THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Aug. 28-Sept. 3

"Fleur de Lis" - Slow Dazzle
Stylish, echoey guitar-laced synth pop with an interesting sort of urban-cowboy flair. Blessed by both atmosphere and motion, "Fleur de Lis" features a slinky melody and sneaky lyrics, delivered with weary-innocent panache by Shannon McArdle. I love how many distinct types of sounds this NYC trio blends into an organic whole: spacey synthesizers, lonesome-desert lead guitar lines, puffing keyboard accents, rattlesnake beats, and (best of all) a loopy sort of backwards-sounding guitar that steals the show at 1:37. Slow Dazzle features two-thirds of the songwriters in the neo-folk-rock-ish outfit the Mendoza Line (McArdle and Timothy Bracy); "Fleur de Lis" is the lead track from the CD The View From the Floor, released in June on Misra Records. The MP3 is available via the band's site.

"Come In Out of the Rain" - Engineers
Large and dreamy, "Come In Out of the Rain" is a shiny example of how much the so-called "shoegaze" sub-genre owes to a sub-genre that might otherwise seem at the opposite end of the sub-genre spectrum--namely, power pop. (Which only goes to show how insipid is the internet-propagated need to sub-genre-ize everything, but that's another story.) But listen to the beautiful tangent the melody takes from 0:48 through 0:53, which I know in my gut is a power-pop sort of embellishment, even as I can't possibly begin to explain why this is, and how it works within this spacious, grandly-textured sort of down-tempo anthem. I'm also hearing a good bit of early Tears For Fears here--partially because TFF doesn't get enough credit for pioneering the accessible end of the shoegaze/dream-pop sound, and partially because Tears For Fears producer Dave Bascombe apparently had a hand in the mix on the Engineers self-titled debut CD, from which this comes. The CD was released in June on Echo Records; the MP3 is available through Insound.

"Ear Nose & Throat" - Troubled Hubble
A particularly crisp and tasty iteration of the time-honored tradition of rock songs with one-note verses, "Ear Nose & Throat" is, perhaps, the first of these to work the word "otolaryngology" into the torrent of words usually unleashed in such circumstances. I especially like the combination of snare-free drumming and metallic guitars, which creates a satisfyingly crunchy-rhythmic environment for the medically-oriented lyrical overflow. One of the cool things about this sort of song, when done well, is how the lyrics flow past impressionistically, telling not a linear story but still achieving a certain sort of wholeness. Troubled Hubble is a quartet from outside Chicago with six self-released CDs (three full-lengths, three EPs) to their name before Making Beds in a Burning House was released in May on Lookout Records (and apparently on Eenie Meenie Records too, somehow; sometimes--often--the indie-rock scene is too complicated for its own good). The MP3 is available via the band's site. Thanks to BLCKYLLWBLCK for the lead.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Aug. 14-20

"Please Stand Up" - British Sea Power
Immediately spacious, majestic, and heart-warming, "Please Stand Up" updates a late '70s/early '80s sound not often aimed at, even in today's rock flea market, in which past styles are rummaged through with the speed and tenacity of the experienced bargain hunter. British Sea Power's vocalist, a chap who goes by the name of Yan, sings with great, husky Bowie-ish bravura, but what really nails things down here is the clean, melodic guitar line (courtesy of a chap who goes by the name of Noble) at the center of the sound. Playing both carefully and fiercely, Noble offers sweeping, middle-register intervals that seem always to yearn upward; and he knows how to lay back, never unduly asserting his sound and in so doing anchoring everything around him. "Please Stand Up" is from the band's second CD, Open Season (Rough Trade), which sort of blew by me when it was released back in April, but judging from this song I think I will find myself a copy post haste. The MP3 is available via Insound. Many thanks to Thomas Barlett at Salon for the tip.

"Heroics" - The Scribbled Out Man
Some songs are inexplicably endearing and this is one of them. But let's see, there must be a way to quantify the feeling, at least a bit. Certainly the stuttery guitar riff is fetching from the get-go; and the casual way electronics are used to create atmosphere without overwhelming the soundscape, very nice; and the way singer/songwriter/guitarist Paul Linklater flips into falsetto without warning, as the song builds, gotta love it; and then the way the whole song is just this accumulation of largely indecipherable lines, emerging relentlessly and with increasing (but controlled) frenzy. It's all very cool. The Scribbled Out Man is a four-man Canadian band fronted by Linklater, and includes drummer/cellist (not to mention engineer/producer) Don Kerr, who has worked with the great Ron Sexsmith. The band formed in 2003; its first full-length CD, All Different, was released last year on the net label Zunior.com. "Heroics" comes from the CD; the MP3 is available via the band's site. Thanks to Alan at Sixeyes for the lead.

"Recovery" - New Buffalo
Snappy, airy, off-kilter pop from Australian singer/songwriter Sally Seltmann, who for whatever reason records under the name New Buffalo. Underscored by pipey keyboards and electronic handclaps, "Recovery" features a subtly wondrous mix of unexpected sounds, from '40s-style choral harmonies and sampled horn flourishes to a brilliantly textured wash of harp-like synthesizer. Seltmann's voice on its own has a compelling fragility, as if any note she tries to hold might abruptly crack; and yet she also sings back-up harmonies with heavenly gusto. The overall effect is something at once strange and familiar, wispy and solid. "Recovery" is the lead track on the second New Buffalo CD, The Last Beautiful Day, released overseas last year and slated for a North American release next week on the Canadian label Arts & Crafts. Seltmann wrote, arranged, and produced the CD on her own, and performed it almost entirely by herself. The MP3 is available via Seltmann's site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Aug. 7-13

"Freshman Thesis" - Thee More Shallows
A spacey synthesizer noodle leads into a classical violin motif, but notice from the start the strict, punctuating beat (laid out by an accompanying violin): as many changes as the song takes us through, the clock-like beat remains constant, central, sometimes upfront, sometimes implied via syncopation, eventually yanked into a searing metallic shuffle but still always there. You can tap your finger on your desk steadily throughout the song; I'm not sure why this characteristic engages me so but so it does. There is plenty else, however, to appreciate here, from singer Dee Kesler's plainspoken voice, and the words he sings (example: "Before I spoke in riddles I was worried someone would hear me/Now I know that no one really listens so I will just speak clearly"), to the lovely yet urgent texture created through the interweaving of bass, drum, programming, and the recurring violin. What hooked me for good was how unexpectedly the song is opened by melody from 1:30 through 1:45--what sounded to that point like an intriguing bit of minimalism is deepened by a precise series of delightful musical steps. And then somehow the pretty precision is itself deepened by the slashing coda. (A great touch at the very end: the beat finally stops, but the violin, briefly, endures.) "Freshman Thesis" is the third song on More Deep Cuts, the second Thee More Shallows CD, released last month on Santa Clara, Calif.-based Turn Records. The MP3 is available via the Turn site.

"Vermillion" - Mercury Rev
At once glittering and mysterious, "Vermillion" offers an instantly unique amalgam of sounds, combining the swift beat of an airy pop song with the chiming, floaty atmosphere of something still and new agey and, occasionally, the churning insistence of beat-driven electronica. It's up to Jonathan Donahue--he of the thin-high-wavery voice and idiosyncratic phrasing--to connect it all, but thanks in large part to the sturdy, inspiring melody of the chorus, he does. I have not personally followed Mercury Rev's career as it has wound along from the late '80s through the present day, so I won't trot out the apparently usual suspects when talking comparisons and influences; me, I hear echoes of glittery-mysterious bands of old, from Supertramp (remember "The Logical Song"? I'm betting Donahue does) to the Blue Nile. "Vermillion" is from The Secret Migration, released in May on V2 Records; thanks to Largehearted Boy for the lead.

