by Lauren Tischler

It is safe to say that hip-hop prodigy Scott Mescudi, better known as Kid Cudi, has a lot going for him. His debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day sold 104,419 copies in the span of a week, he stars in HBO’s “How to Make it in America,” and has collaborated with hip hop greats such as Common and Kanye West. The rapper, singer, and actor is on the top of his game after a few short years, and the much awaited release of his newest album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager tells us he’s not stopping anytime soon.

Considering the amount of success that Kid Cudi’s breakthrough album had in 2009, it was instantly obvious that the follow-up had to meet some high expectations. Whether the album meets these standards is debatable. The album opens with the rapper crooning promising lyrics. “You are now in the world I am ruling,” he expresses, followed by a soulful chorus sung by Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green. The song is seemingly a prelude to an album that we believe will be somewhat like Cudi’s first work: refreshing and youthful. What follows, “REVOFEV”, meets our anticipations with a mysterious, psychedelic drum beat and instrumental track.

While the first two tracks of Man on the Moon II are convincing, the rest of Kid Cudi’s album proves to be wary. The tracks are unmemorable and seem to blend together as the album progresses. “Don’t Play this Song” is a dull composition with monotonous lyrics, and while Mary J. Blige is featured on the track, even she fails to impress. “MANIAC” featuring St. Vincent and Cage, and “Erase Me” with Kanye West again prove that even an impressive line up of guest vocalists does not attribute considerably to success of any kind on Cudi’s album.

Although Man on the Moon II is not Kid Cudi’s most outstanding work, it shows us a side of the artist we have not seen in his earlier music. Since Kid Cudi’s first album, he has become a father to a little girl named Vada and has been arrested for criminal charges and drug possession. The artist has also, in the past year, opened up about a heavy cocaine addiction. Though we should not hand Cudi a free pass because of these trials, it is unquestionably a factor to be taken in when considering his newest album. Man on the Moon II is blatantly dark and exemplifies these problems in Cudi’s life. This effect can be seen, for example, in “Wild’n Cuz i’m Young”. Kid Cudi speaks of how his father’s smoking and drinking habits influenced him over an eerie synth line. “These Worries” is another cryptic narrative. The album closes with “Trapped in my Mind”, and while the track is not catchy or noteworthy, Cudi’s lifeless delivery provides a surprisingly fitting conclusion to the album.

So despite the fact that Kid Cudi’s new album won’t be perpetually blasting from my stereo in contrast to his early release, it serves another purpose. Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager introduces us to an intimate artist named Scott Mescudi, rather than the pop culture icon Kid Cudi we know and see everyday.

Kid Cudi – Scott Mescudi vs. The World (ft. Cee-Lo Green)

Kid Cudi – REVOFEV

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by Matt Keefer

Frontman Wayne Coyne approaches the tour at his own pace.

Few could predict that an indie punk group from Oklahoma City would have such an innovative presence in the music world. At 49, Wayne Coyne and his quartet of space-a-delic freaks, including bassist Michael Ivins and drummers Steven Drozd and Kliph Scurlock, have earned a Grammy, covered Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety, and toured relentlessly across the world. Currently on tour for their first double-album Embryonic (excluding Zaireeka, their 1997 four-album experiment), the self-deprecating Coyne delivers about the not-so-glamorous side of touring, as well as about future projects.

Matt Keefer: Thanks for your time. Do you mind if I record the interview?

Wayne Coyne: Sure. I don’t expect you to write it all down and remember it. I’m not doubting your ability to remember, but, see, I just talk. It might be a lot easier for you to say, ‘Nah, that fucker goes on too long.’

M: At 27, being 49 seems like a long way to travel.

WC: I remember when I was 27, I would think about someone who’s almost 50 years old: ‘Dude, are you alright?’ I don’t ever get the feeling that I’m any different. It’s only when I look in the mirror sometimes that I think, “oh wow, I look like a weird old guy.” I don’t feel different to myself. It’s a strange phenomenon.

M: How’s your tour for Embryonic going so far?

