The NBT Review 46

Somewhere Up North – Meet Citizen K (Paraply Records)

Oh there is almost nothing as entrancing than the lonely sound of the trumpet played on the ocean’s (or river’s) edge. The sound sets the scene, the mood, gently takes hold of the emotions and readies us for a personal conversation with the artist.

The singer combines the delicate detachment of the European composer with the intimacy of the New Folk balladeer, sometimes within the same song we are taken from comfortable living rooms, just us and the man and his guitar, and swooped up, flying across vast expanses of territory, long silent roads and majestic mountains.

These are whispered tales of fragile yet dazzling relationships doing harmonic battle with an scratchy cinematic twitch and glare. There are hidden treasures in the details within the words and visceral arrangements. A rare delight is taken in the addition of a piano riff there, an organ twirl here, seductive spoonfuls of colour, dropped in, then mixed perfect, calm, till the result is a sigh and a dream.

This is one of those albums, that while you are listening to it, you want to start all over again as soon as possible, so that you can discover yet another thought, another texture, another revelation.

This independent beauty can be filed along side Grizzly Bear and The Low Anthem as one of the best folk/alt country releases this year.

Find out more here

http://www.paraplyrecords.se/

And listen to tracks from this album on the NBT Podcast

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=543216

Another Last Call – Doug Folkins (Independent Release)

There is something very Nick Lowe/Dave Edmunds about this new collection from songwriter Folkins, something very good, very pure and very in love with good Pop.

The opening track (and single) Calico Girl drifts from the speakers in a breezy Beatles like harmonica, a subtle uncomplicated tune wrapped around lyrics that penetrate deeper into the psyche than realized.

Comparisons have been made to the folkpunk ‘n’ pop of the Pogues and indeed there is that barroom swagger and glee in a lot of the tracks, which added to the vibrancy of the Levellers at their best, let the tragic edges of human behavior colour murk and heart, light and shade to the bounciest of tunes.

And just when the old time pub songs threaten to get slightly too much for modern rock ears, Folkins craftily adds dollops of blues guitar and tiny tinges of modern Americana to his solid creations  making this a truly international sounding release.

Find out more here

 http://www.dougfolkins.com/

And hear trax from this album on the NBT Podcast

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=524299

The NBT Review 45

Detroit Rebellion – Deitroit Rebellion (Ramp Media Lab)

Stripped down straight into chug-a-lug modern blues, why modern? Its just bounce forward voice and guitar to start with sure (like passing a ragged old house and hearing the tail end of a CSN+Y acoustic jam), but the modern is in the heart, the atmosphere.

This is a soundtrack for long days of hard work and introspection, solitary journeys through the hours. A world of blurred roads and untrusting housewives peering from windows at you, trapped in the heat and your job and your thoughts.  And then..

 This music..

This simple strong stuff.

Saves you just a little.

These are stories that don’t always have a happy ending; sometimes the only redemption is in the telling, the sweet shrug and the moving on. Then again these are also stories that have a quirky wry sense of hope, a push, and a nudge, and a casual grin in the right direction.

Imagine the intricate moods and arrangements of the Violent Femmes early songs, condensed into this one guitar, this one singer, how strange it is that you find yourself wanting to dance silly crazy as if you are at some punk cowboy club.

There is subtle protest, more observation than angst, there is the slight take on the love song, detached but sincere and utterly captivating. There are possible confessions and there are secrets possibly revealed, but they are all wound tightly into the music.

For something so sparse, the rewards in listening to this are infinite.

A wonderful discovery.

http://detroitrebellion.com

Hear tracks and thoughts from this collection on the NBT podcast very soon

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=543216

The NBT Review 44

Jebediah Goodthrust – Jebediah Goodthrust (Choose To Lose Music)

Ashes Of Bridges – The Hit & Mrs. (Choose To Lose Music)

The lonely souls take a darker path and the mystery figure heard on demos and 4 track gifts comes into slightly sharper focus.