"Fall Apart Again" - Brandi Carlile
Do you know how, in a great recipe, two flavors can be combined in such a way that you can clearly discern both of them even as they intermingle to create a new, distinctive taste? Thus does this 23-year-old from rural Washington state marry the throaty depth of Lucinda Williams to Emmylou Harris's heavenly smoke. While I might wish for a somewhat more distinctive vehicle, song-wise, for this heart-searing voice, well, what the heck--she's only 23. Besides, if "Fall Apart Again" is not breaking any songwriting ground, that's really part of the point with Carlile, who admirably seeks a timeless vibe and pretty much hits it. I can keep listening to this because her voice is an ongoing revelation. As much as I'm cringing in advance of what Columbia Records may yet unleash in the effort to make Carlile bigger than Lucinda and Emmylou combined, I have to give the label credit first of all for signing her and second of all for (amazingly) allowing an actual full-length free and legal MP3 to represent her work on the web. So put aside, as I did, some preconceived notions (major label? country twang? professional production? Rolling Stone "artist to watch"? "Brandi"???) and check her out. "Fall Apart Again" is from the debut CD, released in July on Columbia's Red Ink imprint.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of July 31-Aug. 6

"World to Cry" - the dB's
Listen to the opening salvo, just that first three seconds of guitar. No point in even trying to describe the sound (rubbery-chimy-dissonant-melodic?; like I said, no point), and the delicious sense of anticipation generated as it leads smack into the concise lines and elegant modulation of the rest of the intro. And then Peter Holsapple opens his mouth and there it is, the dB's are back. Who'd have thought? Alternative before there was alternative, indie before there was indie, the North Carolina-born, NYC-generated dB's pioneered what became known by the genre police as "jangle-pop": a post-punk (late '70s, early '80s) reformulation of '60s folk rock with chiming guitars and stellar melodies. These are indeed the dB's in their original formation--Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Will Rigby, and Gene Holder: the same guys who recorded the first two (some might say classic) dB's albums, Stands for Decibels and Repercussion. While this song might not on its own give you a sense of how resplendent this band could be back in the day if you don't already know who they are, neither (I don't think) will it disappoint you if you do already know who they are and what they were. The guitar riff from the opening three seconds spreads out as a recurring melodic anchor; Holsapple's sweet-weary vocal style is as charming as ever; and the song displays characteristic dB's smarts through its effective alternation of major and minor chords and 6/4 and 4/4 measures. "World to Cry" is one of an album's worth of songs the band recorded in Hoboken in January; while they await a record deal, the song is available as an MP3 on the band's site.

"Oh Mandy" - the Spinto Band
Radiohead meets the Electric Light Orchestra at Adrian Belew's house. From the neat staccato dissonance of the opening measures through its gorgeous chords and sprightly vibe, this is one brilliant piece of 21st-century pop, the simplicity and directness of its surface producing a song shot through with depth and strength. Notice for instance how the verse and the chorus are pretty much identical, musically, then notice how this similarity is used to ravishing effect when the song breaks off for an extended bridge at 2:00: the musical tension builds and deepens as the bridge shifts at 2:21--it seems as if we're heading back to the verse but instead the song veers a couple of times into a new, neatly unresolved chord before triumphantly returning to the verse at 2:36 with more urgent instrumentation and a wonderful new vocal harmony. This young seven-piece (!) band from Delaware--which has been recording since the band members were in middle school--has a sparkling future if this is any indication. "Oh Mandy" is from the band's debut full-length, Nice and Nicely Done, released last month on Bar-None Records. The MP3 is available via Spintonic.net. Many thanks to Bruce at Some Velvet Blog for the lead.

"Curious" - Holopaw
This is indeed a curious song, from a curious, difficult-to-describe band. One of the oddest things about "Curious" (besides perhaps singer/songwriter/guitarist John Orth's unearthly tenor) is how short it is--its delicate, stringed setting and offbeat melody (bringing early Genesis to mind, of all things) speaks of a song that wants to spread out, offer instrumental breaks, bridges, and other ornamental accoutrements. And yet somehow we go from beginning to end in about two and a half minutes. No matter: set your MP3 players on "repeat" and let it cycle through a few times in a row, which seems to be the best way to grasp the underlying solidity of this sprinkly, evanescent, haunting song. My ear was hooked for good by the melody line that begins for the first time at 0:36, and in particular the chord change at 0:39, but that might have been on my third or fourth listen. Holopaw is a band from Gainesville, Florida, named after another Florida town that no one in the band is actually from. "Curious" is a song off Quit +/or Fight, the band's second CD, slated for release next week on Sub Pop Records. The MP3 is available via the Sub Pop site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of July 24-30

"Down the Other Side" - Annie Gallup
Annie Gallup is a fierce writer, a teller of ravishing, compact stories, as funny and sensual as she is literate and subtle, and a vibrant peformer, with an idiosyncratic but immediately accessible, deeply expressive way of kind-of-talking, kind-of-singing her songs. While it's easy to keep all the emphasis on the words and their delivery (and too readily pigeonhole her as some sort of neo-beatnik folksinger), I am continually impressed by the music as well, which seems at once casually created and intensely crafted, at once sparse and rich; and she may not get too loud but without question she rocks. "Down the Other Side," for instance, has a swampy, seductive beat and some inspired electric guitar playing, even as the instrumentation is so spare that some of the percussion, it seems, is done by mouth. And yet it's true that with Gallup, we're never too far from the lyrics, like these: "Red-tailed hawk and a small white cross/ High on the Great Divide/ Drive on by until the tears I cry/ Roll down the other side": yikes, to explicate them further takes away their breathtaking poetry. She is the real thing, yet also the single most mysteriously overlooked singer/songwriter I've probably ever come across. Swerve, her magnificent 2001 CD, came and went without a trace--I discovered it only as it called to me from the corner of my local library where they sell used books and, occasionally, CDs. Finally she has a follow-up--Pearl Street, her fifth, released on Fifty Fifty Music, oh, in April. (I hadn't heard.) This is where "Down the Other Side" is from. (The MP3 is hosted on the Fifty Fifty site.) I just checked and found it was (no joke) the 97,854th best-selling CD on Amazon, where all five CDs of hers have now received a total of 7 reviews, at least two by the same person (a friend of hers, apparently). The world isn't fair, I know, but sometimes it really really isn't fair.

"Plan To Stay Awake" - the Deathray Davies
Compress "I've Just Seen a Face" and "It's the End of the World as We Know It" into two minutes and five seconds and here we are, listening to the latest fuzzy blast of power pop from the Dallas outfit named after the storied leader of the Kinks. This is as straightforward a rock song as can be imagined--a hurried tumble of words in the verse, a two-line, sing-along chorus repeating the title twice--yet it positively bristles with spirit and panache, proving yet again that the true power of music is suggested but never completely encompassed by its concrete components. Much like life itself, if I may broaden the metaphor. The Deathray Davies were born in the late '90s as the jokey stage name under which John Dufilho performed solo material that he couldn't use with Bedwetter, the band he was in at the time. He wrote, sang, and played everything himself on the first Deathray Davies CD in 1999. Dufilho is still the writer and singer but by the third CD in 2002, the Deathray Davies had morphed into an actual band. "Plan to Stay Awake" is from the The Kick and the Snare, released in May on Glurp Records. The MP3 is available via the Glurp site.

"Rotten Love" - Levy
A languid sort of majesty propels this oddly affecting song. Everything seems encased in an echoey, mournful blanket, from singer/guitarist James Levy's forlorn voice to the soft, chiming synthesizer lines and, even, the ringing wall of guitar that never quite blazes through to the forefront. Nothing, in fact, seems quite to burst through, even as the song moves at a steady clip; when all is said and done, lyrics about smelling the rotten love are perhaps best heard cushioned by the aforementioned mournful blanket. Levy is a NYC-based quartet that's been gathering an enthusiastic following since its founding in 2003; for the record, the band is intent on using all upper-case letters for its name but as luck would have it Fingertips usage policy (see web page yet to be written) forbids such silliness. "Rotten Love" was the title track on the band's self-released debut in 2004 and will again be when Rotten Love is released in somewhat different form later this summer by the U.K. label One Little Indian. The MP3 is available via the band's site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of July 17-23

"Idiocy" - the Double
Psychoanalyze this if you must, but I'm a sucker for weirdness contained within some semblance of normalcy. It's a difficult balance to maintain, for one thing--it's much easier simply to be weird, or normal. And boy do our black-and-white assumptions about what is "normal" after all need a continual technicolor tweak. This is one reason why I love the new "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" movie so much, and it's a good part of why I love this squawking piece of skewed but peppy pop from the Brooklyn-based foursome known as the Double. What on earth is guitarist Donald Beaman up to, first of all?: after a spacey intro dissolves into feedback, he draws the feedback out into the entire song, playing along without playing along at all, not in the wrong key (feedback doesn't really come in a particular key) as much as in another aural space entirely. The effect is fascinating, especially as vocalist David Greenhill (prone to the occasional odd whoop himself) romps along as if he's got a normal rock band behind him. He doesn't; beyond Beaman's subversive slashing, he's got a keyboard player (Jacob Morris) with his own sort of weird distortion going, pumping a muffled, organ-like sound into the mix, often via happy, beat-skipping blurts. Check out the clearing created when Beaman abruptly leaves the scene at 1:22 for about a half a minute (not counting one four-second feedbacky smudge at around 1:34). Did he need a rest? A drink of water? No worries, he's back with an indescribable vengeance for the song's abrupt conclusion. Weird. But not. "Idiocy" is the first song made available from the band's Matador Records debut, Loose in the Air, scheduled for release in September. The MP3 is available via the Matador site.

