illustrating the absurdity and intensity of everyday life. Those hip hop-backed vignettes may have finally become structured songs, but that doesn't mean WHY? is any safer.

Wolf's embarrassingly dark and poignant (and sometimes creepy) stories of death, shame and love are more potent than ever on Eskimo Snow. When paired with the more organic sound of pianos and acoustic guitar, Wolf sounds more relatable and more pained than normal. Against the colder sounding instrumentation of previous WHY? albums, the lyrics had the luxury of sounding detached, distant and even robotic. It's harder to sympathize with a robot, and the distance made it easier to digest his sometimes disturbing imagery. But now that Wolf's poetry is more natural sounding and more human, it's hard not to be affected by it.

Musically, Eskimo Snow (which features contributions from Wolf's former Hymie's Basement bandmate and Fog frontman Andrew Broder, as well as Mark Erickson) hardly contains a trace of the darkness of past WHY? albums. But Wolf's lyrics – covering topics ranging from religion to sex to death to existentialism and everything in between – is still the glue that binds the band’s sound together, and his uncanny ability to describe the human experience continues to infiltrate the brain of anyone who listens.

Stream: WHY? - This Blackest Purse

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: Ramona Falls

Posted on 9/28/2009

Ramona Falls

Intuit

[Barsuk]

The Portland music scene comprises an especially complex web, and near the middle of that web is one of the city's most innovative and important bands, Menomena. It was from the depths of the Portland musical talent pool that Menomena's Brent Knopf found the support he sought for his debut solo release, Intuit. Enlisting the help of about 35 of his closest musician friends, including Mirah, Kevin O’Connor and Lisa Molinaro of Talkdemonic, and Janet Weiss of Quasi and Sleater-Kinney, Knopf has made an album that not only solidifies his abilities as a solo composer and songwriter, but even further highlights the contributions he makes to Menomena.

Knopf is responsible for programming Menomena's digital loop recorder in addition to playing several instruments and singing (not to mention taking care of MIDI during live shows). He may be technologically savvy, but Intuit still veers toward the organic. Piano, acoustic guitars and strings bring a yielding quality to the record, most notably on "The Darkest Day," "Bellyfulla" and "Going Once, Going Twice." Knopf's voice has the rare ability (just like former Weekly Release Spotlight subject Amber Webber of Lightning Dust) to swing from fragile to forceful and back again, and his arrangements almost magically follow. The dense layering, stop-and-start rhythms and frequent volume changes of Menomena are all still there, especially on "Always Right" and the epic "Salt Sack."

Intuit is a thoughtful, earnest record that immediately reveals a labor of love – and of friendship - for Knopf. Not only is he joined on the album by his friends, but bandmate Danny Seim is part of the Ramona Falls touring band (interestingly, Menomena itself started as a side project for Seim’s solo work under the Lackthereof name). And while we might begrudge the fact that we must wait a while for a new Menomena album, Intuit is more than enough to tide fans over and to help them gain even further appreciation for Brent Knopf.

Stream: Ramona Falls - I Say Fever

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: Jay Reatard

Posted on 9/21/2009

Jay Reatard

Watch Me Fall

[Matador]

It takes a lot of talent to make a career out of being creepy, and Memphis native Jimmy Lindsey has succeeded at it for almost 15 years. A veteran of dozens of projects (including The Lost Sounds, The Reatards, and Angry Angles in addition to the Jay Reatard solo moniker) and one of the forerunners of the modern garage revival, Lindsey comes with his own folklore. He's written an entire catalog of songs about violent death, appeared covered in blood and nearly naked on an album cover, swears unapologetically, and is rumored to have been involved in several bar brawls and what seems like a disproportionate number of chair-throwing incidents. But anyone who has ever met him will attest that offstage and in person, Lindsey is polite as can be. On Watch Me Fall, the distinctive abrasiveness of Jay Reatard has been brought down a few notches, giving way to a newer, more agreeable pop sound. Gone are the screaming, the layers of fuzz and (most of) the references to blood and death. Watch Me Fall is the real Jimmy Lindsey - likable and charming.

