2007 saw the release of Explosions in the Sky’s latest work, “All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone.”  Many may scoff at the post-rock genre as being a lazier, more pretentious incarnation of prog produced for people who didn’t realize that you can in fact write rock pieces in odd meters and that they’ve been doing it for decades.  I only partly agree with this statement, but assert that post-rock is more about painting a soundscape to which the ear and mind delight while flying through.  Moreover “All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone” is an album which can very easily toy with your emotions as it explores motifs of sadness, joy in dulcet tones.

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The Capstan Shafts in a rare live performance

There’s something disturbingly drug-like and gratifying about really excellent pop music.  It’s like some biochemical starts flowing into our pleasure receptors when the music hits that perfect hook or that just-right chord progression is played.  The Capstan Shafts falls into this category of really excellent pop music.

The Capstan Shafts is really just one dude, Mr. Dean Wells.  He’s got more than a dozen albums and hundreds of songs to his name.  Wells’ latest effort, Fixation Protocols, is more of this same type of goodness he’s given us before. Though it’s just one man, the short, lo-fi songs he records are full of layers of sound: multiple distorted, whining guitars, bass, drums, and double-tracked and layered vocals; Wells records all the parts himself and pieces them together.  Of the 22 songs, only one is longer than 2 minutes (at 2:01).  Wells’ voice is an important driving force in the songs; it’s a strong voice with a really nice tone that brings to mind Jeff Magnum, the singer for Neutral Milk Hotel.  The loose guitars are rocking while still maintaining the kind of melodies that get stuck in your head all day.

Capstan Shafts- Asymptonic Freedom

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Capstan Shafts- Anthropecene Stealers

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20 years is a short time in the scheme of things.  But I’ll tell ya, it accounts for millions of man hours of musical creativity (and it’s a long time to be someone’s “Dad”).  Boiling down 20 years of music into a list of 20 albums turns out to be an oddly fun activity.  You’ve gotta concentrate so much time down that all kinds of factors come into play– not just the artistic merit of the album, but its impact in a broader sense.  You have internal debates– For 1994, how can I choose between razor sharp synthy hooks of the Magnetic Fields’ Holiday and Built to Spill’s jangly, wonderfully unique There’s Nothing Wrong With Love?  Artistic merit must be balanced with personal significance: How could I not include the album that marked the tenuous dance of courtship with my first love?  Should an album’s “listenability” factor into its place on the list?  Are compilation albums a total copout (Answer: yes)?  After a bit of thought and a highly subjective voodoo of these and other factors, I’ve made of list of albums for every year I’ve existed, 1988-2008.

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Ed Gerhard may well be one of the most talented guitarists alive today. He also writes some of the most quietly mind-blowing music you will ever hear produced by one person.

So, then, who the hell is he?

Ed Gerhard is a finger-style acoustic guitarist out of Strafford, NH. He plays instrumental guitar compositions, generally bearing some noticeable influence from the classical, folk, or blues traditions. Setting him apart from the legion of other ‘folky’ acoustic guitarists, however, is his use of unusual chord voicings and layered, complimentary lines to create songs with complex harmonies and compelling and well-supported melodies. To put it more plainly, the first thing you’ll notice about Ed’s music is that it sounds as if there are two or three people playing at once. After that, if you’re listening carefully, you’ll probably notice how different parts will come in and drop out as they’re needed, and that they all fit together exceptionally well, despite doing completely different things harmonically and rhythmically. On top of everything else, you’ll hear a bright, clear melody. Below that, there’s generally two or three rhythm ‘voices’ that can surge along, propelling the song, or can hang back and just add light accents. Blended together, these parts make for remarkably complex music, with subtle little dissonances giving way to perfect, beautiful harmony. Probably the best example of this kind of layered arrangement can be seen in his song “Tennessee” below. (This tune starts off kind of slow, so listen through to the end for the full effect. Also, keep in mind as you listen that he’s playing this live, solo, and that the first fifty seconds or so are improvised.) All in all, the unusual, layered composition lets Ed’s songs move in unexpected directions with ease, helping his music sound remarkably fresh.

For all Ed’s skill as a composer, however, his real genius is for playing the guitar. He is an unbelievably dexterous player, and that dexterity (combined with judicious use of alternate tunings) allows the richness and complexity you can hear in his music. What really makes Ed’s songs shine, though, and what sets him apart from just any other quick-fingered guitarist is a brilliant ear for tone and a great intuitive feel for his instrument. With subtle nuances of attack and tone, he can make the melody stand out, clear and articulate, and give each rhythm line a voice of it own. Indeed, in most of his pieces it’s hard to believe that only one person is playing - if this wasn’t clear in “Tennessee”, take a listen to “Little Road” below. (Yes, that one’s solo, too). This isn’t mere studio wizardry and rote memorization, though. Ed is every bit as good live. Indeed, he might even be better, as his live performances contain a healthy element of improvisation, with songs combined into medleys and whole sections of old tunes rewritten on the fly. Oh, and did I mention that he’s also one of the greatest slide guitarists I’ve ever heard?

