LEELOU: GASOLINE
[rating:2]
LeeLou: Kiss. Death. Love. Come.
Label: Enso Records
Release Date: 11th October 2010
‘Kiss. Death. Love. Come.’, the debut release from LeeLou (aka Rebekah Dobbins) is reminiscent of the carefully crafted post-punk sound that harks back to a time when pop artists were exactly that…artists. Intelligent and exhilarating, there’s a substance to the music so often lacking in today’s chart fodder. Like Siouxsie and The Banshees or The Cure, there may be a brooding aesthetic that packages this innovative music but their uncompromising songs bleed positivity and hope. LeeLou’s powerful voice tears through the rich tapestry of Paul Simm’s production to create inventive and adventurous pop music that cuts straight to the core.
Inspired by the MP expenses scandal of 2009, lead track ’Burn Your Houses Down’, is a visceral assault on the senses and a revolt against the carefree, nonchalant use of money by those who have plenty of it. Lyrically sharp and witty, the song translates into a powerful slice of socio-politically fuelled pop. The bass parts on the track were recorded with a little help Tessa Pollitt of the seminal female post-punk trio The Slits. ‘Kill For Your Love’ is a powerful song that reflects a timeline of memories. Dark and brooding, its subject matters are escapism, fear and the craving for love. The rousing third track, ‘Gasoline’ explores the idea that no matter how tough a situation may become, we stay strong in the face of adversity and keep shooting for the stars, holding our dreams and aspirations tight. The closer ‘Kiss Like Carnivores’ discusses mutual indifference to something or someone, using and being used and our acceptance of that. Dark, edgy and effortlessly cool.
Turning her hand to singing, song writing, and poetry from an early age, Rebekah exudes natural talent and breathes the arts. Her profound use of verse to express herself has long been a cathartic outlet for her emotions and remains to this day a prominent part of her daily life. Citing her influences as everyone from Ted Hughes to Vivienne Westwood, she formed her first band at the tender age of 12 and has been on the stage or in a studio ever since. Creativity courses through her veins. Raised by her single mother, the male figures in her life was made up by her brother, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Ted Hughes, Thurston Moore and Kurt Kobain. With such musical and literary rebels pointing the way, she found herself drowning in excess but escaped by moving to a bigger pond. In an attempt to shed the skin of her hometown of Devon, she soon found herself heading for the bright lights of London in search of some like-minded souls and cultural stimulation. While occasional modelling and session work kept the wolves from the door, it wasn’t until a random encounter at a party that things really started to happen for Rebekah. She got talking to Nouvelle Vague’s Marc Collin, who later invited her to join the band for their forthcoming tour. Already using her artist name LeeLou, she also sang on the band’s last album NV3 which was released in 2009, before turning her full time attention to the project with songwriting and creative partner Paul Simm. Like Rebekah, Paul is no stranger to the music business, sculpting hits for the likes of Amy Winehouse, The Sugababes, Siobhan Donaghy and Neneh Cherry, which has seen his songs grace the charts on many occasions. Finding Rebekah, brought him out from behind the scenes and back into a driving role with LeeLou. The pair met in a Denmark Street studio and immediately recognised that they had found what they were looking for in a musical partner. “She told me about a conceptual art/music installation she was working on and asked me to come along and see it. I knew straight away that she wasn’t just another pretty face with a good voice”. Indeed she is not.
