If you are a fan of Feist, Rilo Kiley, or Camera Obscura you should check out The Concretes. In an industry that is more or less dominated by males, it’s nice to come across good female led bands. Victoria Bergsman vocals bring to mind Jenny Lewis with maybe a hint of Nico. She left The Concretes in 2006 to pursue a solo career, but the band is still together and released Hey Trouble in 2007.

Although In Colour, which was a follow-up to the band’s 2004 self-titled debut, has received mixed reviews, I personally enjoy its charming sound. I can definitely understand why some critics were harsh on the album– it does have some hit or miss songs, and at times the lyrics leave a bit to be desired–but the lush instrumentals and harmonies make this a keeper. On In Colour, you’ll hear glockenspiel, vibraphone, clarinet, and a variety of string and brass assortments.

“On The Radio” is by far the catchiest song on the album–the beginning piano chords sound like they would be at the opening of a Broadway musical. Other highlights on the album include “Fiction,” “Ooh La La,” and “Songs They Sing.”

The Concretes are based in Stockholm, Sweden. Victoria Bergsman, Maria Eriksson, and Lisa Milberg formed the band in 1995, but they gradually grew to eight band members. When Bergsman left the group in 2006, Milberg took over as lead vocals for the band.

In Colour (2006):

(mp3) The Concretes – On The Radio

(mp3) The Concretes: Song for the Songs

S/T (2004):

(mp3) The Concretes – Say Something New

Site | iTunes | Amazon | Myspace

10. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive

The Hold Steady create albums. They write stories and develop characters. And that’s mostly why I like them; I can return to a Hold Steady album like a familiar friend. Stay Positive is different though, it’s more a collection of songs then an album. They still self-reference, and Charlemagne makes his requisite appearance, but Stay Positive is judged more on the quality of the songs then the weight of the message. And for that reason, it’s not their best release. But “Constructive Summer” is still one of the best songs they’ve written, and the title track is a tear-jerking, fist-pumping epic.

The Hold Steady – Constructive Summer

9. M83 – Saturdays=Youth

M83’s previous albums are the embodiment of forward motion; cascading spires of analog synth churning against concrete backbeats that form some sort of crazy word that is beyond soundscape, but just short of heaven. Saturdays = Youth is a pop album that would fit nicely in the eighties. Dreamy vocals drip nostalgic over those same churning synths, backed by stadium drums and that feeling of sunset at the park when your fourteen and in love. Completely self-indulgent, completely awesome.

M83 – Kim & Jessie

M83 – Graveyard Girl

8. Death Vessel – Nothing is Precious Enough For Us

I’ve just dusted this album off after two months of it resting on my (proverbial) shelf, and it feels like an old friend. Death Vessel’s guitars jump through the decades, recalling the folkier side of early seventies Neil Young while maintaining a spot among his (freak) folk contemporaries like Devandra and Vetiver. And goddamn, that falsetto is high. Don’t be alarmed if you think it’s a woman at first. It’s just like if Young sang in key. And maybe a bit prettier. (Note: Neil Young is a god.)

Death Vessel – Block My Eye

Death Vessel – Circa

7. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park

“No One Does it Like You” is propelled by popping, baritone harmonies (that remind me of Ocarina of Time…anyone else?) and lead vocals from the darker side of Grizzly Bear. It’s halfway between sunset and pitch-black. “Phantom Other” straddles that same line, same popping, subterranean harmonies, same romanticized sense of impending doom. In Ear Park is the type of album that attaches itself to memories. Two months down the road, you’ll hear “Phantom Other” and have a vivid recollection of that one time at the park with perfect light and a duck walking with feet too big for it’s body. Well, that’s just me. But here’s hoping.

Department of Eagles – Phantom Other

Department of Eagles – Teenagers

6. The Raveonettes – Lust, Lust, Lust

Lust, Lust, Lust is, as the title implies, sexy. Twisted surf-rock leads wind their way through clouds of atmospheric fuzz, like a lucid stroll through a sleeping city. It’s hazy rock and roll done in the tradition of (obviously) the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. Blended male and female vocals, anthemic surges of late-night guitar fuzz and a healthy dose of lust and longing. (I got lazy and basically re-wrote what I’d written for a past review, but I’m ok with that.)

The Raveonettes – You Want the Candy

The Raveonettes – Dead Sound

5. No Age – Nouns

I saw No Age guitarist Randy Randall (is that name for real?) do a stage dive from the top of his amp, guitar in hand, into a thrashing pit at the Middle East Downstairs last year. The guitars were gnarled, the vocals hardly there and the drums felt their way up into your chest and squeezed tightly. And somehow that still manages to come across recorded: “Eraser” feels like a summer’s day, all swaying guitars at sea, and “Teen Creeps” is a punk epic, distorted vocals over a handful of disgusting, swirling chords. Easy listening recorded at the outskirts of a hurricane.