"War On Sound" - Moonbabies
Back to Sweden we go, and back to the duo Moonbabies (whose song "Sun A.M." was a previous TWF pick). Multi-instrumentalist/vocalists Ola Frick and Carina Johannason have a happy facility with a variety of pop languages (including but not limited to electronica, folk rock, and power pop) and a carefree touch in the studio. I like for instance how the martial drumbeat of the introduction, matched against a buzzing sort of keyboard, is augmented (and humanized) by the prominently-mixed in-breaths from (I think) both singers which launch every other measure. The song strips back, sonically, for the verse, with Frick singing, in Beck-like tones, against a fidgety electronic beat, Johannson harmonizing dreamily in the background. Everything ultimately is a set-up for the glistening chorus, a brisk yet soothing shot of melody, harmony, and comforting keyboard riff where cliches are forgiven ("It'll be all right") as great chords glide by. Listen in particular to where we end up when Frick sings "where everything's passing by"--how the chord shifts as the word "by" is extended: live in that moment and everything is always wonderful. "War On Sound" is the title track to an eight-song "mini-album" to be released next week on Hidden Agenda Records. The MP3 is available via Parasol Records, which is Hidden Agenda's parent label; thanks to Pitchfork for the pointer.

"Friend to J.C." - Mary Timony
Hailed in the '90s as part of the D.C.-based trio Helium, which trafficked in the indelible sub-genre known as "noise pop," Mary Timony veered in a quieter, quasi-medieval direction on two early-'00s solo CDs that puzzled some of her fans and exasperated her record company (the aforementioned Matador, as a matter of fact). Whatever the merits of her musical sidetrack, she decided a return to a harder sound was in order for her latest CD, Ex Hex, which was released--without a whole lot of fanfare--in April on Lookout Records. "Friend to J.C.," the album's second track, is an off-beat but rewarding piece of Liz Phair-ish indie-singer-songwriter-rock. A chiming guitar riff (backed by chimes, just for kicks) forms the song's sort-of-center, but Timony is too idiosyncratic a songwriter to let anything feel settled or familiar. And that strikes me as central to her appeal: like a foreign film in which you're never sure exactly where the story is going next, "Friend to J.C." unfolds in its own, unformulaic manner. The closest thing here to a chorus is a section anchored by a series of four chords that seem not exactly to match the pitch of her voice--which somehow or other seems to be its own odd sort of hook. The MP3 is available via both her site and the Lookout site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of July 10-16

"Flesh" - Islands
A dense, variegated rocker alternating time signatures, volume, and soundscapes to create a complex but memorable piece of (somehow) pop--almost as dense but way more memorable than this sentence, I should add. The introduction rocks and prickles in and out of a 7/4 beat like Television doing a Led Zep imitation; 50 seconds in, things quiet down as a mellowed-out electric guitar traces spare arpeggios before Nick Diamonds enters with his echoey and full-bodied tenor (Thom Yorke doing his Robert Plant imitation). This was already too much for me to absorb on one listen; my simple ears needed many repeats to begin to make sense of it, but along the way I caught melodies, chord changes, instrumental shifts, vocal qualities, and production touches that said "Keep listening." During one of my later listens, I realized how the band uses the same post-introduction quiet section three-quarters of the way through the song to lead back to the music from the introduction, which ends up, palindromically, as the coda also. Cool, and maybe even brilliant. Islands is the name of a new side project formed by Diamonds (known as "Niel") and Jaime Thompson (aka J'aime Tambour), who are two-thirds of the Unicorns, an eccentric, lo-fi Montreal band with something of a following. "Flesh" is one of two MP3s recently made available via Elliot Aronow's Simple Mission blog; thanks to Elliot himself for the head's up.

"Space They Cannot Touch" - Kate Miller-Heidke
I think sometimes my ear not only needs charm and grace but also proficiency--unmitigated, unapologetic proficiency. From Miller-Heidke's classically-trained soprano (used with a restraint almost unheard of in this age of "American Idol"-promoted histrionics) to her spiffy band's exquisitely laid-back accompaniment (imagine Steely Dan as Joan Armatrading's backup band), "Space They Cannot Touch" sounds like a song the indie-oriented '00s cannot touch. Vocal comparisons to Kate Bush may be inevitable--Miller-Heidke has some of mighty Kate's contained flutteriness and substantive breathiness--but her tone strikes me as purer, her ineffable idiosyncrasies more Siberry-ian, I'd say, than Bush-like. Be sure, by the way, not to miss the marvelous wordless flourishes of the song's last 30 seconds or so. That this all comes from a 23-year-old Australian singer/songwriter is wonderful; I love how the rest of the world is more than ever feeding worthy music back into our bloodstream, compensating refreshingly for the black hole created by the American music industry's abandonment of music itself as a virtue. "Space They Cannot Touch" is one of seven songs on Telegram, Miller-Heidke's debut EP, self-released in April 2004 but not yet heard much in this part of the world. The MP3 is available via her site.

"Mumble Mumble" - Get Him Eat Him
Not that there's anything wrong with a sparkling slice of quirky indie-rock mastery either--coming to us this time via a quintet from Brown University in Providence, a location not unknown for breeding quirky rock bands. "Mumble Mumble" is a short, spunky mixture of slashy guitars and tumbly words, held together by a good-natured melody, a knowing sense of production, and octave harmonies (gotta love octave harmonies). The chorus is particularly joyful, with its cascade of chord changes, nifty keyboard effects, and old-school Brit-pop allusions (both 10cc and Squeeze leap to mind). (In my musical-history-addled head, I see the song as a tribute both to Get Him Eat Him's former name--they began life as Grumble Grumble, but changed when threatened legally by the both obscure and defunct space-rock band Grimble Grumble--and to the brilliant Tilbrook/Difford song "Mumbo Jumbo." Even if it's not.) Singer/guitarist/songwriter Matt LeMay sounds like a wiseass, but a self-aware wiseass (he is, after all, credited on the bio page as "jerk, nerd, guitar"), which makes all the difference; many of rock history's best singers have had the air of self-aware wiseass about them. "Mumble Mumble" is a song from the band's full-length debut, Geography Cones, slated for release later this month on Absolutely Kosher Records. The MP3 is available on both the band's site and the Absolutely Kosher site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of July 3-9

"Call It Clear" - Halloween, Alaska
A sustained synthesizer fades into a drum that sounds simultaneously like an electronica beat and a real drum being pounded by a real drumstick. The bass that quickly joins in is yet more intriguing, mashed somehow into a boopy sort of electro-sound for half of its repeating motif. This immediate and compelling blend of electronics and organics then releases into a meltingly warm two-chord guitar riff--a sound that has clear roots in jazz rather than electronica--and I'm pretty much hooked. Guitarist James Diers, it turns out, has a voice as meltingly warm as his guitar, with something of the husky depth one hears in Peter Gabriel, or the Eels' Mark Oliver Everett. This also makes me happy, and still happier I become as I note the indescribable series of precise, programmed sounds that work to create an electronic background of unusual (that word again) warmth. Halloween, Alaska is a four-man band from Minneapolis apparently specializing in infusing electronics with a deep human glow. The world can use the skill. "Call It Clear" is a song off the band's self-titled debut CD, originally released on Princess Records in 2004, and re-released by East Side Digital in April. The MP3 can be found on CNET's music.download.com. Thanks to 50 Quid Bloke (self-described "saviour of the music industry"!) for the lead.