TAME IMPALA: INNERSPEAKER
[rating: 5]
Tame Impala: Innerspeaker
Label: 101 DISTRIBUTION
Release date: May 25, 2010
This is the album MGMT fell short of making with Congratulations. A warm swirling psychedelic hypno-groove sonic cruise evoking a spaced out vintage soul with dizzying atmospheric guitar hooks washing over both brash and vulnerable sounding moody vocals. Brazen nods towards John Lennon, Hendrix and Floyd are assured, but Innerspeaker somehow manage to ameliorate mere 60′s revisionist rock and emerge intensely modern and new. Read more articles on Tame Impala
WOLF PARADE: EXPO ’86
[rating: 5]
Wolf Parade: Expo ’86
Label: Sub Pop
Release date: June 29, 2010
Expo ’86 is a unified statement of distinctive vocalists Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug. Together, the indie rock dynamic duo have created a dense, noisy and extremely consistent listening experience, brimming with loud fuzzed out guitar and dance stomping anthems which is even more enjoyable when listened to as an entire album. Expo ’86 triumphs from expert pace and packs more energy and swagger than At Mount Zoomer. Read more articles on Wolf Parade
CUT COPY, GLASSER, MEMORY TAPES, RESTLESS PEOPLE, PUNCHES AT POOL PARTY
Our friends at Em Gee Photos snapped some really great shots at the Cut Copy Jelly Pool Party this past Sunday, August 8 on the Williamsburg waterfront. The Aussie synth pop band opened with “Lights & Music” and played an hour long set that included some older favorites and 2 new songs off their untitled upcoming album, one of which “Where I’m Going” you can check out in the Discosalt Audio Player. The band tore it up, infusing as much energy into their performance as the crowd, which was only “slightly” trumped by that girl bouncing up and down in the window behind the stage. If you were there, you know what I’m talking about. Check out some more pics below:
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HOLY HAIL: THE DYING AFTER PARTY
[rating:3]
Holy Hail: The Dying After Party
Label: Holy Hail
Release Date: June 15, 2010
Hailing from Brooklyn, the epicenter of all that is righteous and current, Holy Hail is a young four-piece band with a new EP called The Dying After Party. Highlighting a blend of electronic and acoustic elements the band has supported The Rapture and New Young Pony Club across the pond and The Klaxons and Art Brut stateside. The Dying After Party mines reverbed synths, eerie atmospherics, interlocking male/female vocals and staunch drum patterns to produce a modern twist on an 80s new wave sound.
A fuzzy production quality is clearly intentional and through it the band sustains a turbulent mood throughout. Distorted electronics form a hazy bedrock for the band to layer echoed vocals and steady drums up front. While this unkempt production quality is likely the product of focused effort its product is an icy, detached tone that detracts from the creativity occurring in the actual synth playing.
A combination of minor chords and chanted lyrics create a gothic, vibrant and almost bratty pulse to “Marry on Mountaintops”. Pleasant tremolo guitar sounds seep into “Creaking Cries”, a slower number that gains steam as it burns. The band is able to channel a subdued version of Galaxie 500’s classic, melancholic lurch in the album’s last song “Carry On”. Acoustic guitars and locked in synths propel the music skyward in a mournful cry that resonates with real feeling, sadly too often absent inside the stilted texture of the album.
Admittedly, gloomy new wave bands have never been terribly intoxicating to me and Holy Hail won’t change that. They certainly have spunk but the vocals become grating as the EP chugs along and I am challenged to see people dancing to this music but I know it happens. While opener “What its Like to Go Away” enters the race strong, dub-soaked drums and chilly synths collide with a gorgeous, simple guitar line, the absence of a propulsive bass line leaves me yearning for more rhythm, a glaring omission in the band’s overall sound. The lack of swing and groove is probably an unfair complaint – this is clearly not the band’s aim – nonetheless the music has a linear feel that dries out too quickly.
-Chris Calarco
THE LEMONHEADS: LIVE AT THE KNITTING FACTORY
Evan Dando and the Lemonheads played the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn last night (July 30) with Josh Lattanzi and The Candles. Both bands, whose front men oddly resemble one another, put on two great sets but what is most amazing, besides Dandos voice, is that he looks the same age as I remember him when I was in Junior High. Hard to believe he is 43.
Seeing Dando perform live is both nostalgic and strangely relevant at the same time. He sings with a humility, a reckless weary voice, and a bit of either nervous stage energy or ADD (cutting some songs short as if he made his point, next song, awkwardly introducing the next). And while he still can’t seem to shake off his slacker image, his stage presence never parodies his early 90’s fame as one of pops biggest screw-ups . Whether he is playing punk, rock, pop, country or metal, his lyrics still seem poiniant to where he is in life and credible. Dando performed a mix of old lemonheads power pop favorites, some inspired covers from his most recent album, Varshons and some intimate acoustic songs, ending on a stripped down solo version of the Lemonhead classic “Alison’s starting to Happen”.
Since their breakthrough in ’86 with, what is now one one of the most sought-after punk relics of the 80’s, the indie EP Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners, The Lemonheads have certainly had one strange trip. After a slew of college radio friendly LP’s like Hate Your Friends (1987), Creator (1988) and one of my favorites, Lick (1989), the band enjoyed some mainstream success where Dando was one of Peoples “50 Most Beautiful people”, and appeared in a cameo at the end of Reality Bites. Then he admitted to smoking crack cocaine. The tipping point. There was more crack cocaine, a public arrest for possession of drugs at Sydney airport while high on heroin and LSD handing out flowers to strangers and feeding money through the grates in the pavement, depression, a nervous breakdown, rehab and people just stopped taking the band seriously. The Lemonheads and Dando disappeared from the spotlight for about 10 years, but he cleaned up and returned in 2006, most recently releasing the cover album, Varsons, which “sounds like a mix tape slipped to you by a music-obsessed friend anxious to turn you on to something new.” Varshons is “filled with obscure nuggets… [which] cut a wide swath, jumping from early British psychedelic to Dutch electronica and like all good mix tapes, you never know what is coming next.” Kind of like Evan Dando’s career.