Lindsey's story is a familiar one in the garage-rock world: teenager records in bedroom, sends tape to influential indie label (Goner Records), the head of which just happens to be a former member of teenager's favorite band (Eric Friedl of The Oblivians). He released his debut as Jay Reatard, Blood Visions, on In the Red Records in 2006 and within a couple years was signed to Matador, which released Matador Singles '08. Around this time, Lindsey's songwriting made a marked movement toward the pop end of the spectrum. The songs became less distorted and less rough, and Watch Me Fall is further proof of this change. Songs like "My Reality" barely contain a hint of Lindsey's garage past. "Wounded" even ventures into twee territory, complete with ba da ba in the background. "Hang Them All" and "Man of Steel" are the most reminiscent of the Jay Reatard that die-hard garage fans originally fell in love with.

It would be easy to attribute this significant pop shift to Lindsey signing to Matador. But maybe he just feels secure enough on the label to give his alter ego a break. We may never know where Jimmy Lindsey ends and Jay Reatard begins, but the area where they overlap is a pretty good place.

Stream: Jay Reatard - Hang Them All

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: Lightning Dust

Posted on 9/13/2009

Lightning Dust

Infinite Light

[Jagjaguwar]

It's rare to come across a truly unique voice, and even rarer to find one that transcends musical styles. Antony Hegarty has done it with Antony and the Johnsons and Hercules and Love Affair. While Amber Webber's two projects, Black Mountain and Lightning Dust, may not be as vastly different, her voice is still unique, and still transcendent, in both. On Infinite Light, the second release from Webber's project with fellow Black Mountain member Joshua Wells, her voice (not to mention her and Wells's songwriting) doesn't just carry the record, it propels it.

Where Black Mountain is dark and brooding psych-rock, Lightning Dust is, as its name would suggest, lighter. While Webber and Wells have definitely moved in a poppier (at least poppier compared with Black Mountain) direction, the songs still aren't quite happy in any traditional sense. Infinite Light is almost cinematic, spanning the spectrum of human experience from hope to despair and everything in between. And like any good cinematic experience, it includes tragedy. Infinite Light's catchiness and almost-folkiness is interspersed with Webber's lyrics of sorrow, longing and heartbreak. "I declare a war on you, someday soon," she announces in the record's first song, "Antonia Jane," a ballad that contrasts Webber's imagery of being fed to wolves with soft piano. Her trademark quaver adds vulnerability, most notably on "Dreamer" and "Never Seen." And the band's lush orchestration becomes even more theatrical, even bordering on epic, on "History," "Wondering What Everyone Knows" and the six-minute "Take it Home," which could easily be a Black Mountain song.

Lightning Dust isn't just Black Mountain (ahem) light. Wells and Webber have harnessed the intensity of Black Mountain but they've employed it in a more personal, emotive way with Lightning Dust. Infinite Light is a dynamic album that wanders out of the comfort zone of the musicians' other band, yet reminds us what we like so much about them in the first place.

Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: The Chambermaids

Posted on 9/08/2009

The Chambermaids

Down in the Berries [EP]

[Modern Radio]

New York's The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have been getting national attention recently for integrating what was so great about shoegaze into their pop songs, but local band The Chambermaids have been quietly doing that very thing here at home for years. With their vinyl-only release, Down in the Berries, they've become even more successful at patenting their brand of neo-shoegaze meets moody rock meets sincere and heartfelt pop – minus the angst.

On this long-awaited seven-song EP, siblings Neil and Martha Weir, who started playing as The Shut-ins in 2003, are joined by Nate Nelson (Private Dancer, STNNNG) and Mickey Kahleck (ex-Shotgun Monday, Chibalo), who since the album's recording has replaced Colin Johnson of Vampire Hands on drums. The siblings continue their journey into the shadowy songwriting depths hinted at on their 2006 self-titled release. The melancholy of the EP is perfectly complemented by Martha Weir's light, airy vocals (as a member of Finger Pressure she provided guest vocals on Private Dancer's debut, which included the Radio K hit "I See Trouble."). The studio engineer background of Neil Weir (he of The Old Blackberry Way studio in Minneapolis) is apparent – the album is well mixed and balanced, but doesn't seem overdone or too polished. The songs sound live and completely natural. It's as if they've been playing together forever - which Neil and Martha very well probably have been.

