Link: Sleepy Sun Official Site

When you dig through most of Sleepy Sun’s Spine Hits, it sounds like they traded their Jefferson Airplane pscyh buzz for Creedence’ Mardis Gras. More earthtoned than their previous attempt, Spine Hits is finally a step in a personalized direction.

Some looped Sleepy Sun as purist ‘70s gazing instead of wrapping a finger around their own selves and what they can do as a group. And while there are elements of that on this album, it’s not blatantly so. Maybe it’s the idea that after three albums, we are not used to ‘70s folk-rock complacency to be their identity, where we are not exactly sure what the true Sleepy Sun looks like under the mask.

But Spine Hits seems to feel more like acceptance, and that is not necessarily a bad thing here. Instead of an out-of-body experience, the band feels like they are trying to be more comfortable in their shells.

Songs like “Stivey Pond” and “Siouxsie Blaqq” channel the slow-moving guitar jam that Sleepy Sun has done well to develop, while “She Rex” is nestled in between and moves at Fogelberg pace while ending with some Rod Stewart-like crooning.. One thing you they can celebrate is for successfully being able to open up the volumes while having the discipline to control it. Don’t rule out earplugs, this song set to live is enough to let your ears ring for days.

Like the parts in “She Rex,” this album is a snapshot. And while the band does not settle on one particular sound and level, each song is distinctively Sleepy Sun.

Where “Martyr’s Mantra” opens up the choke and allows the band to add nitro to their electric guitars through a haze of smoke, “Still Breathing” is an ambient daze through comparative reality. “Yellow End” transforms into a crooner’s delight and a bar ballad that lies at the end of the world, that is if you fall off and soar into moderate ‘70s guitar jam.

If Spine Hits is any indication, Sleepy Sun will never find its place, left to wonder like rock and roll gypsies. Here you will find some destinations to blow your mind while others simply a transient stop.

Link: Tim Foljahn’s Official Site

Being a character actor is one thing. Coming to the forefront and being the star is another. Tim Foljahn has labeled his career on the heels of others: Thurston Moore, Two Dollar Guitar, Cat Power, Townes Van Zant, and the list goes on.

Now Foljahn decided to go out on his own and release his debut solo project. With Songs for an Age of Extinction, it’s easy to hear the components: the experimental nature for some, the intimacy for others. Foljahn compiles it all together and that is why I am not particularly thrilled by its outcome.

It all starts out with a mantra. The meditative title track, builds a Krishna backdrop and an intensity that you would normally hear on a Dead Can Dance album. But instead of the soothing and sincere Brendan Perry, Foljahn sounds a little more like a drunk Jim Morrison. Despite the flaw, I would have loved for this album to continue in this direction. Instead, he floats through somber hymns of low-key compositions. “All Fall Away” and “Faded” do very little to entice me into believing this album is more than extraneous songs Foljahn has written during the off-season of being a contributing musician.

“War Song” perks up having that Two Dollar Guitar sound and presents marvelous guitar work. It’s a singer/songwriters dream to sound as elegant as this. But “New Light” tries too hard at being just that, a singer/songwriter. Throw in an estranged blues song “God Song,” and you will be as confused as I am.

Not sure where all of this is going, but a little better direction would have helped make this debut more memorable as a whole and less fragmented into its parts.

Links:

The Twilight Sad on Facebook
The Twilight Sad on Myspace
Fat Cat Records home

Melancholy and sweet, borrowing much from the mid-80s British alternative/proto gothic music scene, The Twilight Sad released No One Can Ever Know earlier this year.

Occasionally energetic and aggressive, most of No One Can Ever Know features a wall-of-sound presence recalling their Scottish compatriots Idlewild, yet at other times the it is more like a mopey, shoe gazer version of lo-fi Bauhaus or Joy Division. The most obvious difference, aside from the 30-year time frame, between these bands is the absence of infectious hooks with The Twilight Sad. They’re one clear, repetitive and catchy line per song away from bringing the glory days of black nail polish and exploded hair-sprayed jet-black big hair.

