KWCW

The members of New York based Akron/Family have been working relentlessly since signing to Young God Records in 2003. The four gents have released two full length albums and a split LP with label mates Angels of Light while touring the country. The most recent of which is the exciting and challenging “Meek Warrior.” Akron/Family make it clear from the opening song that they are not attempting to simply rehash the successful formula used in their lauded debut. The frenetic guitar riff and ominous, insistent drums are a far cry from the melodic, understated finger-picking one finds on their previous record. The intensity slowly evolves into an amalgamation of hand claps, dissonant murmurs, and finally an impassioned chant. One could easily see a song like “Blessing Force” being separated into four songs due to Akron/Family’s tendency towards progressive and constant variation. At times, Akron/Family sounds like a relative of Animal Collective due to their unbridled, exuberant sing-a-long style and eccentric campfire folksy sensibilities. “Meek Warrior” is organic, cosmic, and unrestrained all at once; it’s the kind of album that can grow on you.

RIYL: Animal Collective, The Microphones, Devendra Banhart

3.5 old-style radio microphones out of 5
- Kyle Gilkeson

If the ambiguously pronounced band name (OOIOO) was not clue enough, knowing that the all-Japanese, all-female quartet is headed by Yoshimi P-we of Boredoms fame should give you a hint that this record is not going to be predictable or like many other sounds around. “Taiga” is the fifth album by the experimental group, and is clearly OOIOO at its best. Sounds are complex, running the gamut from ambient, to distortion-filled noise, to thrashing Afro-percussive dance beats, to hauntingly childlike chanting, to what I can best describe as eerie gospel thrash. Within a given track, especially the longer ones, OOIOO may take you down a dozen different avenues, giving little warning and definitely not being deterred by creating something atonal and unexpected alike. On this album, as most of OOIOO’s work, the compositions center around the masterful drumming of Yoshimi P-we, who is able to changes tempos and moods on a dime, and alter the atmosphere of a piece in a split second. A note of warning: if you are not one who likes to try new things, steer clear of this album, since the sonic structures are constantly changing, throwing the listener through hoop after wonderful hoop. But if you are feeling a little adventurous, OOIOO will not dissapoint. The result is an album that is an amalgamation of anything and everything that they could find to make the noises they wanted, to explore the ideas they wanted to delve into.Though I’d listen to this almost anytime, I can’t think of any better soundtrack to a all-night, raucous bonfire, where everyone is covered in fluorescent body paint and yelling at the top of their lungs!

I give this album 4.5/5 shouts and a giddy, doting, kinda awkward, middle-school-madly-in-love smile.

RIYL: Animal Collective, Bjork, The Go! Team, Boredoms

- Alan Blickenstaff

Now that the Hold Steady has released its third album, “Boys and Girls in America,” it doesn’t seem necessary to reference lead singer Craig Finn’s and guitarist Tad Kubler’s previous work in Minneapolis’ Lifter Puller: the Hold Steady has proven itself as a powerful and dynamic force of its own. The core of the band’s sound is created by the sometimes tension, sometimes harmony between Finn’s harsh, atonal rasp of a voice and the surging, classic-rock sound of the instruments. Fans of last year’s “Separation Sunday” and its album-spanning story of religion, confusion, sex, drugs, discovery, and rebirth will be pleased to catch glances of the characters of that epic, finding references to Gideon, Holly, and Charlemagne throughout the album. But mostly, Finn steps a bit farther away from his characters and lets listeners fill in the blanks, while his insightful, poetic lyrics make even his generalizations seem personal. Calling out witty one-liners (“I’ve had kisses that make Judas seem sincere”), he tackles his usual themes, telling stories of ennui and hedonistic escape, of ship-in-the-night lovers and rueful reminiscences as behind him the band unleashes furious guitar licks atop a twinkling piano and sharp drums. The combined force creates something that will move you, physically and mentally, until your hands hurt from air guitar and your head hurts from considering how “Boys and Girls in America have such a sad time together.”