Those NYC Pitchfork darlings should take note: The Chambermaids have struck that delicate balance between sounding new but familiar, unique but evocative, and faintly nostalgic but still relevant (which is probably what also makes friends and labelmates Vampire Hands so appealing). While fans of older bands like The Smiths, My Bloody Valentine and Joy division will get their gloomy pop fix from Down in the Berries, they'll likely discover a favorite new band in the process.

Stream: The Chambermaids - Lily

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

The Chambermaids' next show is September 15th at the Triple Rock Social Club

Weekly Release Spotlight: Nurses

Posted on 8/31/2009

Nurses

Apple's Acre

[Dead Oceans]

In Sixteen Candles, Samantha Baker laments both the end of summer and the disappointment of her much-anticipated 16th birthday. "I look exactly the same as I have since summer," she says listlessly in the mirror. "All that shows is that I don't have any sort of a tan left." Rather than waking up wiser, cooler and somehow less invisible than the day before, she's the same old Samantha. Just with new, grown-up problems to face and an identity to reinvent. Whether we go to the beach with friends one last time, take a roadtrip because we still can, or insist on still wearing summer clothing when it's 55 degrees (I'm talking to you, ladies in miniskirts and Ugg boots), we all resist the inevitable pull of autumn – of responsibility and change. But there's a moment every September where we finally let go, like Samantha eventually does. We let nature take its course. We decide to reinvent ourselves, to try something new, to be grown-ups.

Aaron Chapman and John Bowers have reinvented themselves dozens of times but have managed to still maintain a connection to the past. Not only have they been friends since middle school, but they've wandered together for five years, trekking from Idaho to drastically different places such as California and Chicago, taking their Nurses project (and their friendship) with them on every adventure. After years of drifting they've finally grown up and put down roots in Portland, where they recorded Apple's Acre in the attic of a Victorian house. The opening track, "Technicolor," is just that – sad piano ties in beautifully with simple percussion and gives way to eerie synth sounds and vocal harmonies right on par with Grizzly Bear's earlier songs. "Man at Arms" employs those same sad piano melodies but forays into ethereal territory and "Caterpillar Playground," one of the more upbeat, youthful sounding songs on the record, is incredibly catchy, complete with whistling and counting.

Apple's Acre is youthful psych-folk-pop, but it has a grown-up edge to it. Nurses' psych-pop brethren The Apples in Stereo can be a little too happy sounding (no offense, Elephant 6) and Black Moth Super Rainbow sometimes venture too far off the deep end. But Chapman and Bowers have captured that looking back-yet-looking forward feeling, and Apple's Acre is the perfect soundtrack to the Samantha Baker crisis you're probably having right now.

Stream: Nurses - Caterpillar Playground

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Nurses and Le Loup are playing on October 17th at the 7th Street Entry

Weekly Release Spotlight: Japandroids

Posted on 8/24/2009

Japandroids

Post-Nothing

[Polyvinyl]

You'd think an album named Post-Nothing would be laid back and minimalist; maybe even apathetic. But Vancouver-based Japandroids do care a lot (and not in the sarcastic, '80s Faith No More way). They seem to care immensely about the songs they write, they care about each other (see album art) and they really, really care about girls (see lyrics of every song on the album). But Post-Nothing isn't over the top or emo. It's post-emo, post-grunge, post-punk, post-garage. If you want to get philosophical and argue that nothing is really everything, then the title makes complete sense: Post-Nothing is post-everything.

The most puzzling aspect of the band is that there are only two members. According to Brian King and David Prowse (who formed the band in 2006 while students at the University of Victoria), "Japandroids are maximal - a two-piece band trying to sound like a five-piece band." On top of it they also seem to have an uncanny ability to evoke a million other bands but never really sound like any of them. "Rockers East Vancouver" recalls the staccato pop songs of Plastic Constellations or Minus the Bear, and one of the best songs on the record, "Heart Sweats," has the driving force of Les Savy Fav or …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. "Young Hearts Spark Fire" is a bittersweet story about fading youth a la No Age. But you would never compare Japandroids as a whole to any of these bands – they’ve perfected the art of encapsulating what is great about each of their predecessors and putting a new twist on it. They sound both like and unlike every rock band you’ve ever heard. King and Prowse's half-shouted, half-sung duet vocals are an approachable and likeable complement to the lyrics. Even cooler-than-thou indie kids can't help but sing along to "Wet Hair" - despite its embarrassingly inane lyrics about bikinis and going to France to "French kiss some French girls."