Their third LP, the gloomy No One Can Ever Know is a breath of fresh air in these stale days of reverb non-surf indie rock that currently floods and washes out the music scene.  Generally adhering to the modern lo-fi sound with the occasional clipping of vocals or instruments, the album stays consistent without overdoing the sound or lyrical feel.

The third track, “Sick,” is a standout song. As a perfect example of the influence from the 80s alternateen music scene, “Sick” uses muted, rapid-fire electronic drums and lightly distorted guitars to carry singer James Graham’s heavy Scottish accent. Toward the close of the song, strong, building synthesizers add a strong crescendo to off set Graham’s dying words “Until the party ends, until the part when we retire.”

“Don’t Look At Me” is the strongest song on the record. Heavy bass lines lay over an accordion (sounding much like a synthesizer in its relentlessness) and odd-timed drums carry the song through four minutes of near-constant aural massage.  Lacking an obvious chorus to repeat, opting instead to repeat a changing set of lyrics over a more defined musical chorus, “Don’t Look at Me” never allows the listener to get to an easy ending point. This matches the lyrical content as well. Leaving out the beginning of the story by starting with “And I still watch you/ It’s not the right thing to do,” Graham moves to repeat “I hated watching you grow old” near the middle, and circles back to asserting “and I still watch you,” the song never fully starts or resolves—forcing the listener to hit the repeat button.

 
Links:

• 50 Weapons
• Addison Groove Facebook
• Addison Groove Soundcloud
• Addison Groove Twitter
• 50 Weapons Facebook

Anthony Williams (aka Addison Groove) plays electronic music like a pile of space junk soaring through space. His sound is dirty, gritty, and likes to throw in everything but the kitchen sink. It makes for great compliments to your Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Photek collection.

Transistor Rhythm is very much in your face. The album fires off strange samples and antiquated Casio-style effects to ill repute. If it’s a means of being quirky or paying homage, it’s modern art that does not mix well with the progressiveness of the album. But when these elements take a back burner and the elements of progressive house and ghetto bass tek come into play, this is where Addison Groove etches his mark on influential electronic music. Followers of the Dubstep scene would gravitate to these elements.

The album waxes and wanes throughout. At times, the music is revolutionary, other times, it is just annoying. Repetitious Hip Hop samples litter stages of the album as if Eazy E was portrayed as Max Headroom. It’s not something I particularly admire in a song, but I cannot deny that Addison Grooves creativity and experimental values to electronic music, primarily House and Dupstep are well played.

Transistor Rhythm may have you wanting to dance it off, but most of the album is more for listening and admiring as it spins through styles quickly while morphing from one aspect to the next with little warning.

Link:

Website
Facebook

Christi Jo and Jessica Zambri are on a roll. The sisters have been making music since children and it shows because only these two collectively can pull off an album like House of Baasa. It’s an interesting debut that blooms with vivid imagination but does little to blow my mind.

A result from a lifetime of warping imaginations together, it’s a fantastical aura of strange dimensions and New York art rock that has fed through the minds of various genres, but most distinctly the age of Dream Pop. “All You Maybes” soars with roaring synth samples that make for nice layering, but that’s it. There is no main purpose to all of this except to formulate a higher depth of consciousness.

“ICBYS” feeds off the night and a Darkwave dance movement that is circulating through the New York scene. Add a sense of pop accessibility and you have a standout. It’s when they utilize their environment (many found sounds leak into their songs) that takes this song to the next level. It’s the same sentiment with “Hundred Hands,” but I cannot help but recall the love song from Top Gun. There are a lot of Berlin references you could throw into House of Baasa, but nothing quite as blatant as this.