So ok let’s take Goodthrust for the moment. Oh the boy/man sure dances weird, it’s like the ghost of Buddy Holly has discovered distortion and spent the afterlife catching up on Bob Mould’s career. Sometimes you have popBoys, kinda clean and neatly beardy trimmed, emotional and polite, (where did these nice kids get their tattoos?) sometimes you have the scrawl of letters and surges on the back of a glossy magazine, an escape in the turmoil if you will, and those popBoys I mentioned slink away un-noticed and (yay) unloved.  It’s the time of that weird dancer and his deconstruction of country and chart tunes.

Cap in hand we say good evening to the Hit and Mrs, asking quietly why the apprehension? We are told it’s coming on cold, cold days and we notice that while the tunes are almost folk-rock nostalgic, the themes drift into more uncomfortable areas, one is reminded of that old 50s movie about the boy swimming out there in the middle of the lake, losing energy, a woman watching him sink, some beauty in the fear.

Glancing back at Jebediah, he seems to have aged slightly, lost the Holly glasses that’s for sure, and the way he holds that guitar, why mother its almost sexual, this isn’t pop this is alternative the very American lo-fi simple, small town boy self release hand printed sleeves alternative, singing honest to the fortunate few, Friday night aint ever gonna die.

We follow the Hit and Mrs into another room, a family room where stories are sung, intricate sketches of places and faces. Slipping into the not too safe thoughts of volatile wallflowers, we are taken back to Murmer era REM, and I for one love this sinking into the murk, and shadows.

Simply put

 The Goodthrust is dirty delightful

The Hit and Mrs is something that slinks in and quietly chats to the heart and soul. And for my money the best thing the Heise Brothers have done in ANY of their disguises.

Get these great collections here

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hitmrs2

https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jebediahgoodthrust

 

 

The NBT Review 43

Secrecy and Sex – Readers Wives (360degree Music)

You have to love the slow build pop song, the one that curls Out and stretches cat-like steady, ready soon for the leap, sure and controlled and fierce, straight into our fickle hearts. Add  deadpan humour carefully calibrated to be not TOO clever (which would snap us from our trance) or TOO self-aware (which would merely itch and irritate) and BOOM, a sly BOOM at that, we are sexually attracted to this music.

As the bar man once said, it’s the kind of collection that make the boys smile and the girls dance.

Then ok, this is Costello for the new century, NewWavePub-Rock sharp bitter Bubblegum, hey forget the fast twist away, this has hooks that are shiny sharp and lets face it, we ALL want to see a song called ‘Advertising Heroin’ knock the latest X factor off the top of the charts.

It’s a rare pleasure indeed to hear hints of the Last Shadow Puppets socializing with bits of Randy Newman all within one EP.

Then walking out of the chaos of the gig, we discover the poet bum outside suddenly insightful, minimal Jamie T, we stop and listen, feeling weirdly touched, caught out in a very good way.

There is tenderness when needed and ice cold detachment when desired. It’s a collection that rewards with every new listen.

Cant wait for the album.

http://readerswives.360degreemusic.com/

Hear a track or two from this EP on the NBT Podcast going out on the 28^th October 09

 And then more in depth on the show going out on the 10^th November 09

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

Sounds Of The 504 – Broken Keys (Independent Release)

Intuitions

Feelings.

Images conquered up by the music, hazy for a while, jelly-dreamlike then slowly solidifying, Polaroid snapshots, the picture shimmies across the surface.

The Beats the thing.

Swing  with him, there is water in the air, summer perhaps, sticky bright, the ballroom hints of sadness, ‘We Miss You’ indeed.

Time travel down the banks of the great river, we glide past great trees and old houses, the drummStutter is our uneasy machine, the song the very fadeout even full of a quiet longing.

Rise up fallen soldiers,  reach out for the hands of the grieving and shy ladies,  elegant but jerky ballets for the almost forgotten, these things are more than mood, more than beats laid down for some future sonic adventure. (Though listen hard and listen long and in some song played  weeks, months years from now there they will be)

They are sonic captures of what twists and crawls and dances in the heart of the music-maker.