The thematic content of Ed’s albums range from Night Birds, his 1987 debut, which leans more towards the classical in both the content of its compositions and the feel of Ed’s playing, to Sunnyland, his most recent album, which is nothing but Blues songs of various persuasions. His individual songs run the gamut from original compositions to interpretations of old folk and gospel numbers to the occasional Beatles cover. All of his tunes are fairly quiet and unobtrusive, but they contain a remarkable emotional depth that rewards close listening. That’s not to say his every song is perfect: he can get a little syrupy at times, particularly on “Counting The Ways”, an album of love songs. Still, though, the vast majority of his music is sincere and betrays a world-class talent that the world has somehow failed to notice.

By way of parting - and because I haven’t given you anything to back up that slide guitar claim I made earlier - listen to “Shallow Brown” below.

I think you’ll agree. This guy is good.

-DLap

Listen to a live version of “Tennessee” by Ed Gerhard

Ed Gerhard - Tennessee - The Live Album

Listen to “Little Road” by Ed Gerhard

Ed Gerhard - Little Road - Sunnyland

Listen to “Shallow Brown” by Ed Gerhard

Ed Gerhard - Shallow Brown - The Live Album

At first listen, you might write off the soft-voiced Wallace Wylie as another over-sensitive dude with an acoustic guitar.  But this man’s no Jack Johnson.  He’s got well-written lyrics, and a unique musical styling that places him on my list of “Dudes who could make slow, sweet love to me in a grassy meadow,” right up there with Jose Gonzalez and Iron and Wine.

One of the most appealing aspects of Wylie’s 2007-released The Bow and the Baker is the lo-fi recording style.  This recording style, coupled with the super-catchy hooks, immediately brings to mind 60’s rock (i.e. early Beatles or the Kinks), and sounds like something that would fit perfectly into a Wes Anderson movie.  The acoustic factor and Wylie’s soft voice give the music strong folk sensibilities as well.

The lyrics are poetic and beautiful.  Some of my favorite lines come from “I thought you’d never say,” and read like a modern day Song of Songs: Once inside, I give myself to you/ With my tongue I drink the morning dew/ Consummation then, roll over and count back from ten/ So we can start again. Needless to say, this disc works nicely as bedroom music.  Also, it doesn’t hurt any that John Darnielle, of the Mountain Goats, has endorsed Wylie’s writing ability.

Wallace Wylie- I thought you’d never say

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Wallace Wylie- Lonely Minnesota

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Buy Wallace Wylie’s The Bow and the Baker

Wallace Wylie at MySpace

Mountain Battles is the latest album from the Breeders, a fairly well-established indie rock act. Started in 1988 by Kim Deal, best known for playing bass with the Pixies, and Tanya Donnelly of Throwing Muses, the band has gone through a few lineup changes in its time. Currently, the band consists of Deal and her twin sister Kelley, both on guitar, as well as drummer Jose Medeles and bassist Mando Lopez. The band has put out its albums inconsistently, publishing POD in 1990 and hit album Last Splash in 1993. After Kelley Deal was involved in a drug bust, the band went on hiatus, publishing Title TK nine years later in ’02. Mountain Battles came out in April of 2008. Yet, despite their past inconsistencies, the Breeders haven’t lost their touch. Mountain Battles is as solid as ever.

The Breeders - a two-for-one Deal. Band lineup subject to change.

There are no throwaway tracks on Mountain Battles. All of them are more or less unique. The album opens with Kim Deal’s reverberating voice, shouting, “I can feel it!” accompanied by explosive drumming. The album ends with a dark, experimental track underlain by a humming, minimalistic synth line. Kim Deal delivers “German Studies” in haphazard German, and later Kelley covers Spanish ballad “Regalame Esta Noche.” Everything’s sliced up by great rock-out tracks, like “Walk it off” and “It’s the Love.” The never comes across as unfocused, though, despite its diversity. Mountain Battles is held together by a distinct emotional flow and rhythm. Also, thanks to Steve Albini’s production work, the general sound of the album remains constant—it has a nice hum to it, the audio equivalent of a warm color filter.

In short, Mountain Battles is a solid, well-thought-out, mature album, worthy of a band with such a storied indie-rock history. Click below to listen to some songs from it.

The Breeders - We’re Gonna Rise

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The Breeders - It’s the Love

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[Excerpted from Stanford Daily]

For the past two years, the San Francisco band Sic Alps has been periodically releasing EP’s and singles. Now they have conveniently presented all these tracks together in an excellent compilation, “A Long Way Around a Shortcut.” The band is a noisy combination of the modern indie rock sound and 1960’s psychedelic rock.