King and Prowse will be the first to admit they're motivated by angst. They've even said they started the band as an outlet for their post-teenage angst, an admission that some bands would be embarrassed to make. But the angst never gets the best of Post-Nothing. Its sincerity, humor and youthful energy are what carry it. Japandroids aren't here to have a pity party. Just a party.

Stream: Japandroids - Wet Hair

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Japandroids, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, and Gospel Gospel are playing on September 13th at the Turf Club

Weekly Release Spotlight: Eyedea & Abilities

Posted on 8/17/2009

Eyedea & Abilities

By the Throat

[Rhymesayers]

Some artists can effortlessly combine hip hop and rock. It's a tricky balance, but it can be done. However, no one seems to be able to pinpoint exactly how it's done – is it an intrinsic gift that allows some people to weave these two genres together? Is it simply a matter of better beats, clever lyrics and superior songwriting? Is there a secret hip hop-meets-rock formula? And if that's the case, how did artists like P.O.S. and Buck 65 (not to mention the entire anticon roster) figure it out but the Linkin Parks and 311s of the world didn't get the memo?

On their third album, local MC/DJ team Eyedea and Abilities make a rogue attempt at cracking that secret recipe - but they do it strictly on their own terms. The result, By the Throat, has its minor flaws but is nonetheless a valiant effort. DJ Abilities' (Gregory Keltgen) intense beats and signature scratching have always nicely complemented Eyedea's paroxysmal rapping, and this frantic, almost noir sound is still represented on "Burn Fetish," "Time Flies When You Have a Gun" and "Junk." Songs like "Spin Cycle," "Factory" and "This Story" rely heavily on guitars and live (or at least live sounding) drums. Eyedea (Michael Larsen) has worked extensively with Carbon Carousel, a (surprise!) rock band, the past few years and that influence can definitely be heard loud and clear. Fans who are hip hop loyalists may resent the duo for this shift (spoiler alert: By the Throat has just as much singing as rapping), but you can't blame them for changing. Perhaps Eyedea addresses it best – on "Factory" he sings (not raps): "You're so hip hop; you're so punk rock; you're so, so, so, so cliché."

Tastes evolve, palettes expand and we can't expect artists (especially ones as talented and dynamic as these two) not to experiment. We don't know whether Eyedea and Abilities will continue to move toward the rock end of the spectrum. But whatever they do, it will be like nothing else.

Stream: Eyedea & Abilities - Junk

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: The Fiery Furnaces

Posted on 8/09/2009

The Fiery Furnaces

I'm Going Away

[Thrill Jockey]

They say twins can communicate telepathically, and sometimes even create their own language that no one else can decipher. While siblings and Fiery Furnaces creative forces Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger aren't twins, they obviously have some sort of telepathic bond (or a genetic predisposition) that leads them to create the music they do. The duo's idiosyncratic lyrics and oblique tempo changes make up their sibling language, and they don't really care if you can understand it or not (you probably can't).

On I'm Going Away, the duo continues moving in a direction they did with 2007's Widow City - some of the songs sound like actual songs. While the album dives right in to typical Furnaces territory with the off-kilter rhythm of the title track, the second song, "Drive to Dallas," is far more approachable than anything the band has ever done, even considering a trademark frenzied change of tempo toward the end. "Lost at Sea" and "The End is Near" are about as straightforward as they come and channel the later, quieter years of Pavement. Nonsense (and to fans, familiarity) returns on "Charmaine Champagne" with Eleanor's meandering descriptions of (presumably) imaginary characters and adventures telling the music where to go, not the other way around.