No Age – Eraser

No Age – Teen Creeps

4. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

“All the girls of note are crying” might be my favorite album-opening line of all time. Well, at least of the last five minutes. In Ghost Colours makes me want to dance happy. The synth tones are delightfully retro, the vocoder hooks brilliant. And when it isn’t borrowing from 70s disco, or late 80s synth pop, it’s taking swirling guitars from the shoegaze-era or abrasive power chords from the punks. I’m beginning to notice a trend where I look to favorite albums to emulate love, but um, this album makes me want to fall in love on a dance floor, drunk during the early morning. This list is becoming uncomfortably introspective.

Cut Copy -Feel the Love

Cut Copy – Lights and Music

3. The Walkmen – You & Me

The Walkmen make me want to believe in things. Love, life, glory, whatever. Their songs just give me a sense of aimless inspiration. They also make me want to twirl in the snow at 2 am in the middle of a city street. Which is great. You & Me is the new years resolution you forgot to make, evidenced by the cataclysmic crescendos of the aptly named “In The New Year,” and the triumphant, spiraling guitars of “Postcards From Tiny Islands.”

The Walkmen – In The New Year

The Walkmen – Postcards From Tiny Islands

2. Pretty & Nice – Get Young

I’ve freaked out about this album enough already this year, so I’ll keep it mellow. Get Young is a kaleidoscopic tour through the last thirty years of pop and punk, condensed into twenty seven minutes of unbridled kinetic energy. It’s like a workout for your brain. They may have slipped under the radar this year, but Pretty & Nice are destined for great things.

Unfortunately I can’t upload any of their songs, but you can find the album streaming here.

1. The Dodos – Visiter

The Dodos are often mistaken for (a more cohesive) Animal Collective, probably due to their tribal drumming and frantic instrumentation. Other times they get Sufjan Stevens, probably due to the vocals and the depth of instrumentation. So take the insanity of Animal Collective with the sagacity of Sufjan, sprinkle in some extraneous inspiration and you’ll have something like the Dodos. This album hasn’t made a single Best-Of list I’ve read, and I’m disappointed. It’s been my go-to album for six or seven months at this point, and every new listen reveals a new gem. And I listened to this a lot while driving through mountain ranges in New Zealand.

The Dodos – Winter

The Dodos – Joe’s Waltz

It is not very often that you get to hear a band that features the singing saw and bouncing ping pong balls as percussion. Julian Koster (a former member of Neutral Milk Hotel) brings a bunch of unusual instrumentaiton to his latest release as The Music Tapes. I would recommend this band for any fan of Neutral Milk Hotel if you don’t mind more lo-fi recordings and lots of banjo strumming. The Music Tapes is part of the Elephant 6 Recording Company (one of the founding members being Jeff Mangum) whose bands include Apples in Stereo, Beuluah, Elf Power, and of course Neutral Milk Hotel.

The new album spotlights Julian Koster’s songcraft and distinctive vocals, his almost religious devotion to the singing saw, and numerous contributions from other musicians in the Elephant 6 orbit. As on previous efforts, recording was done using an array of antique hardware, giving Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes a timeless, texturally rich sonic palette. It is the sound of Julian’s world poking through the curtain surrounding objective reality.

Also, you might want to check out his new album that is fully streaming at the Merge Records Website that is a singing saw album full of Christmas classics, but I’ve got Jingle Bells as an MP3 for you too.

MP3: The Music Tapes – Cumulonimbus (Magnetic Tape for Clouds)

MP3: The Music Tapes – Nimbus Stratus Cirrus (Mr. Piano’s Majestic Haircut)

MP3: The Music Tapes – Jingle Bells

The Music Tapes | Elephant 6

The Welcome Wagon are Reverend Thomas Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique (and a lot of help from Sufjan Stevens who acts as producer, arranger, and backup musician). Their music is a very listenable addition to the tradition of liturgical music: a blend of folk, pop, and a hint of gospel.

The Welcome Wagon began as husband and wife singing in the privacy of their home. Having little to no previous musical experience or training, Vito purchased a guitar with the desire to sing hymns with his family. With Monique accompanying on toy glockenspiel or harmonica, the two would amble through old hymnals, psalters and prayerbooks.

The similarities between The Welcome Wagon and Sufjan are hard to deny because he was so instrumental (pun intended) in making this album happen. As fellow Christians from Michigan living in Brooklyn, it just makes sense that this collaboration happened. For many this will hold Sufjan fans over until his next album, but the Reverend and his wife are able to distinguish themselves enough to hold their own. I cannot say I follow any specific religion, but I can appreciate their commitment and their own personal tribute to God and I accept their invitation to the Welcome Wagon.