For music fans with some tolerance for dissonance and experimentation, Sic Alps is a great band to check out. Their new disk consists of over two dozen short songs, with the newest material placed earliest. The new song, “Description of the Harbor (Strapping Field Hands)” begins as a ramshackle piano ballad, and then slowly descends into noise – creaks, groans, and howls. Similar interludes of pure noise punctuate, but don’t dominate, the album.

Instead, the Sic Alps deliver mostly woozy, old-fashioned garage rock songs that manage to straddle the line between classic pop structures and complete chaos. “Dr. Bag and the Pomade Nature Giants” is driven by a lurching, high-wire drum beat and reverb-drenched vocals. Another track, “Latin,” is mostly distortion and drums, but still manages to include a catchy lead vocal hook before disappearing into a haze of feedback.

Two of the most accessible songs are “Strawberry Guillotine” – no doubt an ode to the hippie classic, “Strawberry Alarm Clock”- and “Message from the Law.” The former track weaves some anti-war imagery over a marshal beat: “Into the future with you/Down in a watery grave/With a commanding view.” “Message From the Law” sports a Beatles-like guitar line and some nice vocal harmonies.

Sic Alps is certainly in debt to the 1960’s San Francisco values of trippy sounds, jangly guitars, and political consciousness. But they are talented enough to take these classic features and make them their own noisy creation.

Sic Alps  - Who Has Time to Protest?

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As the title of this post implies, the focus of my ramblings shall be on vinyl.  If it can’t spin at 45 (or dare I say it, 33 1/3) RPM than I do not want to hear it. 

Fortunately vinyl has come back into fashion, simply because the RIAA is pushing a medium that can’t be conveniently ripped to a computer, or because hipsters want listening to music to be as difficult as possible.  Either way, vinyl is an entirely different way of listening to music than many of us grew up with, as it forces the listener to abandon the lifestyle of the three minute single on party shuffle.  One has to appreciate an album as a whole or not at all.

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So I’m 20.  So I was busy being a rotund, pre-pubescent 10-year-old, listening to the Smash Mouth song I had recorded on cassette off the radio while the Elephant 6 label was in its hey-dey.  That doesn’t mean that, in retrospect, I can’t miss the beautiful years of the label that brought us Beulah, Apples In Stereo, Elf Power, Olivia Tremor Control, and many more indie pop idols.  In my mind, the sweet cornucopia of Elephant 6 hasn’t been matched since, but every so often you hear a sound that makes you recall its many wonders.

Oakland’s (soon to be Philadelphia-based, according to MySpace sources) Le Fits whip up some serious grooves, which remind me a bit of the straightforward pop sound of Beulah.  The band’s first album Fits Near Fits, is pop with a folky, down-home country bent. The sound is honest, and somewhat bare, with acoustic guitar sometimes accompanied by a fiddle, banjo, and a cowbell.  The second release, Le Fits Sportif, is a bit fuller in sound, and a little less country, but it crafts the same great hooks. Lead Singer Ben Reisman’s smooth and unassuming voice brings it all together.

Le Fits- Sign Language

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Le Fits at MySpace

In an earlier post, I trotted out a reoccuring feature about the British indie scene.   Now I’m introducing a feature that follows the Swedish indie scene, “Valhalla.” The socialist nation has, hands down, one of the most exciting pop scenes in the world.

The first Valhalla spotlights Lykke Li, a 21 year-old blonde pop singer. Ms. Li first is an established name in Sweden and has been making waves in the blog scene for years. The singer stands out for her smart/tough girl image and the bare instrumentals of each song.

Most of all, though, Li- in typical Swedish fashion- can craft a killer melody.  Her biggest song yet, “Little Bit,” for instance, starts off with a simple vocal hook and a bit of percussion. Soon her silky, hushed voice takes over the song. Her lyrics, sung in English, come from the perspective of a girl fearfully consumed by love, but projecting a tougher and independent image. Hence the coyness: “I am only a little bit in love with you.” She also approaches the subject of sex from a more frank and unidealized perspective than most young female pop stars.

The minimalism of her songs translate to inventive live performances. Her MySpace page, for instance, contains live performance videos for “I’m Good, I’m Gone” and “Little Bit.” The first video starts out with Lykke playing music off her hand-held recorder, then singing into a megaphone, and finally dueting with her pal and peer Robyn.  All the time, a group of musicians are jamming quietly behind her. The second performance comes from a British television program, and features Lykke singing over light acoustic strumming, spare glockenspiel, and her tamborine. Her voice, though, more then makes up for the spare arrangments.

Listen here to her single “Little Bit”

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“I’m Good, I’m Gone” remix by Black Kids

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