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Check out Dando’s cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting around to Die”, and a Smudge song.
THE DRUMS: SELF TITLED LP
[rating:4]
The Drums: Self Titled
Label: Downtown
Release Date: September 14, 2010
“If you like The Smiths, you’ll like The Drums.” – anonymous indie rock guy
It’s a crass assumption, but it’s one supported by The Smiths Rule Of Averages, which alleges, “If a band claims The Smiths as a major influence, the average Smiths fan will like said band. The Drums wear their Moz & Marr-worshipping hearts on their sleeves and on their debut self-titled LP (finally released stateside) lead singer Jonathan Pierce, guitar duo Jacob Graham and Adam Kessler, and Connor Hanwick on drums prove they have the moody-but-bright pop chops to set the hooks in deep without the added baggage of a bassist.
This is first and foremost beachwave though, so as long as clean guitars, 60’s surf drone, reverb, and So-Cal pop melodies still set you on fire, this won’t disappoint. It’s weird, really. For such a hugely hyped band from Brooklyn loved all over the EU, you half expect (by default) to like this much less, but the album is surprisingly solid. The majority of the LP doesn’t sound like 2009 ‘s “Let’s Go Surfing” (included on the U.S. release) and as huggable as that single was, these latest offerings are musically as downright friggin’ adorable as a LOLcat in a fixie basket. Much of this is owed to Jonathan Pierce’s earnestness to love and his equally easy to love sugar-rimmed delivery.
Yearning to know why? or why not? (“It Will All End In Tears”) and trying to make sense of love and life (“Skippin’ Town,” “We Tried”), Jonathan seems genuine enough as a romantic. He sings like the lovelorn crooner he adores and though Pierce ‘s lyrics may be a scant less profound (or dark, or funny) as Morrissey’s, that’s a level no one has any business attempting to reach anyway. Still, a big chink in the armor, “I Need Fun In My Life” contains such a cringe-inducing impression of the Wilde Child and so much dead space, it’s hard to believe this song made the final cut for album inclusion.
Forgiving, forgetting and focusing on the good stuff, “It Will All End In Tears,” “Forever And Ever Amen,” and the very excellent “Book Of Stories” all achieve indie pop perfection. With relatable lyrics that are easy to sing along to (“I thought that my life would get easier / Instead it’s getting harder.”) and big, bright beats easy to dance to (all other 11 tracks), The Drums for the most part is a promising debut LP from this still very new band.
If legions of blog readers feel cheated at all, it’s only because, like every other rushed-to-record indie “it” band they’ve encountered, the gargantuan hype always hinders more than helps. In the end, it all comes down to believing. Do you believe him when he tells you he loves you?
“And all the stars in the sky
And all the flowers in the fields
And all the power in the earth
Could never take you from my heart”
– “Forever And Ever Amen”
-Casey Bowers
While you are here grab some free tracks:
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HOLY FUCK: LATIN
[rating: 5]
Holy Fuck: Latin
Label: XL Recording
Release date: May 11, 2010
The third album from DIY lo-fi improvisational electronic band Holy Fuck is both as big as the Canadian landscape they hail from and an exercise in restraint. Latin condenses 9 epic electro-dance tracks without the use of loops or laptops into one atmospheric 40 minute record, minus the fat from 2007′s self titled EP. What remains is an infinitely more structured and conjointly accessible electronic album that is highly emotive, embracing such a diversity of effects and beats, it can still be considered experimental. This is anti-electronic /electronic music. Read more articles on Holy Fuck
SLEIGH BELLS: TREATS
[rating: 5]
Sleigh Bells: Treats
Label: MOM & POP MUSIC
Release date: June 1, 2010
Over a dark, fuzzed-out, and fist-pump-worthy mix of beats, guitarist Derek Miller shreds through effect-filled guitar line after effect-filled guitar line. All the while, Krauss dishes up a mix of cheers, screams, and pitch-perfect notes, tying the whole thing together in a neat, dance floor-approved package. Read more articles on Sleigh Bells