Sure, there are showy guitar riffs and piano codas and harmonica solos, a rowdy chorus, an imposing flourish of brass instruments like wartime canons. But at the heart of it—if you really listen carefully—there’s just a pastor and his wife tentatively singing in the quiet privacy of their own home.

MP3: The Welcome Wagon – Sold! To The Nice Rich Man

MP3: The Welcome Wagon – I Am A Stranger

The Welcome Wagon | Sufjan Stevens

The Shins did a great Magnetic Fields cover of the song “Strange Powers” (that I came across by way of Aquarium Drunkard). I have to agree that this cover is better than the original, but at the same time, could The Shins ever write love songs that are as rewarding as the ones written by Magnetic Fields? I don’t think so.

(MP3) The Shins – Strange Powers (Magnetic Fields Cover)
(MP3) The Magnetic Fields – Strange Powers

(MP3) The Magnetic Fields – Absolutely Cuckoo

Fire On Fire are a Maine based band that have similar vibes to Joanna Newsom, Fleet Foxes and Akron/Family. Their sound is a combination of American folk genres ranging from bluegrass to Appalachian folk. It doesn’t seem like they would have any problem encouraging you to sing along and stop your feet. Here’s a little biography from their record label Young God Records:

They used to be the art-punk-prog-chaos collective Cerberus Shoal, but they ditched their electric instruments, went into hiding for a while, and now play all acoustic—stand up bass, mandolin, banjo, harmonium, accordion, acoustic guitar, dobro etc etc, and they all sing and harmonize on the songs. Live, they do it “old school” and just use two mics placed in front of them on the stage, like a bluegrass band. They all live in the same house up in Maine, across from rusting green oil tanks, apparently. To me they sound like a backwoods, fierce, psychedelic Mamas And The Papas or a crazed and joyously vengeful gospel string band.

Their album The Orchard was just released yesterday. Go check it out. Go listen to the MP3s posted below.

MP3: Fire On Fire – Flight Song

MP3: Fire On Fire -Grin

MySpace | Young God Records

For all those Radiohead fans out there, I recommend keeping a very close eye on Mike Fish, also known as Dakotafish. Though his music is a more instrumental based than Radiohead, a little folkier, I won’t be the first person, and definitely not the last, to acknowledge how similar his vocals are to Thom Yorke. It’s eerie.

I am extremely impressed with the four tracks on his self-titled EP, and if Fish’s debut is as memorizing as this EP, I could easily see him becoming a leading musician in the indie scene. His blend of beats and guitar rifts, mixed with various electronic and orchestral arrangements makes for a unique sound that fits perfectly with his vocals.

In the summer of 2007, Mike Fish formed the Dakotafish project in San Diego (they are based in Encinitas, California). He plays many of the instruments heard on the EP, but Jennifer Argenti and Manuel Rhueda help with the strings and drums, respectfully (Aaron Sterling played drums on the EP.) Fish seems like a really cool guy, which can easily be seen in the FAQ’s he coincidentally wrote and answered. He is also a talented photographer, and you can see some of his pictures here. The EP packaging was beautifully done, and the aesthetics on their own make this worth physically owning.

Fish said after taking his EP to the Amoeba CD store in Los Angeles, “As a friendly rocker behind the counter took it away, I felt a little like I was looking at the last scene from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’ You know, with the guy wheeling the ark into that huge government warehouse amongst thousands and thousands of other buried and lost artifacts?” Don’t allow that to be the fate of this EP. Check it out.

Self-Titled EP (2008):

(mp3) Dakotafish – Landlocked

(mp3) Dakotafish – Teenage Years

This is a neat 30 second Obama ad with Fish’s music in the background.

Site | Paypal (direct EP purchase, with limited edition print) | iTunes | Myspace

I have a confession: The Fruit Bats are one of my very favorite bands, and each year they go without releasing a new album, I grow more depressed. We are at three years now, and let’s just say that a fourth year would make life unbearable. Eric Johnson, the main fruit bat, became a member of The Shins a few years ago, and I thought they were going to kidnap him for good. Well, it turns out that Johnson longs for The Fruit Bats just as much as me, maybe even more, and has decided to come back and release an album next year! He says in his first post on his brand new blog:

After three years or so, Fruit Bats are back in the saddle. I spent the last couple of years playing in The Shins (a fine day job if there ever was one), but I’m back in full force with the first love of my musical life. Songs have been written. Recording dates have been written in permanent ink. To prove that I’m serious about this, Fruit Bats will be touring the west coast of the United States of America. How ’bout it? Other parts of the country, as well as other nations, will be visited later in the year.

The Fruit Bats don’t have nearly the recognition they deserve. Johnson is incredibly talented, and whether he is making catchy, upbeat melodies (“When U Love Somebody”), folk tunes (“Rainbow Sign”), or compositions, he blows it out of the water nearly every single time. I really hope someone asks him to score a movie some day–just take a listen to “Track Rabbits” below.

