Category Archives: Indie Pop
YAWN – Happy Tears (FeelTrip)
YAWN
Happy Tears
FeelTrip
Link: YAWN the Band
Summer is all about being carefree, right? To feel that warm breeze wrap around you and the sun calling out. What do you want to do? The world is at your feet. YAWN, a contradictory name to what this band is made up of, helps you get out and realize your dreams. A backdrop to stark colors and the grass poking through bare feet, this EP is pop music hovering over you in all of its glory.
Why you should consider this EP? Because it’s good and modestly so that you may not realize its punctuation on yourself like some smooth talker. “Momma’s Boy” takes from a cappella Beach Boys and adds gentle vibraphone and acoustic undertones to the lovely vocal harmonies. It’s a song that can easily sooth you.
And when the band blend California pop with indie eclecticism “Then They Come” and “Ganymede,” you can be sure it will be an experience. You won’t feel jipped that this is an EP, there are plenty of moments to be made. And even though Happy Tears is part B-side and part single, you won’t feel like it’s either. Like the band, there is a lot of bonding to be had on these songs.
Wintersleep – Hello Hum (Roll Call Records)
Wintersleep
Hello Hum
Roll Call Records
Link: Official Site
I’m confused by Wintersleep’s latest. At first you experience “Hum” and you feel the cool pressure of electronics weighing down on you like the beginnings of some glorious darkwave splendor. Even the cover boasts some alt-wave neo-fantastical personage that could chill the hearts and enrichen the minds.
Yet, “Hum” is really as far as I got when it came to the descriptives. What follows is a mismatch of strange indie pop. the album becomes, well….charming. And that leads us to believe that either “Hum” is unnecessary or the rest of the album is simply a mistake. Their take on pop music is proper enough, yet I cannot help but go back to the beginning, trying to understand where this album is supposed to take me.
“Resuscitate” expands on all of this while making their music sound like it’s 1980 all over again. It does not reflect nor does it motivate us into futuristic ideas. “Saving Song” sounds like a drunk trying to sing through Ziggy Stardust.
“Rapture” is where the Canadian band gets it right. If pop is where we are going on Hello Hum, then this is the song where the Canadian group blends in everything they are good at while adding in some additional hooks that tug at the heart strings. By the end of this song, you cannot help but express some gratitude.
And maybe that is where people get this band. I just don’t know if an album like Hello Hum best the sentiment.
Cotton Mather – Kontiki, Deluxe Edition (The Star Apple Kingdom)
Cotton Mather
Kontiki (Deluxe Edition)
The Star Apple Kingdom
Link: Cotton Mather on Facebook
There is not much of that Austin sound that is easily identifiable in this Texas band’s music. Minus the heat and the sunny demeanor of this band’s glorious pop sound, the music looks more towards the ‘60s rainy day British pop sound than the Tex-Arkana twang. Maybe that is why European audiences took to Cotton Mather’s music than an American fan base. But shame on us for not paying more attention to Mather’s music when it was originally released in 1997. Kontiki is a sound worthy of celebration.
And oh what a sound it is. And what an album Kontiki is. Cotton Mather crams this album full of amazing pop with each song feeling like it’s their greatest effort while still trying to top the next. I give it to their formula of proper research and the capabilities of pulling off an album of this caliber.
The harmonies are magnificent and almost as illustrious as Sloan but gravitating more towards the old SpinART side of pop (which isn’t surprising being that the best of SpinART bands popped up around 1997) and not bouncing with the gritty rock style that Sloan can churn out.
“My Before and After” sounds like an XTC affair while “Vegetable Row” looks to British folk and incorporating it into their rock structure. It goes on and on, but never falters or is lacking in anything.
Even the extra material on this album is deluxe. The 4 Track of “Homefront Cameo” sounds as good as the original, not really deviating much from the final product. And some B Sides rompers like “Little Star” has a big sound. You have one live song that isn’t as spectacular as the recorded material, but the acoustic versions of “Spin My Wheels” and “Private Ruth” make up for it.
It’s hard to pick out flaws to an album like that. If there are, which I’m sure there is, they are polished over that you cannot deny what an amazing album Cotton Mather created.
Ex Detectives – Take My Forever (Post Planetary)
MP3: The Lawn
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:37 — 8.3MB)
Ex Detectives
Take My Forever
Post Planetary
Links:
Ex Detectives Official Site
Ex Detectives on Facebook
Faris McReynolds may be used to making minimalist avant-garde pop, but for Ex Detectives, it’s a completely different vice he is experimenting with.
Their debut, Take My Forever, is a forray into modest pop within brooding undertones that is like the lowercase band days; their slower side, not the alternate songs that make your face explode.
These songs may not be great, but they are good, and for what McReynolds does (he does it all, every instrument), it’s an album that shows sincerity to the pop genre.
“The Lawn” floats with glistening pop splendor. McReynolds proves that he can accomplish things in the upper octave as well as down below as represented on “Come On Down.” It’s one of my favorite songs on the album. The tribal beat, the gentle guitar picking and persistent bass. It’s almost Acetone translucent, but that could be the psychedelic guitar wails that are kicking in.
“Halcyon” (not the Orbital song) is cocky while “New History” demonstrates a bit of minimalism into his pop before the power chords kick in. But “Pocket Rainbow” is that one song that never quite settles with the rest of the album.
The album does grow on you. And once you get to know McReynolds work as Ex Detectives, you understand his music better.
Brass Bed with Allison Bohl – On Nilsson (Crossbill Records)
Brass Bed with Allison Bohl
On Nilsson
Crossbill Records
On Nilsson is like that book report you had to do in high school. Pick someone or something you admire and write about it. We all had to do it. For Christiaan Mader it is Harry Nilsson, and On Nilsson is the result. Adding Allison Bohl to the four-song EP, you have a dual reality of Mader on Nilsson and Bohl paying homage to the Popeye Soundtrack (the movie with Robin Williams and Shelly Duval), composed by Harry Nilsson.
Here’s how it all breaks down.
Mader begins the roundabout with Nillson’s “One,” made famous on Pandemonium Shadow Show. He does a decent job at recreating the aura of the song. “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know,” Mader croons out, turning this slick pop number into a rougher indie bout of Nilsson love and Brass Bed identity.
Bohl comes in for “He Needs Me” and “He’s Large,” both Shelly Duval numbers. If you have never heard the originals, you may mistake this music for lonely karaoke serenades, when she puts on a great act of re-creating the originals. I find Popeye to be a strange choice to cover, but eclectic nonetheless.
Mader returns at the end to cover “Don’t Forget About Me,” off of Nillson’s Pussy Cats. Not as good as Neko Case’s version of the song, Mader still does a good job at conveying the loneliness of the song while giving the version respect.
A strange and interesting ride, if you are Nillson fan, you will be interested to see how Brass Bed stacks up to the original. If you are in an eclectic mood, the Popeye recreations will be an adventure you will want to accept.
