Intense, Confrontational, High In Potassium

Melt-Banana
Album: Cell Scape
Song: Shield Your Eyes, A Beast Is In The Well Of Your Hand

Seminal noise-rock progenitors Melt-Banana have been around in one form or another since the early 90s.  Ichiro Agato (guitarist), Riko Yamamata (bass) are the driving musical forces behind the band -- both are technically proficient and both use extended performance techniques and an array of pedal effects to transform their sound in unusual ways.  The results are invariably interesting.

As always with bands like this, I hear in Melt-Banana a whole greater than the sum of its parts.  The bass riff in today's song is very cool, to be sure, and the guitar riff is freaking awesome, but neither is truly radical nor seemingly sufficient to create a viable song.  Combined, however, they create an interesting tension, and the scream-o vocals add an appealing element of...ummmm...psychosis?

Their CD recording of this tune is clean and balanced, and I recommend that everyone take a listen.  But it's the live performance that really gets my heart pumping.  There's an appealing element of danger.  I fear in particular for the camera person's safety.

Babies Babies Babies Babies Babies Babies Babies

The Babies
Album: The Babies
Song: Somebody Else

Side project of Brooklyn bands Vivian Girls and Woods.  Better than either and perhaps better than both combined.  Not much to say about this tune: basically it's straight ahead garage-y rock.  But sometimes that's all that's required.  Although it should be noted they do sound a hell of a lot like The Pixies here, all the way down to the Kim Gordon-inspired backup vocals.  Which is, of course, a very very good thing.  Enjoy.

Deerhoof vs Evil

Deerhoof
Album: Deerhoof vs Evil
Song: The Merry Barracks

Two facts you need to know about Deerhoof: 1. It features Greg Saunier, my favorite drummer in all of contemporary music; and 2. Jack, my younger son, all of eight years old, cites them as one of his fave bands.

A prouder dad you'll rarely find.

I just spent the previous two hours watching Canada's federal political leaders duke it out.  With words.  It was, as might be expected from any televised political debate, just this side of ridiculous.  Or sad.  Or obscene.  And as Harper smirked and Iggy grimaced and as all of them mantra-d their "talking points" ad nauseam, I felt a growing urge to hurl my remote at the television.  Thankfully, Deerhoof intervened.

Deerhoof vs evil.  Deerhoof wins.

And ya gotta like a band that appeals to little kids and music snobs alike.



Wait a sec, there is a third fact you need to know about Deerhoof. In doing a little research for this blog post I watched a recent interview with Dave Grohl. He cites Deerhoof as one of his favorite "new" bands. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Here's another live performance for those of you inclined to venture further afield. This is my favorite Deerhoof tune, "The Perfect Me":

Andy Shauf

Andy Shauf
Album: Four Songs
Song: I Am Lost

There's obscure, and then there's obscure.  Andy Shauf is obscure.

 Shauf is a Regina singer/songwriter, in my opinion favorably comparable to Iron and Wine and Sufjan Stevens amongst the quasi-folk set.  I first heard his music at the 2009 Regina Folk Festival and was absolutely blown away by the sensitivity of his guitar playing, his fine sense of melody, his crystal clear vocals, and his evocative and elegant style.

He has put out a full length album, Darker Days, and another EP, Waiting for the Sun to Leave, both of which are excellent and feature more polished songwriting and production than we hear on Four Songs.  But there is a touching naivete to the latter, and it features perhaps my favorite Shauf song, "I Am Lost."

Our featured tune is the second of two from the below performance at a tiny Brooklyn venue.  The audience is breathless here, as if expecting at any moment the tender, gossamer melody and whispered guitar to collapse in on itself.  Please watch and listen to the entire video -- it provides a good sense of Shauf's best qualities as a performer, connecting to his audience with an aching melancholy reminiscent of Lyle Lovett or Nick Drake's quietest moments, not to mention insight into his appealing self-deprecating manner.

Listen to Andy Shauf.  He deserves it.

Ricky Gervais Has A Hell Of A Set Of Pipes...

Elbow

Album: build a rocket boys!

Song: Lippy Kids

Why do certain artists or bands become superstars, while others work and create in relative obscurity?  You can argue that Elbow does not deserve worldwide stardom, that the music simply does not pass muster.  An untenable position, in my opinion, but there is certainly room for personal bias in matters such as these. What seems less open to debate is that Elbow should achieve worldwide stardom, that the music is both soulful and grandiose, both sensitive and bombastic, both jazzy nightclub and 80,000 seat stadium.  It bears repeated listenings.  My hand itches to lift my lighter into the cool night air...

And lead singer Guy Garvey looks like Ricky Gervais' lost twin.  Which doesn't hurt.  Or help.  Hell, it just is.  Garvey has one of the great voices in modern music, and he is a consummate melodist.  He oozes - like crushed foil - musicality.  His voice is supple, buttery, but with enough of a carefully modulated sandpaper rasp to veer round the sort of sameness that dooms Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby and a whole generation of crooners to the expectations of a contemporary listener.

There are times when Elbow borders on the maudlin.  There are times when Elbow reaches beyond sensitive and musical into cliche and vapidity.  And then there are times like this.  Enjoy them now, before they win their inevitable dozen or so Grammys.  You will say, "I was there, you know, before they hit it big..."  Feel free to cite me as your source.