"Shallow" - Halomobilo
So this one sways to a fat 3/4 beat and is introduced with a barrage of heavy guitar work (I will continue to find lower-register guitar playing refreshing as long as most rock guitarists express themselves predominantly on the high notes). A bonus: within the first 30 seconds of the song, the singer uses the word "whilst," which sounds unaccountably endearing to my American ears. The entire song, come to think of it, sounds unaccountably endearing to me. I think it's the head-bobbing chorus that does it in particular: the measure-long notes and diving intervals work especially well with the muffled sort of angst that singer Mark Burnside has itching at the back of his throat (and occasionally throwing his pitch off in a strangely effective way). Even the lyrical imperative ("I won't be a shadow/No, I won't be so shallow") is unexpectedly touching, but perhaps not surprising from a group describing itself as "a heartfelt, commercially acceptable, big sounding rock band." Halomobilo was founded in Chelmsford, England in 2002; they have yet to release a CD. "Shallow" is available as an MP3 on the band's site.

"Across the Bridge" - the Great Lakes Myth Society
Sounding like a song from some lost epic indie-folk rock opera, "Across the Bridge" weaves banjo, violin, and increasingly dramatic vocal choruses around a sure beat and a sturdy, gratifying melody. Lead vocalist James Christopher Monger bears a smile-inducing resemblance to Paul Heaton of the Beautiful South (and the Housemartins before them), singing with open-hearted gusto both alone and in larger groups. The Great Lakes Myth Society are five guys from Ann Arbor with a geographical fixation and a keen sense of socio-historical drama, not to mention an unusual way with words. As their web site notes: "Like five applehead men soaking in their respective freshwater tombs, feeling the pulp return to their faces, each day brings the delicious pain of life and the endless need to create." Indeed. "Across the Bridge" is one of 15 songs on the band's self-titled debut CD, released in April on their own Stop, Pop, and Roll label. Thanks to Salon's "Audiofile" for the lead, which came from one of the intriguing summer-oriented playlists Thomas Bartlett has been posting there recently. The MP3 is hosted on the Stop, Pop, and Roll site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of June 26-July 2

"Between the Lines" - Sambassadeur
A sure sign of the robust state of Swedish rock'n'roll is how there really isn't a "sound" we here in the U.S. can pinpoint anymore to say: "Ah! That sounds like a Swedish band." Of course I'm sure that never really was the case in Sweden to begin with--clearly the country has had a diverse and potent music scene for decades. But only recently (thanks in no small part to the internet) have we on this side of the Atlantic been exposed to so much of it to begin to be truly impressed with the range of aural possibilities emerging from Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, et al. So here's the band Sambassadeur, a quartet formed in 2003, and here's "Between the Lines," a wispy, summery confection with earnest acoustic guitars and an early-'60s melody. Singer Anna Persson's pure, weightless voice conjurs Belle & Sebastian somehow, even as the song itself better resembles something from Kirsty MacColl's earlier years in its efforts to recapture something otherwise lost between the years 1962 and 1965. "Between the Lines" can be found on Sambassadeur's self-titled full-length debut, recently released on Labrador Records; the MP3 is available via the Labrador web site.

"In This Home On Ice" - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Alec Ounsworth has a voice like a mosquito, thin and buzzy, and he sometimes infuses syllables with the same swoopy anxiety that David Byrne specialized in back in the early days of Talking Heads. Beyond that, however, this suddenly visible Brooklyn quintet really doesn't have much to do with Talking Heads, early new wave, '70s or '80s art school rock, or any particular past moment in rock'n'roll, despite what you may be reading. What catches my ear here is the song's ongoing juxtaposition of edginess and resolution, most prominent in the way Ounsworth's metallic strangle of a voice works against the muted, pulsing drive of the guitars. But maybe the best example is at the end of the verse, a moment that sounds to me like the song's central pivot point (and best hook): the way the melody works through the same note twice with a classic (actually classical) chord progression through to the tonic, or home chord. Adding that extra line delays resolution even as it makes resolution all the more inevitable and delicious--extra-delicious, really, in the context of this nervous-seeming song. Don't by the way miss the wacky moment of Queen-ish anarchy in the bridge, which adds to the song's odd brilliance. "In This Home On Ice" can be found on the band's self-titled debut CD, self-released this month (and temporarily sold out); the MP3 is one of three available on the band's site.

"Raging Red" - Dear Leader
The idea that music has to sound different to be deemed admirable/worthy/whatever is a common underlying theme in many reviews you will read every which where, but it's a needless intellectual conceit, introducing a boggy layer between the sound itself and the world at large. Too many critics are so wrapped up in assessing whether a band is doing something "new" that they can't possibly be listening, simply, to the song itself and deciding whether it is good, which may or may not have to do with how much sonic ground it happens to be breaking. Never mind the fact that what critics tend to listen for to determine newness are typically surface-level characteristics (same guitar sound as Band X, same vocal sound as Musician Y) that can be concretely identified, versus ineffable aspects of the sound such as vibe, integrity, and spirit. That said, this is a big, bashing rocker from a Boston band fronted by Aaron Perrino (ex- of local indie favorites the Sheila Devine) and the way it is different than most songs you'll hear on the internet is that it's good: solidly constructed and passionately delivered, with a nice balance between the exclamatory verses and the anthemic chorus. Perrino is not above utilizing time-honored big-time rock tricks like stuttering a central word in the chorus, screeching beyond the capacity of his vocal cords, and a quick cut of silence before cranking into verse number two. "Raging Red" is a track off Dear Leader's debut CD, All I Ever Wanted Was Tonight, released towards the end of 2004 on Newburyport, Mass.-based Lunch Records. The MP3 is available via the band's site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of June 19-25

"Wait for the Wheels" - Goldrush
Five lads from Oxford, England who do not sound like Radiohead, Goldrush has been busy the last few years perfecting a British take on Americana music, with nods towards everyone from the Byrds to Neil Young to Wilco. In the process (as these things go with the right amount of talent), the band has developed a sound that seems pretty much their own (not to mention a record company in the U.K. that is their own). "Wait for the Wheels" begins (nice touch) like the end of a Neil Young/Crazy Horse song--a fuzzy blare of guitar, a flare of cymbals, a noodling bass--but the drummer picks up the beat and soon we're churning along to the crunch of a deep, circular interplay between guitar and bass. As singer Robin Bennett opens his mouth, the guitar peels away, which highlights the almost funky bass riff, while an acoustic guitar soon slips in to provide some sparkly texture underneath Bennett's friendly, slightly breathy voice. Electric guitars return rather janglingly in the somewhat syncopated chorus: listen to how both sides of the verse "I wait for the wheels/To turn" begin on the central upbeat between the second and third beats, which then drags the line into the next measure. You sense a stutter or shift even as the song retains its 4/4 drive. Bennett has something of Jeff Tweedy's casually pained depth while not sounding very much like Tweedy at all (except maybe a little in the chorus, come to think of it, particularly the second time, as the guitars really start buzzing and crunching); I really want to describe Bennett's voice as "chalky" except that I've never quite figured out what a chalky voice is. Ah well. "Wait for the Wheels" will be found on the band's U.S. debut CD, Ozona, scheduled for release in July on Better Looking Records. The MP3 is available via the Better Looking site; the other one there is equally as good, as is one more that's available on the band's site, which is a song from their first CD, Don't Bring Me Down, released in the U.K. in 2002.

"Lovesick" - the Arrogants
If "Lovesick" wastes no time flaunting one of pop music's greatest of chord progressions, so be it--either not enough people bother to employ it, or (more likely) it's not as easy to pull off as it may seem. Eschewing all distracting embellishments (there's no introduction, no instrumental break, and the chorus and bridge are effectively combined), "Lovesick" accentuates its classic-pop roots and in so doing, may just transcend them. I especially enjoy the messy-tight guitar work scorching a hole in the background, as well as singer Jana Wittren's endearing vocals, with their elusive almost-British-isms and sweet phrasing (the way she sings "you were the one" 15 or so seconds into the song melts my heart). If Harriet Wheeler from the Sundays sang lead for Blondie, they might have sounded, at least sometimes, like this. The Arrogants have released two EP-length CDs on Shelflife Records; "Lovesick" comes from their first, entitled Your Simple Beauty, released in 2000. The band's long-awaited first full-length CD is due out next month; it will feature 23 songs, most of them new, some of them reworked "oldies," including a new version of "Lovesick." The MP3 is available via the band's site.