In 1999, Eric Johnson formed The Fruit Bats in Chicago. There has been a rotation of over 25 different band members, believe it or not, but currently members backing Johnson include Graeme Gibson, Chris Sherman, and Sam Wagster. They are signed to Sub Pop and are now based out of Seattle. I had to go back into the archives to find this, but a few years ago Johnson wrote a funny post entitled, “My Other Career Options If This Whole Music Thing Doesn’t Eventually Pan Out.”

Mouthfuls (2003):

Fruit Bats – Rainbow Sign

Fruit Bats – When U Love Somebody

Fruit Bats – Track Rabbits

Spelled In Bones (2005):

Fruit Bats – Lives Of Crime

Fruit Bats – The Wind That Blew My Heart Away

Echolocation (2001):

Fruit Bats- Glass In Your Feet

Fruit Bats – Coal Age

Site | Myspace

Tour dates:

Jan 27 2009 JOHN HENRY’S EUGENE, Oregon
Jan 29 2009 LUIGI’S FUN GARDEN SACRAMENTO, California
Jan 30 2009 BOTTOM OF THE HILL SAN FRANCISCO, California
Jan 31 2009 CELLAR DOOR VISALIA, California
Feb 2 2009 THE CASBAH SAN DIEGO, California
Feb 3 2009 THE ECHO LOS ANGELES, California
Feb 5 2009 THE IKE BOX SALEM, Oregon
Feb 6 2009 MISSION THEATER PORTLAND, Oregon
Feb 7 2009 THE VERA PROJECT SEATTLE, Washington

Akhil mentioned Department of Eagles briefly in one of his brilliant song of the day collections (check them out here and here for oh-so-much music), but this song, and the album In Ear Park, totally deserve a post of their own.

Department of Eagles is the product of Daniel Rosen and Fred Nicolaus, who met at NYU in 2000. Rosen joined Grizzly Bear in 2004, just in time to contribute to it’s masterpiece, Yellow House and enlisted the help of his band mates for the recording of In Ear Park. The past few days have found me stuck in a compulsory cycle between the two albums; they call to each other, near perfect compliments. As a result, I’m so sappy and romantic right now I don’t know what to do with myself.

“Phantom Other” opens in defeat: “Alright, we’ll do this your way” Rosen croons over vaguely classical, utterly haunting arpegios before unleashing an inexplicably devastating chord change, unexpected and visceral. One key note, a down instead of an up, struck with force – his bitter conviction – and my gut is roiling (1:03).The song now sounds like a sunny day in the sixties gone wrong; something sinister in the harmonies, one note gone awry, one rain cloud beckoning the impending storm. And that’s the attraction. The song explodes, “My god in heaven/what were we thinking?” cast toward the clouds by a frantic pedal-steel, a twenty-second divergence into a kaleidoscopic bar-room cabaret, and it’s over.

The storm has passed. “Look out/Look Out/We gotta get out now.”

From In Ear Park:

Department of Eagles – Phantom Other

Department of Eagles – Teenagers

From Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House:

Grizzly Bear – Knife

|MySpace|Amazon|Label|

meet stud, the shivers’ new mascot.

I’ve spent a lot of my time recently listening to the New York City based band, The Shivers. We’ve featured both their 2008 release, Beaks To The Moon, and 2004 release, Charades, on the site before, and every so often I go through a phase where I only want to listen to their music.

Keith Zarriello, The Shivers front man, has some of the most honest and poetic music you’ll ever come across. I absolutely love it. As I mentioned in a previous post, they do a great job of balancing the familiar with the unfamiliar both lyrically and instrumentally. Their song “Beauty” off Charades is one of the most beautiful and meaningful songs I’ve ever heard. Newer songs off Beaks to The Moon are fantastic, as well (especially “Lonely Road,” “Feather,” and “Love is Good.”)

The Shivers have a CMJ show coming up Oct 23 at Pete’s Candy Store, and shortly after will be heading off to the west coast for a small tour. I have yet to see them live, but hopefully that will change in the not too distant future. Check out their Myspace for the tour dates. And don’t forget to support this great band, they are among today’s best independent acts.

The Shivers – Beauty

The Shivers – Lonely Road

Beaks to the Moon (2008):

The Shivers – Feather

The Shivers – Love Is Good

Charades (2004):

The Shivers – L.I.E.

The Shivers – SoHo Party (This is an example of the diversity I’m talking about. And the song turns into a really cool Cat Stevens cover. Can you dig it?)

Phone Calls (2007):

The Shivers – The Road

Site| Amazon | iTunes | Myspace | 911 Truth (this ones for you, Keith)