4.5/5

Recommended if you like: E Street Band, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Elvis Costello

- Graham Trail

“Lush” is not an adjective usually associated with Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s music—his body of work is characteristically bleak and sincerely emotional. On his last studio album, “Master and Everyone”, his sparse musical arrangements served to highlight his weary, passionate voice and poetic lyrics, but on his latest effort, “The Letting Go”, he takes a different approach. The album was recorded in Iceland, with the help of former Bjork collaborator Nico Muhly and Drag City label mate Dawn McCarthy. The influence of both is immense—Muhly’s rich, sweeping string arrangements and McCarthy’s vocal harmonies permeate the album, revealing lavishness not usually present in Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s music. Despite its beauty, the musical arrangement on “The Letting Go” is not necessarily an improvement on previous albums, namely “I See a Darkness” and his work under the moniker of “Palace Music”. The strings and harmonies distract the listener from what has always been the best part of Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s music—the raw humanity of his voice and lyrics. The substance is still present on the new album, but it is certainly not as immediately evident as it has been. Despite this shortcoming, “The Letting Go” is a fine addition to an already phenomenal body of work and it certainly warrants repeated listenings.

4/5

For Fans of: Cat Power, The Silver Jews, Neil Young, Lambchop

- Bryan Sonderman

On the nine hazy melodies that comprise Baltimore duo Beach House’s debut album, the group manages to fuse a Warhol Factory aesthetic and a substantial shoegazer influence. The comparisons to artists like Nico and Galaxie 500 made by blogs and other music press reflect this. “Beach House” is certainly an album indebted to the past—its influences are incredibly evident, but it doesn’t necessarily suffer as a result. Its atmospheric drones and sweet melodies envelop the listener, resulting in a warm sense of detachment. Due to its thirty-five minute length and adherence to a fairly simple, consistent musical aesthetic, the album never delves into indulgence. The flip side to this is a lack of depth. The album never feels like an exploration of new ideas, but it’s worthwhile nonetheless, if not just for its sheer beauty. “Beach House” reveals the potential of a band capable of crafting beautiful pop songs, but also leaves the listener hoping their next effort will be a little more ambitious.

4/5

Recommended for Fans of: Galaxie 500, Nico, Mazzy Star, recent Broadcast

- Bryan Sonderman

The Kooks have become the latest British hit band hoping to carry their success across the pond with the US release of their new album Inside In / Inside Out. This comes after having risen to UK stardom, receiving widespread radio airplay and critical praise from an enthusiastic British press.
Songs like “Eddie’s Gun” and “You Don’t Love Me” immediately make one think of the banging, abrasive electric guitar riffs characteristic of bands like the Libertines. However, if you are looking for witty songs about gritty subjects, this album doesn’t have them. For the most part, the Kooks restrict themselves to writing simple, earnest, sometimes reflective lyrics about teenage life. To their credit, they borrow from a great deal of influences, including a touch of reggae. Sometimes this results in drawn-out songs like “Got No Love” or “I Want You Back” that one would rather skip. However, songs like “Match Box” or “Time Awaits” keep the listener interested by changing rhythms at unpredictable times. “Naive” and “She Moves in Her Own Way” provide Inside In / Inside Out with pop hits to bob your head to.
Does rock music absolutely need the Kooks? Not really. Is it better off with them around? Certainly. Who doesn’t like a damn good summer sing-a-long song? What a shame America is only getting this album just now.

Grade: 3.5/5 lit-up cell phones.

Recommended if you like: The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes

- Jose Ramirez

It may sound like a cheap gimmick, but French collective Nouvelle Vague have hit upon a surprising musical revelation by turning 80s New Wave songs into languid bossa nova songs. In their first album they covered such classics as Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “I Melt With You” by Modern English.
Bande A Part, the group’s second album, further explores the possibilities of the whole ‘bossa nova covers of 80s songs’ idea. It runs from Blondie to Bauhaus, and ranges stylistically from a tropical version of “Ever Fallen In Love” to an ominous “Human Fly”. “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and “Fade to Grey” are dominated by electronic instrumentation, while airy songs like “Don’t Go” and “Let Me Go” sound something like an Astrud Gilberto record.
A great deal of Nouvelle Vague’s success lies in choosing the right songs to cover. “Dancing With Myself” and “Blue Monday” are the exceptions which prove the rule; they fall flat by failing to significantly alter the original structure of the song.
The most memorable track, “Dance With Me” showcases vocalist Melanie Pain (several vocalists participate in this album), whose wispy voice is at once innocent and seductive. She is accompanied by a steady classical guitar rhythm and some accordion and flute flourishes. The result is a dreamy, yet lively pop song. Listen to it once and believe me, you will need to listen to it again and again and again.