"Salome" - Van Elk
Quiet, elegiac "Salome" overcomes its somewhat lo-fi trappings through the palpable mystery evoked by its simple setting and haunting beauty. There's such refinement at work within the aural landscape here that it casts a spell and I am hooked. I love the heartbeaty percussive accent that sounds like a squelched guitar chord and love even more the stately, wordless motif that winds its way repeatedly through the song. "Salome"'s mystery is enhanced by the dirth of information available about the duo calling itself Van Elk. Featuring former Mistle Thrush singer Valerie Forgione and Boston-area musician Ken Michaels, Van Elk (Val plus Ken, swirled around a bit) has the barest of internet presences--a web site with four songs to listen to, basically. No word about releases, no word about current work. I for one hope to hear more.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of June 12-18

"Don't Like The Way" - New Estate
Rocking with a leisurely, feedbacky vibe, "Don't Like The Way" juxtaposes an edgy, shrill-but-likable guitar sound with a flowy melody and good-natured background chug that somehow puts me in the mind of Fleetwood Mac of all things (hm, maybe the song title also did it, bringing "Go Your Own Way" unconsciously to mind). In any case, the band has an intriguing sound going here, and while I am not one of the writers about music on the web who demands innovation above all else, I certainly am impressed when I come across a band that seems to have its own particular voice--something that has become more and more difficult to do without lapsing into unaccountable quirkiness here in the new century. I'm guessing that this Melbourne-based quartet--featuring, unusually, both three singers and three songwriters--may be worth keeping eyes and ears on. "Don't Like The Way" is the lead track on the band's CD Considering..., released this month on Kittridge Records; the MP3 is found on the Kittridge web site.

"Boots" - Noe Venable
Atmospheric and structurally engaging, "Boots" unfolds with precision and intrigue, anchored by Venable's able and appealing voice. While an acoustic guitar provides a centering pulse, this song moves well beyond standard singer/sonwriter fare, brandishing a varied instrumental palette with great subtlety and skill, while some of the melodic turns give me goosebumps. Venable is a Bay Area musician with a loyal local following; she plays in a trio featuring keyboards, violin, and various electronic devices. "Boots" is the title track to her second most recent CD, released in 2003 on Venable's Petridish Records. The MP3 can be found on her site; thanks to 3hive for the tip.

"60 Cycles" - the Spectacular Fantastic
First of all, check out the big bashy guitars in the intro and the way the lead and the rhythm guitars leap immediately into action with both a manner and sound that seem heartbreakingly old-fashioned (the lead guitar's tone is itself a blast from some indefinable past). Then Mike Detmer opens his mouth and he's got a great dollop of Westerberg-ish goofy humor about his voice even as he's not saying or doing anything particularly funny. And then, geez, is the hook in the chorus insanely good or what? I have no idea why, it just is: "And I try to be the same as you," he sings, and listen if you would to the notes he hits on the word "try" and "as" and somewhere in there is not only the secret to the hook but (maybe) the secret to life as we know it. (Maybe. It's a hunch, that's all.) While nothing here is new or different it sounds new and different precisely because it's not trying to be new and different, if that makes any sense. This isn't self-conscious retro rock, this is brand new classic pop, delivered with love and verve by the Cincinnati-based Detmer, who likes to work with a rotating cast of characters and call himself a band. "60 Cycles" is the lead track on a new EP entitled I Love You, all six songs of which are available as free downloads on the band's web site. Thanks to The Catbirdseat for the head's up.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of June 5-11

"Aptitude" - Novillero
Anchored by a swinging piano riff, appealing chord progressions, and what seems an unusually hard-headed philosophy for a pop song, "Aptitude" is both immediately enjoyable and lastingly affecting. A quartet from Winnipeg founded in 1999, Novillero sounds like the real thing to me, capable of delivering music that is at once melodically and lyrically astute--no mean feat in our mash-up culture. The chorus is especially marvelous, rendered all the more effective for its jaunty bouncing between major and minor chords. Even better, it builds with each iteration--first delivered in a restrained vocal-and-piano setting, the chorus next arrives with the full band fleshing out the harmonics, and the third time with vocalist Rod Slaughter (he's also the piano player) singing an octave higher, adding a keening edge to both the music and lyrics. This works particularly well as the song has now shifted its focus: what began as a world-weary warning about how we are all limited by our inherent capabilities reveals itself (if I'm hearing it right) rather poignantly as a philosophy borne from disappointment in love. Complete with nifty horn charts. "Aptitude" is on the band's cleverly titled second CD, Aim Right For The Holes In Their Lives, which was released in the U.S. last week on Mint Records. The MP3 comes from the band's web site.

"Heart Pine" - the Sames
From its opening guitar pulse--sounding like a stressed-out siren--"Heart Pine" grabs my ear and doesn't let up. This is quite an accomplishment for a song lacking both melodic and harmonic diversity; here the whole clearly transcends the sum of its parts. With repeated listens I begin to understand how the insistent guitar accompaniment, at once slashing and chiming, works with the hypnotic melody (sung with slightly fuzzed-out vocals) to push the song forward with an urgent but subtly complex sort of drone--and then how the drone itself is slyly deconstructed as the song develops. Listen for instance to the way the second beat is dropped in the verse section--once the singing starts, you may notice the 4/4 time is marked out by the first, third, and fourth beats, which is a very gratifying rhythm (the fact that the drummer masks what he's doing adds to the effect). Listen too to how the song's limited chord changes are swallowed by the drone for a good minute and a half, creating an extra layer of tension before the release introduced by a perfectly timed bit of feedback at 1:35 and then (at last) a series of chord changes that I feel as if I'm hearing in my stomach more than my ears. The Sames are a quartet from Durham, North Carolina; "Heart Pine" is a song from their debut full-length CD, You Are The Sames, released in April on Pox World Empire. The MP3 is available via band's web site.

"Just One Breath" - Devics
What an instantly fetching voice Devics singer Sara Lov has, simultaneously strong and vulnerable, with great character and yet not odd in the way that voices with great character can sometimes be--think, maybe, Tanya Donelly (upper register) combined with Over the Rhine's Karin Bergquist (lower register) without, somehow, the potentially distracting idiosyncracies of either. The song glides along with grace and assurance, blending equally crisp acoustic and electric guitars with some baroque-ish keyboards in a cinematic sort of aural space, veering into the occasionally unexpected chord, with Lov always at the magnetic center. Devics are a duo from Los Angeles now living in Italy, multi-instrumentalist Dustin O'Halloran being the other half.
"Just One Breath" is a song off the band's new EP Distant Radio, to be released next week on Leftwing Records. The MP3 is hosted on the band's site, with Filter Magazine pointing the way.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of May 29-June 4

"It's All In My Mind" - Teenage Fanclub
Glistening, accomplished pop from a Scottish band that came together in 1989 and has never quite had its day. Look how much these guys pull out of a simple melody set against a clockwork, tom-tom-accented beat, and how effortlessly they do it--largely by playing against the regularities they set up. Notice, to begin with, how the melody line of the verse starts first on the downbeat and then, when it repeats, begins on the upbeat; this creates an off-centered feeling to what is actually a regular, 4/4 beat. But then notice what happens in the chorus (which is just the words "It's all in my mind" sung twice)--the beat is stretched to 6/4 for two measures, which manages both to ground the song and keep it slightly on edge. A minute and a half into things, we're returned to the first verse but the song has shifted subtly, tom-tom giving way to a fuller drum kit, some gorgeous but unexpected harmonies fleshing out the words and their dreamy message. That the whole thing culminates in a spaced-out guitar break three-quarters of the way through--I love how the song sort of floats into the guitar solo, as if catching up to it--is only fitting. "It's All In My Mind" is the lead track on the band's new CD Man-Made, their seventh, scheduled for release next week on Merge Records. The MP3 is available via Filter Magazine.

"The World in 1984" - Shearwater
This song has the echoey, majestic sadness of a forgotten photo album, an impression accentuated by the timeless melody, backward-looking lyrics, and singer Jonathan Meiburg's high, fluttery voice. There's something haunting and lasting at work here, something I'd locate somewhere in the graceful interaction between the minor and major chords and the way they play out through the central, plaintive piano refrain. Shearwater features two members (keyboard player Meiburg and guitarist Will Sheff) of the somewhat better-known Okkervil River; reflecting Meiburg's graduate-level involvement in ornithology (how does he have the time?), the band is named for a type of bird that flies close to the surface of the water. And the song comes from an album called Winged Life (released last year on Austin-based Misra Records), to continue the bird theme--although the phrase itself is William Blake's (is it my imagination or are independent rock bands the last bastion of literate culture in our post-literate world?): "He who binds to himself a joy/Does the winged life destroy;/ But he who kisses the joy as it flies/Lives in eternity's sun rise." The MP3, by the way, is hosted on the band's site.