WC: We’re never really on tour for very long. We’ll go out for maybe about ten days, play some shows, then we’ll go home for ten days… we’re always doing everything at the same time. Since we’re playing some shows in the summertime, you always run into other groups, and we ran into a group, Trombone Shorty, just last night. They’re almost into their third consecutive month of playing. That can beat you down. I already did that several times – when I was your age – and it can be such a mind-fuck, you’re so torn away from your life that you’re trying to build, the people that you knew. Like I said, I’m 49 years old, and the other guys, they’re not as old as me, but they’re not in their early 20s. I think they don’t want to be taken away from their families and their lives for that long. And you can almost go endlessly the way we’re going. You can almost never stop, because we’re going full-time. Doing the Flaming Lips tour is kind of like working at Target: it just kinda is. It’s not too hard, you just get up and go to work.

M: I know some musicians that have kids, and touring must be rough on them.

WC: Especially for musicians. The reason I say musicians is that they have a sensitivity about them, or they probably wouldn’t like music. And all these things that play into human dramas and emotions are just a little bit more, either enjoyable, or a little bit more painful. Sometimes I think groups try to say ‘we’re going to play for six months straight,’ and then take three years off. You know, that’s easy to say, but a lot of things happen to people in six months that you cannot reverse. Especially if you have young children. Six months, they’ll be completely different little creatures by then. We don’t want that. We want to make our music, do our performances, do all these things because we love what we do, not put one thing that we love on hold so we can have another. We want to have it all at the same time.

M: On the positive aspect of that, do you have any good tour stories?

WC: (Laughs) I don’t know, a lot of times there’s not that much crazy shit going on. When we played at Bonnaroo about a month ago, you play into the night pretty long, and there’s a lot of young people there that are doing drugs and stuff. So those [gigs] always play more into the good old rock and roll stories. After we got done, it was about ten minutes after three in the morning, I went over to the LCD Soundsystem stage, where they had just started their set – and I sort of Tweeted about it the day afterward – but this big, naked guy sort of attacked the stage.  Me and, what’s this comedian’s name, Aziz Ansari? – this giant, freaked-out naked guy, had to be doing some acid or something, simply attacked the stage, and we sort of had to hold him down until the security guards could take him away. It was a very strange, charged moment, where that doesn’t happen to you every day. You know, where you’re suddenly assailed by a 300-pound, naked guy, and he’s all sweaty and he’s drenched. That’s probably the last phenomenal rock-and-roll moment that happened to us.

M: I guess at that moment you’re glad that you pump iron five times a week.

WC: I don’t do that much, but I do yoga almost every day. So, yeah, you’re glad that you have energy and you can react and you don’t feel intimidated. I know you’re saying that jokingly, but I mean it. To be in a group, and to do all these things; you wouldn’t want to do it if you don’t have a lot of enthusiasm. So yeah, I jumped right to task. We didn’t really want to. The guy was very strong but he was pretty slippery, because he was so sweaty. The slipperiness made it impossible to grab him. It’s a good trick. If you’re ever going to run from the cops, strip yourself naked and be slippery.

M: Sure. I should probably carry some cans of grease, too.

WC: (Pauses) Then their only solution is to tase you.

M: You’ve also toured Europe and around the world. Any places you’ve enjoyed outside of the US?

WC: It’s all pretty great when you’re a group like the Flaming Lips. Most everywhere that we would go nowadays, we’re invited to play by a group of enthusiastic ‘freaks.’ We just recently went to Croatia, and we played the Glastonbury Festival (in UK) and got to see Snoop Dogg, meet Mick Jones from the Clash. Hang out with Damien Hirst. There’s a lot of great things that can happen to you simply because you’re just traveling the world all the time. But the other side of it is that you spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes. Sometimes you get done playing at two-o-clock in the morning, and you have to get to the airport at four-o-clock in the morning. Running from one show to the next, everything is ‘hurry hurry hurry’ all the time. Sometimes I think it’s too many experiences. It’d be like having to eat twenty meals in one day. There’s just no way you can enjoy all the things that are happening.

M: Do you have anything new on the horizon?

WC: We’re always – I don’t know if ‘contemplating’ is the right word – but you’re always considering new musical ideas, new things that you want to play into. We’re always doing little movies and little videos. I just shot an ending of a video for a song on Embryonic called “See the Leaves”. We were shooting this guy on the north side of Oklahoma City who has a big acreage where he’s burning a bunch of his brush that he had chopped down. So we saw this giant fucking bonfire. We shot for an ongoing piece in our storyboard there. So it’s always a kind of combination of everything: new music, and new movies, new videos, new things for our website, new toys, new t-shirts. Everything is a Flaming Lips creation. The great range of things that you can do readjusts your focus on music.