Find out more

http://amiestreet.com/music/broken-keys/sounds-of-the-504/

hear tracks from this collection of beats and sounds on the NBT podcast going out on the 3^rd November 09

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

The NBT Review 42

Keep The Change – Spoonfull and D-Mitch (Downwrite Records)

Right from the opening title track we are aware that we will be taken for a strangely reticent ride on the dark thoughts highway. The music doesn’t so much pump out but slithers Pixie snake bass crawl from the player. Indie blues knocked up to story telling, each song a novella, cracked insights into volatile souls.

These are songs cut to the bone, minimal barely pausing for breath, not resting, letting the sometime alt folk clatterNstrum fight along/against the turbulence.

Brooklyn Heartbreak veers from high romantic Portishead ballad, to 3am world weary resignation, only the music perhaps will save the story teller from this damning self knowledge.

Unlike some strong ego damaged boys that became international whiners, this collective is in love with the dirt and vulnerability of the acoustic, the electric lo-fi, ironic dancers and tortured torch singers. It’s a sound a mood that slinks in, makes itself at home struggling out of a mini van stranded in the desert or a neon club situated in deepest coldest Berlin.

What attracts and astounds with this album is how brilliantly observed the situations and characters are.  Take ‘Guilty Pleasure’ for example and the opening description of the women in the environmentally friendly car, note the humor gentle yet still sharp. No need for the video here, the song, the music tells it all.

Its these wry portraits, these sly vignettes coupled with an instinctively apt sonic design, that elevates this release head and shoulders above so much that has come out this year.

Find out for yourself

http://www.myspace.com/spoonfullhiphop

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/Spoonfull2

http://www.myspace.com/dmitch330

Tracks from this cool album will be played on the NBT Podcast this upcoming 3^rd Nov

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

Also catch them on the special NBT show hosted by Hypoetical and Memphis Reigns

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=532104

The NBT Review 41

Here She Comes a Tumblin’ – BirdEatsBaby (Birdeatsbaby)

Once there was Cat-Scratch Glitter and wounded cabaret howls, charged shots of glowing liquid poured across lips of the harshest red. Everything shuddered, everything shivered, and the laughter was strange and sometimes cruel.

It was beautiful.

Now keeping those thrills, but adding extra dimensions, comes this collection.

Bravely, we are now not only shown the garish stage and the freaks, puppets, divas, exhibitionists, scary sexy monsters but… the quiet bedrooms, the rumpled beds where partners may or may not sleep, the view of empty streets from its lonely windows.

We are made curious about the sadness, the stillness that may go on BETWEEN these songs.

Make no mistake this is still a thrill ride, full of carnival hipsters hustling supreme, and frantic punters screaming along with the dangerous rides, but here, and there, and here again, not so hidden away, the girls and boys dare to show their tenderness, even their dreams, unfolded carefully and placed in our grubby hands.

On one page selling this CD they are described as emo, but please don’t be fooled, there is no soft boy rich kid pampered star angstNwhines here. The lipstick is smeared from the sheer exuberant kiss and the eyeliner stains are from tears arrived honestly from fits of giggles and tears that fought hard to escape the calm internal.

There are pop songs to be sung loud by party girls, alive and free holding tight to the simple expectation of a great night out, and there are lullabies of the crooked kind that soothe and push the soul into a welcome unease with extra measure.

There is magic here. Give it a listen to.

http://www.birdeatsbaby.co.uk/

Karkari –Mammut (Record Records)

I could tell you that Mammut sound like a frosty and refreshing mix of the best of those American 4AD groups (Belly and Throwing Muses) a bit of Bjork, a spoonful of Sonic Youth twisted into the pop sensibilities that Catatonia got so right. I could tell you that the band has had (already)  three number one hits in their native Iceland and managed to cause a stir at the SXSW festival. I could leave it at that, and move on, pretty happy that you curious gentle reader, will go seek out the band and their music. Or you could think I am spitting out (politely of course) a bunch of facts and you will remain sadly disenthralled.