"New Resolution" - the Heartless Bastards
Skeletal and elemental, "New Resolution" is driven by an aggressive drumbeat (hey, it's distinctive drumbeat week) and Erika Wennerstrom's achy-furious voice. She's got something of that back-of-the-throat roughness that makes Lucinda Williams cut me to the core sometimes, but in this case it's Lucinda crossed with Patti Smith, or maybe even Robert Plant. While "New Resolution" is rooted in a time-worn bass line, there is simultaneously a liberating vibe to this short and quirky tune, as if the band is gleefully writing its own rules as it goes. I for one find it impossible to argue with (not to mention half fall in love with) anyone who sings the following: "My new resolution is to be/Someone who does not care what anyone thinks of me/'Cause I don't even like myself half the time/And what's the use in worrying what's on other people's minds?" The Heartless Bastards are from Cincinnati; "New Resolution" can be found on the band's debut CD, Stairs and Elevators, released in February on Fat Possum Records, a label previously known for blues recordings. The MP3 is available via the band's web site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of May 22-28

"Waves" - Marjorie Fair
This is one of the most accomplished, forward-looking examples I've heard yet of the neo-soft-rock sound that seems to be bubbling up on the 21st-century rock scene alongside the neo-new-wave sound that's getting most of the attention so far. What makes "Waves" a particular pleasure is the band's success (Marjorie Fair is a band, not a person) in linking a sweetly melancholy America-esque sound with a grounded, indie-rock-style drive. Listen to the opening drumbeat: it means business, and prevents the jazzy chords that comprise the heart of the song (major sevenths and ninths and things like that) from turning mushy and dull. Likewise is the lovely melody--and singer Evan Slamka's equally lovely delivery of said melody--counterbalanced by some edgy guitar work; beyond the central, chiming riff there are droning accents that work to create palpable mystique throughout the piece, rising at last to the surface by way of a brief, reverberant solo beginning at 2:56. This mellow-rock meets indie-rock mix might almost seem its own sort of formula except for the fact that hardly anyone can do this effectively--it's not much of a formula if it isn't easily replicated, after all. "Waves" is a song off the L.A. foursome's debut CD, Self Help Serenade, which was released last year in the U.K. and is slated for a major-label stateside release in July. Capitol Records is cranking up the PR machine on this one, and while I am not always pleased by the way that manifests itself, I must remind myself that back in the day, the big labels regularly delivered good music to the masses; it's not yet too late (I don't think) for at least some of them to remember this.

"Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker" - Cuff the Duke
There's a lost-epic feeling about this engaging, largely instrumental song, starting with its lengthy but chipper chimey-guitar build-up that comes complete with its own tempo shift (you hearing a "Free Bird" reference in that as I am?). It turns out the slower, weightier pace of the down-shifted part is where the song is heading; the second time the "Free Bird" section arrives, a crunchier, Neil Young-ish wall of guitar sound kicks in and singer/songwriter/guitarist Wayne Petti makes his delayed entrance (the song's two and a half minutes old already), his thin tenor emerging first as a mixed-down, off-pitch counterpoint to the increased instrumental fury, but as he reaches the lyrical climax--an invocation-like repetition of the phrase "It'll be all right"--he's right there in the center, handing the song back to the guitars. Together the rhythm and lead slash and churn with yet heightened intensity before melting away for Petti's final, quieter reprise of the same lyric from before with one subtle difference. "Ballad of a Construction Worker" is a song off the band's debut CD, Life Stories for Minimum Wage, released in 2002 on Three Gut Records; the MP3 is hosted on the Three Gut web site. A new CD from the band is expected this August.

"Ecoutez Bien" - Eux Autres
To counter big-label promotion and epic-style earnestness, here's a little shot of lo-fi goofiness--a brother/sister duo from Portland, Oregon offering a fetching two and a half minutes of garage rock a la francais. While it would never have occurred to me, for one, that crossing a chunky, freewheeling Stones vibe with spoken-sung lyrics in French would lead to anything in particular, there's something smiley and effervescent in the outcome. This strikes me as rather fascinating, actually, given how much Debbie Harry-style archness is channeled by singer Heather Larimer, but I guess that's another sign of the post-ironic world in which we live--that irony itself can now be used quite effectively to evoke sincerity. Add a distant but pounding piano riff, brother Nicholas' megaphoned backing vocals, a flurry of well-timed whoops, and a one-line chorus, and you have an odd hodgepodge of a semi-song on the one hand, an almost-classic-sounding pop cultural tidbit on the other. "Ecoutez Bien" is the lead track on the band's debut CD, Hell Is Eux Autres, released last year. The MP3 is available via band's web site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of May 15-21

"It Dawned On Me" - Calla
At once driving and atmospheric, "It Dawned On Me" combines a melodic, nearly New Order-like guitar motif and classic rock chord progressions with a dreamy wash of what I can only call beautiful noise--I'm listening and listening and can't quite figure out what exactly is behind the structure of sound that gives this song such weight and power. Given that two of the band's three members are credited not only with playing instruments (bass, keyboards, percussion) but also with "programming," I can only assume that some heavy-duty electronic know-how is partially responsible, but the beauty here is that the overall effect is extremely organic. Guitarist/vocalist Aurelio Valle's dark, breathy voice has a lot to do with the song's haunting nature, and, okay, if I can't help hearing a bit of "Don't Fear the Reaper"'s minor-key elegance around the edges here, there's nothing wrong with that either. "It Dawned On Me" is a song slated to appear on the Brooklyn-based band's next CD, their fourth, entitled Collisions, scheduled for release this summer. The MP3 is available via the band's web site.

"14th Street" - Laura Cantrell
Not unlike the kind of sweet, well-crafted singer/songwriter songs Nanci Griffith gathered so effectively on her much-admired Other Voices, Other Rooms CD, "14th Street" is at once breezy and poignant, held together by Cantrell's startlingly pure, somewhat Griffith-like voice and her admirable capacity to keep the musical focus strong and simple. This song could have taken an indulgent turn, production-wise, in any number of places but is ever held in check by the crystal-clear interaction between acoustic guitar, piano, drum, voice. Cantrell's decision to exploit the song's Brill Building roots (check out the sleighbell/drum accent that kicks in at 1:35; I love how the Spector beat is implied without it actively materializing) creates a fetching amalgam of traditional country and traditional pop. Cantrell is a Nashville-born, New York-based musician and radio host (her weekly "Radio Thrift Shop" program can be heard on WFMU) who recorded two highly-acclaimed CDs before quitting her day job at a Manhattan-based financial firm to do music full-time. These sturdy, tradition-minded recordings of hers have attracted a number of notable music-industry fans over the last five years, including Elvis Costello (who picked her to open for him on a number of his 2002 concerts) and the late John Peel, who in 2001 called her first CD "my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life." Written by a Portland, Oregon-based songwriter named Emily Spray, "14th Street" will be the lead track on Cantrell's new CD, Humming By The Flowered Vine, to be released on Matador Records next month. The CD, as usual for Cantrell, will mix her own songs with traditional songs and songs from other songwriters. The MP3 arrives via the Matador web site.