“Carry” tries to bring in the ‘60s girl group aesthetics into their ideology, and for me, the results are not as exciting, acting like that song you would skip from the atypical alternative Synthpop album from the late ‘80s because it was too much out of context to what the rest of the album was trying to prove. But “Hundred Hands” changes that as they make you fall into a sea of dreams.

I love their haunting qualities that blend in a feeling of bliss. It’s not as dreamy as you might think as the two add more punch to the mix. I wish there was even more experimental qualities to this album. Sometimes the album just needs something more for it to stand out, but with its present charm, it’s not a bad debut.

Kyson
Patience – EP
Moodgadget

Links:

• Facebook
• Website

Being a fan of most electronic music, I have to say that pure ambient style is not one of my favorites; however, the moodscape provided by German writer/musician/producer Kyson (Jian Kellett Liew) offers a reach inside of his mind and soul with his latest EP Patience. “This EP was about experimenting with layers of emotions to create a plateau of sounds that become one.”

Six tracks that blend together to form an ambient cacophony of mood-driven “quite music” that can played in almost any situation to the soundtrack of life. It is evident from the opening notes and soft quietness of the first track “You May Have Limited Time,” Kyson is inviting the listener to begin a journey toward inner peace and harmony.

The next track “Company for Us,” blends together and interesting mix of soft Drum n’ Bass with an almost jazzy type of irrelevance that flows through the soundscape with many fades.

The ghostly and haunting “Frustrated with Myself” is another smooth blend of beats filtered with gothic vocals from time to time and reminds me a little of an Art of Noise song.

“Washed Out” and “Patiently Waiting” are the next tracks that complement one another quite well setting the overall mood of the album. yet it does little sonically to engage the listener.

By far the best track is left for last with “Ink Ties,” a melodic melodrama that offers dainty keyboards over a tender back beat.

Coming down from Chicago, Blane Fonda returns to the Prom with the intensity and fun that is like no other. These guys are pumped making their live gig solid gold. So iron out your Sunday best and put on your dancing shoes because these guys are going to rock your ass! This is the band you only wish played your high school prom.

I spoke with the group about the upcoming weekend, as well as their recent release Foolish Croon.

Piradical Producations presents:
Punk Rock Prom 2012
https://www.facebook.com/events/393864713968781/
Saturday, May 5 at The Hoosier Dome
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/242628

Blane Fonda
Diarrhea Planet
Green Room Rockers
One Inch Punch
Danny Rebel and the KGB

Link: Blane Fonda

You are participating in this year’s Punk Rock Prom. What do you plan to wear for this  special occasion?

Anything goes! It’s Punk Rock Prom! You might see Ties, Vests, Sportcoats, Headbands, Hats, Shirts, Pants, Cumber buns, Dinosaur masks, Cuff-links, Belts, and most importantly: Dancin’ shoes.

If any band that should play at a prom, it’s Blane Fonda. And for this particular prom, you will be sharing the stage with bands like Diarrhea Planet after all. What do you have in store to liven up the night and what can people expect out of a Blane Fonda performance?

The reason we love playing PRP and keep coming back is the energy the crowd gives off – and no doubt, they get a lot of that energy from the other bands that night – Diarrhea Planet is a great example of that. There’s nowhere else we play where we get the same type of feeling. We bounce the energy the fans give off to us right back to them through our own music, and they give it back to us, and round ‘n round we go until the last note of the evening. I’m sure at some point in the show, Mark (our singer) will join the crowd on the dance floor and get wild. On the same note, we also encourage the crowd to sing/shout along with us, and as always, fans are invited onstage to participate during “In Search of The Giant Squid”…if you think you can keep up

“Foolish Croon” is chock full of energy. What was it like recording these songs and how does the band capture the spirit emotion and style within the confines of a recording like this? Did the result capture this? How does an album title like that reflect on the band?