It's Eleanor's vocals combined with those counterintuitive rhythms that have polarized listeners since the band's 2003 debut. But what makes the band even more of an enigma is that we know both siblings are capable of accessibility. Matthew's 2006 solo release, Winter Women, was more pop-oriented than any of the work he's released with his sister, and Eleanor's contributing vocals on Les Savy Fav’s Let’s Stay Friends sounded - for lack of a better term - like normal singing. But put the two together, and they can't help but revert back to that secret sibling language and to being blissfully oblivious to what people think of them. While their compositions may naturally become more palatable as time goes on, they're still unwilling to compromise their collective vision for accessibility.

Stream: The Fiery Furnaces - The End is Near

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: Magnolia Electric Co.

Posted on 8/02/2009

Magnolia Electric Co.

Josephine

[Secretly Canadian]

Depression and country music used to go hand in hand, before pickup truck anthems and drunken jingoism steered so many away from the genre, and it was a beautiful thing. The songwriters sounded like genuine, broken hearts caterwauling over dusty notes and wheel wagon rhythms. Jason Molina has always been the contemporary go-to guy, whether recording his own name, Songs: Ohia, or his arguably most ambitious outfit yet, Magnolia Electric Co., for proving wrong that old axiom that "you can’t recreate the past," because he does so here in spades (soiled, rusty spades encrusted in toil and worry, but spades all the same).

And this time the folk-country wear and tear ethic is attributed to a real life tragedy: the death of the band's bassist Even Farrell, which occurred right as the songs for this, the band's third album, were being written. It gives the whole listening experience a more intense weightiness, for sure, but it also, almost ironically, makes it that much more stark and serene. There's a calm airiness billowing about in every track, including both the minimally-orchestrated ("Whip-Poor-Will") and the passionately robust ("Little Sad Eyes"), that leaves room for the hurt that creeps up in Molina's lyrics and weathered voice. Even flourishes that would otherwise be called decorative, like the soul-crushing saxophone solo in "O! Grace" or back-up chorus in "An Arrow in the Gale", instead come off as piercingly downtrodden, adding to the harrowing journey of the album's protagonist.

If this all sounds like an existential Western film where the hero eggs the reaper on and the girl is never got, you wouldn't be too far off. Possibly the most affective trait of Josephine is the reprisal of Molina bellowing "Oh, Josephine!" over drop-tuned chords in the climaxes of multiple of the album's songs. It not only gives the album a cinematic quality, it straight up sounds like musical weeping. Cash, Guthrie, and the folk-country greats of yesteryear may grumble about a lot of things happening in 2009 if they were still with us, but the immaculate sun-drenched sorrow of Magnolia Electric Co.'s latest would certainly not be one of them.

Stream: Magnolia Electric Co. - Little Sad Eyes

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Radio K presents Magnolia Electric Co. on August 7th at the 7th Street Entry.

Written by Chris Polley, Radio K volunteer.

Weekly Release Spotlight: Gospel Gossip

Posted on 7/27/2009

Gospel Gossip

Dreamland [EP]

[Guilt Ridden Pop]

Expectations are high for local trio Gospel Gossip. Their 2007 debut, Sing into My Mouth, was praised locally and nationally as a harbinger of a shoegaze resurgence. Dreamland follows Sing into My Mouth with few surprises, but with noticeably increased songwriting skill and maturity. While the debut record meandered, swelled and receded (sometimes aimlessly), Dreamland takes a straightforward approach. The room-spinning waves of reverb are still there, but this time every song seems to go somewhere.

It would seem logical that an EP called Dreamland might be, well, dreamier. But while the title track is essentially a nebulous five-minute slow jam, the rest of the record is decidedly rock. "Nashville," "Space/Time" and "Big Steer" (an early version of which appears on Radio K's sixth Stuck on AM compilation released last year) are simultaneously loud and delicate. "Home" is pop-tinged and reminiscent of The Cure, while "Pre-med (Just in Case)" swings between sad ballad and primal scream therapy. Fans of the more powerful, concise songs from the debut (notably "Wire" and "Shadows Are Bent") will definitely enjoy this EP.

Whether Gospel Gossip appreciate being classified as shoegazers or not is arguable, but there's no doubt that it's at least influenced them. Dreamland is proof that their uniquely modern take on the genre is evolving into something bigger, better and more purposeful - and it will continue to do their hometown proud.

Stream: Gospel Gossip - Nashville

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Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.