I shall instead shake the songs up in a virtual hat of the finest cloth, and let them hit the senses, and report what occurs.

I am reminded of old toys, cherished by teenagers in smiling nostalgia for their innocent child hood, toys that are still picked up and loved and kept in view as new makeup is applied and new adventures of the heart dreamt about. These plaything have an endearing roughness to them, all is not shiny shiny and plastic disposable.

I think of glam rock bands strutting their stuff on small Televisions in untidy sitting rooms early Friday evenings, the smell of dinner overpowered by the sweeter smell of the night (clubs) ahead.

Some songs make me think of mosh pits and bodies and beer bottles disengaging themselves from sweaty hands and crashing kamikaze to the pavement to join the wrecks of their fellow soldiers. Some songs make me think of almost empty studios, musicians huddled in the centre of a landscape of once twisting now still cables and wires and leads.

Some songs make me close my eyes and fall back, not thinking of the getting UP. Some songs make me want to grin and cook and dance and shop.

See what they do for you

http://www.myspace.com/mammut

 

Catch both bands on this NBT podcast

http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=526901

With much more to come.

The NBT Review 40

Barely Exposed – Grindhouse (Droolboy Productions)

Brightly glowing machine gun splatter and squelch counterpoint sounds from some wicked exotic elsewhere nightclub of the senses. The girl swims among the clitter clatter drumming, sings, ‘’Life is not so ordinary,’’ indeed.

This is twisted bubblegum, pulled out into quirky shapes, bleeding dark red beneath the plastic manipulations, a futureShock dance club as imagined by time-travelers from the 80s, their eyeliner smudged with true tears, their lipstick smeared hard against the cold glass of now.

Cold hearted telephones, jittery machines, syncopated sighs, often slide into the swing forward march of the grind house, bringing feathery fear and nervous delight along with frantic little stops, stop-motion, stop-starts.

Stop

Then start all over again.

Then a curveball, a teenage ballad almost, something to show off with her first necklace, first small earring, sometimes it seems the rain is always here, see how it makes everything shine so.

This is euro electronica filtered thru American new wave carried with care by rough souls who are learning to twist and fly, who are hoping to find out, if the clouds are really candy floss sticky.

Make your own decisions

 http://grindhouse-music.com/

Puppetbox – Puppetbox (Independent Release)

The PowerPunks met the New Wave at the high school prom, the pretty keyboard (in her best dress) asked the Guitar for a dance. He put down his bottle of beer and gave her this hectic twirl. And as the bass and the drum stomped along, it was, love at very 1^st sight.

This is the Cars zoomed into the new century, the sly children of (before) Kiss and (tomorrow’s) Killers. It is also a document of a time that is already changing, warping, melting in front of our very eyes as the Puppets make a new box of sounds.

Which leads us to

Runtime Error – Puppetbox  (Independent Release)

The puppets grow up, discover the sensual and discover the darkness. Their parties are louder, the chaos is gentle with hints of horror film glee. The puppets still want you to dance, they want you up against the wall wide mirror, reflected and distorted at the same time.

There are howls in the verses now, the rolling thunder is sped up and coughed out, the lightning illuminates and ambiguously camouflages. Those wicked old uncles from Kraftwerk have paid a visit all the way from Germany and in Triple Down made themselves totally at home.

The box is still full of hooks though, gleamy shiny bright hooks, making sure the songs attach themselves to the charts in our hearts and never ever leave go.

And still the puppets mutate, listen out ask for, the Disco Riot demo and find out for yourselves

http://www.thepuppetbox.com/

hear trax from both of these bands on the NBT Dark electric podcast going out slightly later than planned this Tuesday 15^th Sept 09.

http://nbtdarkelectric.podomatic.com/

The NBT Review 39

Bending The Knotted Oak – Melody Klyman (BlackWing Records)

 The singer attacks at dawn. Through the mist, she gallops drumPoP powerful, the tribe swirl around, advance with twisted cool ballet moves.

