Artigos com o marcador 2010
Beach Fossils – Beach Fossils (2010)
22/06/10
ALLMUSIC In 2010, there were a lot of bands doing roughly the same thing as Beach Fossils. Namely, a lo-fi take on the indie pop sound with loads of reverb, guitar parts reminiscent of surf music, simple-to-rudimentary drums, and innocent, almost deadpan vocals. Many of the bands are on the same label,Captured Tracks. Many of them are one-person outfits, as well. In this case the one person beingDustin Payseur. Of all the bands operating in this general area, Beach Fossils is one of the best and their self-titled record works as one of the early landmarks of the sound. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, though it helps that Payseur’s songs are instantly catchy and his voice betrays no smirkiness, just pure innocence. The focus and clarity of his playing and arrangement also give the record an originality that lets the record stand out from the hissing crowd. No one else (apart from the Drumsand their naggingly omnipresent “Let’s Go Surfing” or maybe Surfer Blood with “Swim”) has written as song as radio ready as “Daydream.” More impressively, that song is only one of many shining examples of on-the-cheap pop that hits like the blunt end of an axe. Beach Fossils may be very 2010 but they aren’t just along for the ride, they’re driving the bandwagon. ~ Tim Sendra
My Rate: 8/10
Áudio de “Daydream”
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Say No To Love 7″ (2010)
08/06/10
SLUMBERLAND The Pains of Being Pure At Heart had quite a 2009, and 2010 is shaping up to be even better. They released their self-titled debut last February to universal acclaim, racking up features in magazines like Spin, Rolling Stone and NME, earning Best New Music status from Pitchfork, and touring the US and Europe non-stop. They began 2010 with a month-long tour of Japan, New Zealand and Australia, but somehow managed to take a breath to record this fantastic new single. Say No To Love is a big step forward for the band, combining The Pains’ now-trademark youthful energy and infectious song craft with a more considered approach to the studio. The result is what we think is the best Pains single yet, a peerless slice of pure pop just right for the summer.
My Rate: 9.8/10
Brilliant Colors – Never Mine 7″ (2010)
08/06/10
SLUMBERLAND San Francisco’s Brilliant Colors have staked-out a unique spot in the indie music landscape. Inspired in equal parts by post-punk DIY fervor and the spiky pop of C86 and early Flying Nun/Creation label output, they hearken back to a time when the best tunes came out on 7″ singles and weekends were spent digging through the stacks at your favorite local record shop. Their 2009 album, Introducing, is one of the finest debuts in recent memory, combining guitar buzz with dreamy melodies and rushing rhythms into some dream combination of The Dils and Shop Assistants.
Now the band is back with their first new recordings since that great album, and boy are they winners. “Never Mine” is simply 1:49 of punk-pop perfection, singer/guitarist Jess Scott’s spare riff underpinned by Diane Anastasio’s steady thump and Michelle Hill’s busy, melodic bassline. It’s Brilliant Colors in a nutshell: crunchy garage punk played with total purposefulness, leavened by an instinctive pop sense. On the flip side the pace picks up for “Kissing’s Easy”: all rolling snares and frantic guitar strum and Jess’ echoey vocal sass. Like all the best classic punk tunes it’s over just a little too soon, leaving you no option but to turn the record over and play it all over again.
Recorded with DIY simplicity by Ty Segall, who knows a bit about garage pop himself, the minimal sound fits the bands tune like a glove. This great single hones Brilliant Colors’ spiky, angular crash-pop and points to a very interesting 2010 for the band.
My Rate: 7/10
VA – Summertime (Take The Pills! Mix, 2010)
30/05/10
Photo by miss margaret.
Tracklist:
1. Real Estate – Beach Comber
2. Tap Tap – Codeine
3. Wild Nothing – Summer Holiday
4. Neverever – Now
5. Dum Dum Girls – It Only Takes One Night
6. The King Khan & BBQ Show – Invisible Girl
7. Spectrals – Leave Me Be
8. Best Coast – When I’m With You
9. Ty Segall – Caesar
10. The Blanche Hudson Weekend – Grip of Fear
11. Standard Fare – Love Doesn’t Just Stop
12. This Many Boyfriends – I Don’t Like You (Cos You Don’t Like The Pastels)
13. Harlem – Scare You
14. Girls – Morning Light
15. Box Elders – Jackie Wood
16. Brilliant Colors – Absolutely Anything
17. Male Bonding – Year’s Not Long
18. Magic Kids – Hey Boy
19. Gigi – No, My Heart Will Go On (with Chorus)
20. The School – I Want You Back
Neverever – Angelic Swells (2010)
24/05/10
One of the best records of this year! Oh yeah.
SLUMBERLAND Jihae and Wallace Meek are a couple with a keen ear for POP who’ve travelled the world together in search of the perfect tune. Having met in Glasgow while Ms. Meek was the singer for pop phenoms The Royal We and Mr. Meek helmed the excellent Bricolage, they eventually relocated to LA to soak in the sunny vibes and pop history. Surrounded by stacks of dusty 45s, crack musicians and dinette counters lined with hopefuls and has-beens, they set about on the next stage in their musical journey. Neverever is their new band, a tough group with a flair for echoey three minute symphonies, marrying classic pop melodies with punk-informed crunch and glam-infused 70s stomp.