"Trance Manual" - John Vanderslice
There's a "Carpet Crawlers"-like sense of gorgeous contemplation underscoring this new tune from the underappreciated Mr. Vanderslice. Pristine without being boring, intricately produced without falling into the kitchen-sink syndrome, "Trance Manual" floats along in its own indelible world; again not unlike Peter Gabriel-era Genesis at their best, Vanderslice offers us lyrical imagery that manages the difficult trick of being both concrete and enigmatic, set against an almost orchestral sense of instrumental diversity. There's plenty of Vanderslice's production genius on display this time around, from the insistent chime-like drone that's never far below the surface to the precise but limited use of flute flourishes to the wonderful way he uses keyboards (I think) to sound like backward guitars to the incredible arrival of pizzicato strings just before the three-minute mark--a truly unexpected and instantly perfect touch. "Trance Manual" has just been made available as an MP3 on the Barsuk Records site; it will appear on the next Vanderslice CD, Pixel Revolt, due out in August.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of May 8-14

"Glorious" - A. Graham and the Moment Band
There are certain sorts of on-and-off-pitch voices that are so immediately friendly and unassuming that they welcome you in like an old friend handing you a beer. Andy Graham has one of those voices. Then again, this entire song is kind of like an old friend handing you a beer, most of all the loose-limbed, sing-along chorus, featuring four of the English language's finest words--"Glorious/ Triumphant/ Optimistic/ Transcendent"-- woven together with spot-on pedal steel accents. Like Doris Henson, A. Graham and the Moment Band are another endearing, worthy band from Kansas City, Kansas. "Glorious" is the lead track on the band's 2004 CD This Tyrant is Free, released on Sonic Unyon Records. The MP3 is available via Lawrence.com, one of the better (if also unassuming) local/regional music resources on the web.

"Heavy Packer" - Amy Miles
Alternating tense, sparse verses with a spacious, gorgeous chorus, the NYC-based singer/songwriter Amy Miles here channels Martha Davis (remember the Motels? anyone?) to great effect. I find it relatively easy to lose patience with slow-building songs, but Miles holds my interest through the simmering opening minute and a half, with its ominous beat, evocative lyrics, and knowing touches--listen to the way the drum stutters on the fourth beat of every fourth measure, and how a deep synthesizer augments the staccato base line with a sustained series of almost below ear level notes. When the song arrives at the chorus--melody now slowed by half, showing Miles' voice off at its prettiest--the effect is glistening. Don't miss the elastic guitar accents underneath, without which the song would not have soared nearly as high. "Heavy Packer" comes from Miles' second CD, Noble Hatch, released in March on the Pcoop label, via Redeye Distribution. Noble Hatch, by the way, was the actual name of a boy Miles had a crush on in sixth grade in Arkansas; the album apparently reflects repeatedly back on that broken-hearted period of her young life.

"August Morning Haze" - Oneida
Like some strange psychedelic nugget from the '60s, "August Morning Haze" opens with a prickly, vaguely Near Eastern guitar line. In comes a sitar--no, wait, it's a banjo. Who'd have thought. Together they jangle towards an unexpected and quite satisfying harmonic resolution before veering off into the first verse. The words march out in precise, repeated rhythm (ONE-two ONE-two; I looked it up--it's trochaic tetrameter, I think), a tumble of landscape and nature images that hypnotize me entirely. I'm trying and I can't focus on their concrete meaning, and then, wow, there are those wonderful, resolving chords again. Instruments are brought in and out with wondrous subtlety--some strings here, an accordion there, all in service of the relentless trochees. "Pictures of Matchstick Men" meets XTC's Skylarking, if you squint a little. The song is the final track on Oneida's new CD, The Wedding, released last week on Jagjaguwar Records in the U.S., Three Gut Records in Canada. The MP3 is hosted on the Three Gut web site. Largehearted Boy pointed the way.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of May 1-7

"Hold That Thought" - Trademark
Resplendent electro-pop from an Oxford synthesizer trio that apparently wears lab coats onstage. While drawing obvious inspiration from bands like Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Trademark immediately announces its own presence with the opening synthesizer riff, featuring a deeper, buzzier, funkier tone than their '80s forebears. The song swings along in a rapid 6/8 (maybe?) shuffle, and even as vocalist Oliver Horton's blase, slightly nasal delivery recalls the likes of Neil Tennant (of the Pet Shop Boys), there's something sturdier and more passionate going on here. Maybe because it was all new back then, and maybe there were serious technological limitations at the time, but '80s synth-pop had a distinct air of preprogrammed relentlessness to it--as if the groups got going by pushing a button and letting the machines do the rest. Listen, by contrast, to the way the introduction here leads into the first verse: how the rhythm shifts and the three interweaving synthesizers are redefined around the vocals--how in fact they are played musically rather than electronically, even though they are, still, electronic instruments. It may sound on the surface like the '80s but this is the '00s we're listening to, and a seriously wonderful new song. "Hold That Thought" can be found on Trademark's debut CD, Trademark Want More, released in the U.K. last year on Truck Records. The MP3 is available via the band's web site. Thanks to The Acousticwoodlands for the lead.

"American Grotesque" - Barry Thomas Goldberg
Straightforward old-school rock with a vibrant edge. Goldberg is a singer/songwriter in his fifties who's been kicking around the Minneapolis music scene for a couple of decades; his age and experience blaze through this simultaneously good-natured and apocalyptic song. Goldberg's deep, cigarette-stained voice brings the late Warren Zevon to mind, but there's an added Graham Parker-like snap and snarl to his delivery and something Dylanesque about the whole carnival-like enterprise, with its cavalcade of characters and situations set to a rollicking 3/4 beat. "American Grotesque" is the title track of Goldberg's most recent CD, released earlier this year. The MP3 is available on Goldberg's web site. Thanks to visitor Paul for the suggestion.

"The Guns of Brixton" - Nouvelle Vague
It's the Clash song, it's a French collective which has made an album transforming punk and new wave songs from the late '70s and early '80s into jazzy-poppy bossa nova-inflected tunes, and it's way more successful and alluring than it has any right to be. The idea to do this came from French producer/multi-instrumentalists Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux--Marc's idea, originally. (The web site claims that "Nouvelle Vague" means "new wave" in French and "bossa nova" in Portuguese; this seems cheeky to me, but cute.) The plan was to jettison the cultural context, focus on the strength of the song, and (a great touch) employ young singers who had never heard the original in the first place. On "The Guns of Brixton," Camille (she uses just her first name) brings a beguiling early '60s-style insouciance to the task, as the great Paul Simonon song is transformed into a jaunty lounge number with mind-boggling panache. Hear the incredible way she links the first verse to the chorus 48 seconds into the song, the audible out-breath she uses to get from the phrase "death row" to "You can crush us" etc. All through it of course is the crazy juxtaposition of this voice and these lyrics, but even that would not have been enough without the arrangement. What Collin and Libaux highlight most of all with this project is the sheer magic of musical arrangement, and the brilliance that can result when just the right instrument does just the right thing at just the right time without, somehow, sounding overly precise and calculated. One small example among many is the way a dark piano bass line is added at the beginning of the second verse--just perfect. Among the other songs covered by Nouvelle Vague on the CD are "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Making Plans for Nigel." Released overseas last June on the U.K.-based Peacefrog Records, Nouvelle Vague comes out this week in the U.S. on Luaka Bop Records. The MP3 is hosted by Insound.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Apr. 24-30

"Walter Reed" - Michael Penn
Michael Penn can't catch a break. The guy spent the first half of his musical career battling the perception that he was "only" Sean Penn's older brother (when anyone was paying any attention at all), and now seems destined to spend the second half identified "merely" as Aimee Mann's husband. On top of this, he had his pop cultural moment early--bursting on the musical scene with the brilliant semi-hit "No Myth" from his first CD, March, he has sold relatively few albums since. During the '90s he found himself in one of those weird only-in-the-record-industry stories in which he was neither allowed to make a record nor to break his contract for four years. It also didn't help that he released what strikes me as his only weak-ish CD--2000's cleverly titled MP4 ('twas his fourth album, see)--right when his wife was hitting her stride in terms of widespread recognition and critical regard. Like I said, he can't catch a break, which is a terrible shame as he is the real thing, a seriously talented singer/songwriter with an indelible voice, an enviable sense of craft, and a proven knack for neo-Beatle-isms. Do yourself a favor and find his second album, 1992's Free-for-All, which is something of a lost classic. So, okay, "Walter Reed": a song from his next CD, Mr. Hollywood, Jr., 1947. Typically midtempo and crisp, the song alternates a subdued lyric with a classically Penn-ish melodic chorus hook. The CD is apparently going to be some sort of concept album, ruminating on American society in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The CD is slated for a summer release on Penn's Mimeograph Records, available through spinART Records. Thanks to Thomas Bartlett at Salon for the head's up on this one.