Grade: 4.5/5 lit-up cell phones

Recommended if you like: Air, Portishead, or any New Wave, post-punk, or mellow, tropical Latin music.

- Jose Ramirez

When you go to your local record store, amazon.com, what have you and buy an album do you listen to three songs on repeat and skip the rest or do you listen to the album in its entirety? The beauty of this record is that is satisfies the needs of both groups of listeners: it contains some catchy songs, yet as a whole is a concretely conceptualized masterpiece.

The Impossible shapes make lo-fi folk music that combines elements of rock and psychedelia. Nothing new you say….well yes many groups have done this before, however the shapes hardly rehash old ideas. Dense guitars interplay with intricate lead guitar lines, while dense organ and solid drumming and lots of amp fuzz back it all up. Add the occasional cello arrangement and the amazing vocals of Barth, who’s also known for his solo work under the name NormanOak, and you’ve got an aurally tantalizing album.

Originally 300 copies of this album were released on limited edition vinyl. However, Secretly Canadian records have reissued it on unlimited CD form. Containing 31.2 minutes, 17 tracks, of musical genius this record contains actual songs and musical interludes. Songs like “Florida Silver Springs” and “Pixie Pride” stand out as addictively catchy while the shorter cuts add to the overall cohesiveness of the record. While recorded in one session, tape looping was used to piece the album together and mastering was done to perfect the album that is being released in Compact Disc form.

Knowing that this album was recorded right before the band came to the realization of “man as freedom as seed”, I highly recommend you indulge in whatever you need to grasp that realization and enjoy this obscure gem.

Keith

If anyone hates glee clubs as much as I do, it might just be Oxford Collapse. No, they’re not from the fine English college town, but yes, they do play instruments, or rather, assail and attack with trebly guitar riffs, pokey drum fills and nary a downtempo beat. Sure, you might argue that something without vocals would make a better antidote to the poisonous evils of a cappella, maybe that new Explosions in the Sky record or even a John Zorn piece, but be realistic: some of us prefer catchy rollicking indie rock to self-indulgent experimentalism. And A Good Ground gives you many more-than-modest helpings of that ol’ down home jangle pop, even country-fying the album with titles like “Dusty Horses Practice”, “Empty Fields” and “Flora Y Fauna”.

As for the singing, there’s certainly no vocally-imitated guitar solos, falsetto is rare and shy yelps are preferred to mediocre grandstanding. And instead of arranging some banal Top 40 song with a beatboxer, Oxford can make even the simplest melodies, like that of “Cracks in the Causeway”, float over a light 4-minute jam.

Check out “Proofreading” first. For some reason it reminds me of Pete and Pete, the episode where the boys hire Artie to beat up the local vocal group.

“Slow Burn”, the first track on Hudson Bell’s sophomore release When the Sun is the Moon, begins with a sort of natural sonic emanation that one would expect from the p- and s-waves of an earthquake, quietly rippling through the hillside until the guitarist hits the fuzz pedal and it’s taken straight on into shoegazing territory. Bell’s vocals crow with a timbre reminiscent of those of Issac Brock on “Trailer Trash”, and the singer’s questionably-tuned guitar only furthers the album’s comparison to the earlier work of Modest Mouse and Built to Spill.

The most notable track on the album is “Atlantis Nights”, an uptempo shuffle with meandering guitar fills and the chorus asking “Atlantis, how did it come to this?”. Asking these sort of questions about the apocalypse of a mythological society is exactly what makes Bell and his cohorts so unnaturally charming: while seemingly eccentric, Bell’s goal is not to alienate the listener, though this is not to say that the songs are immediately accessible. “Sea Horse,” a longer track on the album, sounds like yet another ‘acoustic rumination on existential matters’, so subtly grows and grows in volume and sheer size that it turns into a long groove like Songs:Ohia’s “Farewell Transmission”, if less country and solemn.