Now through the haze a hint of Natasha Kahn (but with dirt on her face and charcoal smudges on her fingertips), now through the glare a glimmering of Florence Welch (but with restrained elegance). Now through butterfly wing reflection we catch sight of Melody, a gift of drama and richly chaotic dreams, perfect for these dull yet troubled times.

Then the mist evaporates and we salute the wasted DJ, dancing under neon and primal flowGlow bouncing colour. The robot plays the hook, mechanical messy longing to be Superhuman, just like the singer.

Pounding (angry?) piano introduces Thrill Seeker, which is followed by Calico the name suggesting a softer approach, but the vapors here solidify, the harmonies weave a strange fear into the sensual, the song digs closer, closer to the core of us and we listen and we stop time.

Is it strange, when listening to I Isolate to be reminded of Peter Gabriel, the times he allowed himself to be caressed by Mistress Kate?

Finally we are invited to Sink Then Swim, to let go and let the soulful voices take us where they wish. The ambiguous swirls within this song, this collection actually, allow us to drift right close up to the internal, the personal, the very secret heart, and then with glamour and glimmer and charm, deflect us away.

We can only wish, to start the song again,

And this time wonder

What will be revealed?

Find out more for yourself of this beautiful music here

http://www.melodyklyman.com

Trapeze – HuDost (Open Sesame Music)

A lot of bands would close their show with a song like the opening storm here, Trespasser, epic and elemental; it grows from a driving folk ballad into a barely restrained rock creature. No false dramatics here, no insincere power chord Frankenstein, singer floating in the clouds and guitarist growling posing for the mosh pit. No. Here are musicians completely in sync with one another, letting the rhythms unravel, tangled breathless, fiery.

One of the delights of this collection is that it refuses to be pinned down to any one genre or style, but still does not lose its sense of self, its essence of something serene and complete. So we are invited to travel from world music to poignant alternative country, from sly hints of old time progressive, to examples of sheer pop ingenuity.

Knowing the backstory of the albums creation (during the making of Trapeze singer/writer Moksha Sommer was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to prepare herself for surgery) one expects some degree of angst and perhaps fear to pervade the tracks, that it is not the case at all, is a tribute to the strength of Sommer and her partner Jemal Wade Hines.

Rather the songs and the words and the music they float upon showcase a brave steady and rather breathtaking sense of acceptance and hope. This is an album full of the quiet huge joy of living and dreaming, and even when there is loss, it is golden.

For this reviewer, still in awe of Europe’s winter (detached as I am now from the heat of Africa), the mini suite First Snow –Waking-Last Snow is the stand out wonderment in this set that roars from delicacy to raging. In their world there is never total darkness, rather a Dawn, waiting to happen.

Share the light

http://www.hudost.com

Catch songs from both of these albums on the NBT Podcast going out on the 9^th Sept 09

http://www.nextbigthing.libsyn.com

The NBT Review 38

Beyond The Headlights – Keith Miles (House Of Trout)

Some songs seem to have been comfortably living with us forever. From the drop of the 1^st beat they soothe us, set us free from petty tensions. They make us un-self-consciously grin.

Keith Miles and his band of ultra accomplished musicians have crafted tunes of hope and subtle power.  Deceptively simple things these, hiding intricate arrangements of steel guitar, and mandolin gliding sweetly along with the bass, country pop at its finest.

These are songs about not just the journey, but the better places that journey might, no, WILL take us if we just decide to keep driving.

All is not sugar coated however; Miles swings deep into the soul and loneliness of the long distance driver, as he travels across the dark night and contemplates sorrows and stories from the shifting past.

The call and response ghostly and thrilling cover of ‘Samson and Delilah’ and the almost break of dawn nightclub feel of ‘Sweet Waters’ showcase the diversity of both the band and the production moods.

A sincere, heartwarming collection.