We captured the energy of our new album through the original song writing process, mostly. We hunkered down for months doing pre-production on stuff we had already almost 99% finished, and we wrote some brand new songs completely from scratch. Some of the songs practically wrote themselves, while others needed further tweaking and it was a bit more—shortening, lengthening, adding key changes (oh we love key changes). Not to mention, we had another dozen or so songs written that didn’t even make it on this album. On the other hand, the actual recording/tracking process was a very individual process. Mainly because of our schedules and our former producer’s schedule, we tracked everything separately. It was a totally opposite approach considering how much of a group effort it was to write all the songs. Next time around, I think we all agree that we’ll all be together as much as possible through the entire recording process from soup to nuts.

Your sound lies in the middle of dance pop and punk prowess, how does the Chicago music scene fit (or not fit) into what you do and how has that influenced the band?

Chicago is an amazing city and we love it here, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that there can be conflicting interests between the vastly different types of bands all trying to claw their way to the top. And sometimes even the crowds that turn out to a show aren’t sure what they’re seeing right in front of them the first time they come to a Blane show. It’s a huge city though, so you have to expect that. It’s just funny to us when we play a show in Chicago and feel on top of the world because the crowd is eating up every song, but you can always find a few people standing there, looking around, and worried about what everyone else is doing or thinking, or if it’s acceptable to dig this band…”I dunno, are they ‘cool’ yet? Am I wearing the right shirt? How do my jeans look?” People have to get over that and just have fun. That’s why we love playing for our fans in Indianapolis. It doesn’t matter if people have never seen us once, or are veteran fans that have come to every show we’ve ever played in Indy. Everyone is on the same level and just jumps into it as soon as we start. That’s why we’re always excited to play out there for you guys.

Do you get interesting interpretations on your music because of the non-defined genre the band lies in (it’s not distinctly punk and it’s not dance) and if so, how do people perceive this?

We create the music that we would love to listen to. It’s pretty simple. Our band is made up of 5 guys with a lot of diverse musical backgrounds and influences. But at the same time, we have a lot of overlap in our styles as well, and that overlap is the music that we create. I think during the writing process if we try to hard to be like, “Lets write this song that sounds like Queen”, then we can fall short. But if we’re like, “Lets develop a song off a guitar part that sounds like something Brian May would write,” then I think we can make a really strong song around that feel. As far as people’s perception of us, I’d say people can call us whatever they want as long as they’re calling us something. One time we had a write-up that said we sound like a cross between Meatloaf and U2. Neither of those bands would any of us consider a conscious influence (maybe sub-consciously?), but hey, we’ll take it!

The band has recently explored several various cover songs on the website. Can you tell me the reasoning behind this and why these songs? It’s a part of a kickstarter campaign, correct? Can you indulge in details and how it’s going?

The Kickstarter campaign was a great experience for us as a band. We had a donation amount set that if you donated X amount of money, we’d record and shoot a video of a cover song of your choice. ANY cover song. This left a lot of options of our fans, and we had a vast array of covers that people wanted to hear us play. Everything from The Cure, to Counting Crows, to the Animals. The covers are all finished up and sent-out now, I think we just have an original song or two left to compose and we’re done.

If my research is correct, the band is consistently writing new material. What kind of things are you working on and is there a new album in the works?

The great thing about our band is we’re always writing new material when we’re not rehearsing or learning new covers. It’s fun, and we think we’re pretty good at it, so why not? At the moment, we’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work with Sean O’Keefe and Greg Panciera here in Chicago. Sean mixed Foolish Croon beautifully, and Greg jumped in a couple of months prior to work with us after half of the album was already tracked. They’re brilliant guys and are helping us make our next big single which we will be releasing digitally to anyone who purchased Foolish Croon. It will probably be a while before we record another whole album, but don’t be surprised to see singles popping up once in a while to keep things fresh and to keep our fans happy.

Will you be sharing new material at the Prom? If so, can you share any details?

As always, our show will have a few surprises. But be ready to hear some of the older songs off of MOSABA, and a handful of new songs off Foolish Croon. Maybe we’ll throw a cover or two for the people who like that kind of stuff.