Angelic Swells is the their debut album, and it’s a remarkable effort that takes in 50s rock ‘n roll, 60s girl-group sounds, the 70s glam heyday of Slade and Suzi Quatro and 80s power-pop on its way to creating a bang-up-to-date idea of what pop should sound like in 2010. It’s a timeless sound: fuzzy riffs, pounding rhythms and tales of teenage love and lust. In other words – classic POP. From the epic, widescreen opener of “Here Is Always Somewhere Else” to the breathless tale of adolescent sexual awkwardness that is “Coconut Shampoo” to the slow-dance swoon of “16th Wonder,” every tune could be a lost hit echoing from a crackly AM radio. Not that there’s anything lo-fi happening here; the band worked hard with Jeff Ehrenberg at famed LA studio Infrasonic (No Age, Beck, Peter Case) to give Angelic Swells that warm, technicolor sound that marks so many great records.
First single (under the name The Champagne Socialists) “Blue Genes” is here in freshly recorded form, its catchy guitar riff and rama-lama drums literally jump from the speakers and head straight for your feet, sure to pack the dancefloor and get you hand-clapping along with the chorus. “Young Runways” and “Teardrop Tattoo” go for a Shadow Morton vibe, updated slices of girl-group goodness that re-imagine the Shangri Las as they might have sounded playing at CBGBs in 1976: brilliant power-pop for the ‘00s with nods to Blondie and Shop Assistants along the way. The power-pop connection is made explicit by Neverever’s cover of The Plimsoul’s “Now,” which fits in so well with the rest of the songs that you’d think it was an original. The albums end with a bang with “Underwater Ballet,” two and a half minutes of glorious pop stomp that accelerates to a cacophonous finale.
Neverever know their pop history, but they also know how to write great songs and Angelic Swells provides ample evidence of that. It is a an ambitious, iconoclastic record packed with rambunctious riffs, rumbling drums, ear-nagging melodies and, most of all, timeless tunes.
My Rate: 9/10
Áudio de “Blue Genes”
Gigi – Maintenant (2010)
21/05/10
MYSPACE Capturing the spirit of the pop music that flooded the hit parade in the early 60′s is a tall order, and the songs on “MAINTENANT” decidedly develop a world and language of its own. With a reverent eye on the past and a deep respect for the airtight songsmithery of artists like Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Shadow Morton (among countless others), the songs aren’t content to be throwback-y pastiches or polka-dotted retro workouts but rather stand as attempts at working within a specific and incredibly rich tradition of pop music production. There is something deeply satisfying about bringing together a large group of singers and musicians, cramming them into the studio, running through a song a couple times and then hitting “record”. The shape of the songs forming on the fly and being coloured by the entire group, the intent and heart of the song crystallizing as the tape rolls. By the same token, the charming flubs and missed cues swirling in a dense cloud of reverb revealing sublime harmonies, soaring brass, and all the bells and whistles one might expect from a Krgovich/Stewart helmed project.
In addition to Stewart’s engineering and production credits on albums by Black Mountain, Cave Singers and Destroyer, as well as, Krgovich’s other groups NO KIDS and P:ANO, GIGI has given the pair an opportunity to unabashedly profess their love of pop music in the most direct way conceivable, and this could not have been accomplished without the talents of the many players and singers that graciously helped out along the way. With singing contributions from artists such as Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy, Mirah, Zac Pennington of Parenthetical Girls, Katie Eastburn of Young People, Rose Melberg and Karl Blau, the character studies in the songs are voiced from wildly distinct positions giving the narratives of lovesick loneliness, solitary walks around the neighbourhood at twilight, and friday nights at home with parents watching television in the front room, just that much more poignancy. In the end, what began as a humble experiment four years ago has ballooned into a pop extravaganza that will sit just as comfortably next to your Back To Mono box set as it will your rotary phone, waiting to ring.
My Rate: 9.5/10
Áudio de “The Hundredth Time (with Duffy Driediger & Ryan Peters)”
Teenage Fanclub – Shadows (2010)
20/05/10
PREFIXMAG.COM Released shortly after the untimely death of power pop’s reluctant prince, Alex Chilton, Teenage Fanclub’s Shadows couldn’t have arrived at a better time. This, the 10th full-length of the band’s career, offers the perfect salve for mourning aficionados of smart shimmering pop in the vein of the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and, of course, Big Star. Shadows was handled by the Fannies’ own PeMa label in Europe and the U.K. and by Merge in the United States. [by Nate Knaebel]
DOWNLOAD (removed by request) | BUY
Tracklist:
01. Sometimes I Don’t Need To Believe In Anything
02. Baby Lee
03. The Fall
04. Into The City
05. Dark Clouds
06. The Past
07. Shock And Awe
08. When I Still Have Thee
09. Live With The Seasons
10. Sweet Days Waiting
11. The Back Of My Mind
12. Today Never Ends
Hexicon – The Blossom Sighs (2010)
18/05/10
A truly enjoyable collection of sweet/mellow pop songs. Super, super recommended!
MYSPACE Hexicon started as a lo-fi voice/guitar/french horn combo in 2004 and got told they sounded like a junk shop Beach Boys. They expanded when Mike, Paul and Tom were joined by Andy and Greg, the rotating drummer tag-team and Giles who was a total bass-head.
Before the rhythm section joined the other guys started making a record, playing all the parts themselves as Greg recorded and mixed. It’s coming out on March 8th on Haircut Records. Hexicon recorded more songs at Soup Studios soon after. ‘Narissa I Won’t’ and ‘Sweet Things’ were planned for release as a single, and they are waiting patiently.
Hexicon have so far played on bills with some of their favourite people including James Yuill, Fireworks Night, Esiotrot, Darren Hayman, Fanfarlo and SFA. Rob Rotifer took them out on a tour of Austria in 2006 to play some shows alongside Fuzzman and himself.
Mike and Paul also play in Allo Darlin, and Tom can also be heard playing Horn on Darren Hayman’s most recent records.
DOWNLOAD (removed by request)
My Rate: 8/10