Find out more here

 http://www.keithmiles.com/

 

Miracle Girl – Beth Wimmer (Independent Release)

Floating, they say the tempo  is floating, and it does, it sneaks in sleepy sensual, it shuffles in along side a languorous guitar solo, the seduction, the come on is the very thing, melting the present, fading out into a dreamlike future.

Then in ‘Ten Four’ taking a macho subject and subverting it like Aimee Mann likes to do, Beth steps up the edgy a little and glancing sideways, throws herself into new wave reggae and the daylight shows itself. This girl doesn’t need her Lover from Last Summer, it’s a put down in a pop song, the best way to be (slightly, honestly) nasty.

And then the ambiguous anti war song, she wants to know how it would feel, she wants to maybe taste the craziness, she says she is not at all strong, then she sings this epic, take her hand and she will pull you as close to the darker edges as she can.

After the intense internal of ‘O my Brother’ (another shy epic) a genuine pop country hit, the shuffle is faster, the words tumble harder. The giddy swing delights. this is ‘Dreams Bring Me Down.’

And in the Neil Young cover, she takes what was always fragile, and adds her own quiet sadness, her own female perspective of the danger and despair of love.

Finally, take the put down described earlier, times it by rock n roll boogie, add thumping drums and wooshing guitar,  and you got this violent cool kick in the pants, F Ya, big sister to ‘Your So Vain ‘ just with way more oooomph.

Find out more

http://www.bethwimmer.com

Hear Keith Miles on the NBT podcast that went out on the 1^st September 09

http://www.nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=521432

And Beth Wimmer on the NBT show going out on the 8^th Sept 09

http://www.nextbigthing.libsyn.com/

The NBT Review 37

Songs Of Sins And Redemption – The Molenes (Independent Release)

Take in the purity of Roots Americana, dirty it lovingly with hints of feedback, splashes of political anger and huge gulps of driving rock n roll, and you have the first two tracks, the gateway into the world of very human very fragile saints, and  sometimes beautiful sometimes scary and sinister devils.

As just music this collection is oh so easy to fall in love with. There is not an instrument out of place, no arrangement over blown or underdone, and the nuanced interplay between musicians (who follow each others rhythms as instinctively as brothers) is thrilling.

Of course it’s not just about the playing and the tunes, but a journey towards the light with all the perilous thoughts and shadowy images that the odyssey entails.

Stealing from the track, ‘Bring the Bottle’ these are often snapshots onto a world that is ‘One Righteous bloody mess!’ and as the cover of the CD suggests, there is  an allure to the decay, there is something deeply uplifting in the fact that the broken souls will keep standing, keep moving on.

And the Molenes will be the dance band they party  loud to, in wicked stops along the way.

Find out more here

http://www.themolenes.com

And you can hear the Molenes on this episode of the NBT podcast

http://www.nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=495389

Foresight/Poorsight- The Johns (Ghost In The Cupboard)

Rewind the film, slowly. A train sneaks back tragic into a tunnel, and the sun slipSlides behind a cloud. With rolling thunder, the drama of ‘Sun For Days’ unrolls. This is the end. NO, actually this is a seductively brutal beginning.

The theme of loss continues, made strangely sweet with a power pop chug, kinda like Mathew Sweet fronting a new wave Byrds. These are songs about dancing as close to the edge as possible, sometimes accepting that the fall is the most wonderful thing, these are songs that SEEM to be about giving up, but look/listen closer and they are about surviving the dull chaos of break ups and fractured dreams.

The singer is a cynic, the singer is conflicted, and the singer is a romantic, he searches through the shudders of the songs, through leftovers of a rock n roll explosion, the shattered remains of affairs and love, and he tries to explore the truth of things. And with this band, these are his findings.

This is no one man quest though; this band is a whirling strumming thrumming beating heart of a music machine, creating swirls and harmonies, a subtle modern wall of noise.

Through the loneliness, this band wants to reach out and touch you.

Find out more here

http://www.thejohnschicago.com/

Catch songs from this album on this weeks NBT podcast.. Going out this Friday

http://www.nextbigthing.libsyn.com