After the Prom, what is the band working on and what are the summer plans?

Finishing that new, unreleased song with Sean and Greg is a top priority when we return from Indy so we can release it to our fans ASAP via the internet. We’ll do some Chicago gigs this summer, like an officially official CD Release show for Foolish Croon to help market the new album. We’re working on getting some possible outdoor festival shows because those are really fun to play and the beer is free, but nothing set in stone yet. Most of all, I’m sure on Sunday morning after playing Punk Rock Prom, we’ll be anxiously awaiting and planning our next visit to Indianapolis to do it all over again.

I am stuck in a void. I know it’s 2012, but Ghost of Chance’s bouncing melody makes me feel like I’m trapped somewhere between 1997 and now. It does not help that the haunting production of this song is the same experience we have when staring at an old Polaroid photograph.

If you have ever had a grainy, color saturated photo of your youth, you know what I mean. I look back at some of my childhood photos and it seems like another lifetime. The image is real, but the feelings toward it are separated into a cosmic sense of non-belief.

“Krunk Juice,” a horrible title for a song (my first impression was to suspect this was some kind of Nu Metal or Gangsta Rap song), is a feeling of disbelief. Did ‘90s alternative really happen and what about all of those underground bands? Where was it and how does all of this really connect beyond simple observation?

What I experienced almost two decades ago was a sense of shangri la in alternative music. You either had the oppressive (grunge) or the existential (alternative), leaving Ghost of Chance in the later.

A passing moment, a simple song of a band trying their best at belting out an indie song perhaps the only way they can do it, I cannot help allow it to spark memories when listening to how the vocals react to the guitars and how the rhythm is there just to keep things together.

It’s a great song for the moment.

Link: Young Believers

English band (York to be more precise) Young Believers channels the ghosts of British folk mixed in with ’70s pscyh-outs college folk stars like Mike Absalom while looking at what is going on today. Not as lyrically extreme or enchanting as the intensity of the decades past, Young Believers do a marvelous job at smoothing out their sound, making it a fantastic group for this decade.

There is a bite in the band’s tongue as they roam the forests in “Man Vs. Nature,” a battle through wordplay and a musical tug-of-war between soothing music and sharp wit enunciation. Nothing in this song makes it a direct attack, but a constant uphill battle where the song presents just enough oomph in it to make you aware.

A single that shares one side with “Fear Walks With You,” a more mysterious and contemplative song and a fine contrast that likes to hide more in the shadows to the openness of “Man Vs. Nature.” Both are worth checking out.

Link: Suckers’ Website

The boat has just docked, and you are immersed on an island of dayglow flowers and tropical sunshine beaming down on you. In this brief moment in time, the earth has stopped moving. The only thing pushing us forward is the sound of music — beachfront bliss as the animals dance with the humans and the humans dance with the waves. Candy Salad is the soundtrack to the perfect trip into a celebration of cool vibes and blissful wig-outs.

Turning pop music into a cacophony of smiles, Suckers utilize music in such powerful ways, its unsuspecting just how you are influenced by what this band is churning out.

A progressive spin forward from their Wild Smile album, this time it is effortless. “Charmaine” is a reflection of the sun burning rays into your mind and the smell of summer bursting forth success. When the guitars hit full steam, all you want to do is blast off into outer space and wrap your arms around the universe.

“George” brings us back down to the sway of the steel drum and a feel-good sound that will blow your mind just how easy it all is.  Then there is a song like “Figure It Out,” the equivalent to punching the Beach Boys in the face and recording the results.

What makes an album like this work? From what I can tell, it’s countless hours of studio work. I’m sure the hour that we experience on this album, there are days of experimentation, sweat, and strange attempts tucked away for another day. Whatever the process brought, it’s what we hear on Candy Salad that will blow your mind.

It’s been a journey, but we have arrived. Plan to make Candy Salad the soundtrack to your summer and watch the world become exponentially more awesome from it all.