"Driver Education" - Amy Ray
Peppy, good-hearted NRBQ-style rock'n'roll from Indigo Girl Ray. With a tight little Hammond B3-enhanced groove, "Driver Education" finds the big-voiced Ray in a relaxed, even playful context, reminiscing about high school's emotional battlefields in a song alternating word-tumbling verses and an almost haiku-like chorus. While as a group the Indigo Girls have always maintained their integrity, success over the years seemed to morph their earnestness into an unnecessary sort of solemnity that undermined the heart and spirit of the music. In her solo work, Ray seems able to cut loose more, both musically and energetically, and the results are gladdening. "Driver Education" is not the only song to deal with emerging gender relationships from a teenaged perspective on her new CD, which is called Prom and was released earlier this month on Ray's own, not-for-profit Daemon Records label. The MP3 is available via the Daemon web site.

"Dirty Lives" - Love as Laughter
Sounding somewhat like the Replacements if they were just goofy rather than drunk and goofy, the West Coast band Love as Laughter has an immediately endearing sort of tight-yet-sloppy (or is that sloppy-yet-tight?) vibe to them; think the Shins crossed with early-'70s Rolling Stones and you're somewhere near the sound this outfit crunches out. I'll leave it to the relentlessly trend-focused indie rock writers on the web to figure out where these guys fit on the rock/indie-rock/retro-rock spectrum while I sit back and enjoy the heck out of the way they breathe vivid life into a sound too often ossified as "classic rock." So even as this one surely churns itself out "Bang a Gong"-ishly, there's way more to it. Listen to the opening guitar line, for instance: maybe it takes you back to the '70s, but the subtle, rubbery uncertainty of the notes themselves add new character to the sound, as does singer/songwriter/guitarist Sam Jayne's good-natured voice and capacity for writing rollicking melodies. The song comes from the band's new Laughter's Fifth CD, released this week on Sub Pop Records. The MP3 is available via Insound. Hat's off to Largehearted Boy for the tip.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Apr. 17-23

"April & May" - David Fridlund
Built around a simple but sturdy minor-key piano riff, "April & May" sounds like Ben Folds doing Kurt Weill, with the extra air of mystery provided by Fridlund's Scandanavian-inflected English. With only a double bass providing support for the piano, the song acquires a wonderful heft thanks to Sara Culler's expert backing vocals. I'm not quite sure how she manages to be so in sync as to almost disappear and yet so present as to be integral to the song's success, but there she is just the same. I love how she finally emerges on her own with some wordless vocals at the very end--a perfect finishing touch. And then oh yeah, before that, there's that magical little bit of synthesized harp or some such thing that chimes in, along with an acoustic guitar, around two and half minutes into the proceedings. I assume these are the responsibility of Johan T. Karlsson, who is thanked on the album for the "space echo and other small things that really made a difference." Fridlund is known in Sweden as leader of the trio David & the Citizens; "April & May" is the second track on his first solo CD, Amaterasu (Amaterasu is the Japanese Shinto sun goddess, just so you know; her name means "She who shines in the heavens"). Culler is in fact featured prominently throughout the disc, which will be released in the U.S. early next month on Hidden Agenda Records. The MP3 is available via Parasol Records, which is Hidden Agenda's parent label.

"Hole in the Road" - Jennifer O'Connor
Smart, engaging indie-singer-songwriter-rock from the NYC-based O'Connor. While her plainspoken vocal style quickly brings pre-2003 Liz Phair to mind, this is on the one hand a great starting point, to my ears, and on the other hand it becomes with repeated listens only a starting point, as O'Connor's ability to combine drive, melody, and cool lyrics helps to create her own particular vibe. This is one deftly written and produced song, flowing knowingly from a crisp acoustic rhythm guitar intro into a full-band propulsiveness. There in fact is where the song wins me over, as the band kicks in and is followed shortly by O'Connor now backing herself with octave harmonies. I remain ever the sucker for octave harmonies--that is, when the harmony vocal is singing the same note as the melody but either one octave higher or lower. I love this almost every time. At this point I begin to notice how certain lines from the lyrics jump out and resonate--"I didn't know I was a target till you made me feel like one"; "Maybe next time you'll remember to remember every time"--even as the song never pauses long enough to draw extra attention to the sad story being told. Nice stuff. "Hole in the Road" will appear on O'Connor's new CD, The Color and the Light, when it is released in early May on Red Panda Records. The MP3 is available via O'Connor's web site.

"For Real" - Okkervil River
Time and again here in the 21st century I am taken aback--pleasantly and resonantly--by the musical depth and breadth on display by the widest variety of independent bands and artists from both around the country and around the world. The Austin-based band Okkervil River--whose song "It Ends With a Fall" was a "This Week's Finds" pick in February 2004--is a great example of how rich and confident a sound awaits us from any number of relatively unknown ensembles. If last time I was perhaps a bit distracted by what I heard as the band's distinct Wilco-ishness, this time Okkervil River has a whole lot more on immediate display, offering up a vibrant, edgy song combining a range of sounds and emotion into one dramatic whole. "For Real" is marked by a palpable tension between constraint and unfettered release--heard most obviously in the juxtaposition of the quiet singing and loud guitar bursts in the opening section, and carried through most of all in singer Will Sheff's vocals, which alternate between a tender waver and an emotion-choked wail. This song is the second track on the band's new CD Black Sheep Boy, their fourth full-length disc, released earlier this month on Jagjaguwar Records; the MP3 comes to us via the record label site.

THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Apr. 10-16

"Boys and Children (Sing for Summer)" - Those Transatlantics
This song makes me happy--a bright blue flowering tree smell sort of silly happy, to be somewhat specific, while rather vague at the same time. What begins as a clean-cut sort of dreamy-jangly-sing-song-y pop song evolves through almost five minutes into an unexpectedly satisfying if goofy aural adventure. Anchored in the crisp, airy, layered vocals of Kathleen Bracken, "Boys and Children" chimes along sweetly for two full minutes, keeping the listener suspended in a what's-going-to-happen-next state of awareness before a fluttery fadeout brings us smack into a jaunty time change, as Bracken starts a fetching sort of call-and-response section with herself. Early Jane Siberry comes to mind, not only because of Bracken's vocal resemblance to Queen Jane but because of how the band as a whole combines playfulness with a resilient musical assuredness. Forty seconds later we fade again, only to revisit the opening melody, joyously re-set with a glistening new beat, underscored by happy keyboard riffs. And then the final payoff--a return to the call-and-response section, but now keyboard player Chris Hatfield joins in and addresses Bracken directly; the song ends with a goofy discussion of the song itself, set to music. Fun. Hailing from the funky central Michigan college town of Mt. Pleasant, Those Transatlantics were founded in 2003 and have two EPs out to date. "Boys and Children" appears to be a new song; the MP3 comes from the band's web site.

"Fudgicle" - the Lovely Feathers
Many are now aware that Canada is all but flooding us with high-quality 21st-century rock'n'roll, but I don't think we all know about this Montreal quintet with the odd name and a penchant for tight, punchy, somewhat off-kilter music. My goodness, just listen to the opening chords: it's a simple riff but it bursts with a substance and spirit that transcends the notes being crunched out. The Lovely Feathers feature a pair of twitchy vocalists, Mark Kupfert and Richard Yanofsky, both of whom waver between reined-in tunefulness and wigged-out Pere Ubu-ishness, but I'm with them all the way because of a wonderful recurring motif that appears, almost out of the blue, forty seconds in--a thorny guitar melody set off against a majestic, new-wave-ish synthesizer. How this arises and weaves into the confident drive of this urgent song speaks to me of a band that really knows what it's doing. On the other hand, what the hell are they singing about? Your guess is, probably, better than mine. "Fudgicle" is a song off the band's debut CD, My Best Friend Daniel, released in 2004 on a label called Love Your Diary; the MP3 is available via the band's site.


"What Happened to the Sands" - Pas/Cal
Detroit's answer to Belle and Sebastian, if Stuart Murdoch had a love-hate relationship with Brian Wilson. Smooth and peppy on the surface, this song offers an outpouring of sonic treats, from appealing melodies and spiffy chord changes to spacious drum beats, falsetto harmonies, and sleighbell accents, wrapped up in a listenable but mystifying structure. The time changes 40 seconds in and never changes back, and there seems to be neither a chorus nor, in fact, any discernible verses. And yet somehow it still feels very much like a song, which strikes me as both an interesting effect and a worthy accomplishment. "What Happened to the Sands" can be found on the band's second EP, entitled Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous, released in March 2004 by Le Grand Magistery. A full-length CD is apparently in the works. The MP3 arrives courtesy of band's site.