M: Last question: Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs made a brief appearance as a frog on Embryonic.  Would you consider a fuller collaboration with her?

WC: These are definitely collaborations of a sort. I don’t know. For me, I’m more comfortable doing these types of collaborations, where I have the song written, and I have the arrangement, and I just simply call Karen and say ‘All you have to do is be you, and I’ll do all the work.’ A lot of artists don’t really want to collaborate in the sense that people think they do. The art is a lot of times just made very intensely. You simply say, ‘I like this and I don’t care what you think.’ That is in a lot of ways how art is made. And when you’re collaborating with someone that you love and admire, the way that I was working with Karen O, it’s not so much a collaboration, as it’s me giving her a format for her to be her pure self. And that’s different than us writing a song or writing lyrics or writing an arrangement together. So, I don’t know. If whoever called me up and said, ‘Hey, do you want to do this,’ I would always be open for it. I’m open to new experiences and new failures or successes. But I could understand how a lot of people wouldn’t be. It’s nerve-wracking; it’s not always very pleasant. I try to make ours as easy, as quick, and as pleasant as possible. They simply can do this little thing, and be part of this bigger thing. That’s why most artists would want to do it in that way, more than a ‘Hey Henry (Rollins), why don’t you write a song today?’ A lot of people will do that to us. I’ll say ‘not really, but I will, if that’s what we’re doing.’

M: You’re definitely right: you talk a lot. But it works with interviews.

WC: (Laughs) I know I paint it like it’s going to be torture, but I’m trying to give you as much a lay of thinking about me as you can. Make me sound cool.

The Flaming Lips will be playing on 10/10 in Austin, TX. You can buy tickets here.

The Flaming Lips – Race for the Prize

The Flaming Lips – Fight Test

The Flaming Lips – It’s Summertime

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The post Interview with The Flaming Lips appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

Describing an Of Montreal show is like setting the scene for a circus. Literally. The amount of cartoonish yet elaborate characters, the band-built set of props, the whirlwind of energy… it is difficult to pinpoint which component of the performance merits the most mention. When it comes down to it though, like the mark of any great band, it is the music that keeps people going. For a band like Of Montreal, their set is not an illusion designed to compensate for sub-par music. Neither is frontman Kevin Barnes’ energy, which is the quite opposite of a facade and a vocal part of his music whether on stage or not. So when I saw them for the first time on Saturday night, I was not surprised by the festival-like atmosphere. I knew that would be there. What stunned me was a remarkably tight performance that somehow managed to take the best parts of the band’s music and their renowned stage presence, both of which are anything but subtle. Such immaculate management prevented an overflowing of ideas, which is always possible considering the band’s lofty scope. Fans were treated to quality with no pretentious showmanship.

The success of their performance on Saturday night, the second of a two-night stint at Terminal 5, is no surprise to fans. When you have an opener like Janelle Monáe, who is successfully attaining fame in both independent and mainstream circles, it is hard to have doubts. The little that I caught of her set was excellent, and her re-emergence during the phenomenal “Enemy Gene” later in the night brought emphatic cheering from an audience that were thankful to be given an opener that sounded like a headliner. This occurred about mid-way through Of Montreal’s setlist, which to my delight was culled heavily from their new album, False Priest (review here), and my favorite, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (review here). Barnes and co. were able to seamlessly navigate their way around a setlist that, despite their striking stylistic similarities (like Barnes’ falsetto or a funk-heavy rhythm section), contained appropriate variations in tempo and mood.

A rendition of “Casualty of You” was a surprising entry in the midst of jolted dance-friendly efforts like “Godly Intersex” and “Girl Named Hello”, which was accompanied with dancers in pig masks who proceeded to grind it up with Barnes. Yet, they all maintained synchronization even as breathing room got thinner. As the sole ballad-like track on False Priest, “Casualty of You” fit naturally with songs from the same album despite its emotional distance. Barnes’ piano-driven delivery reached believable authenticity despite the more vivacious preceding efforts, which was played with expected mastery by longtime members Bryan Poole, Dottie Alexander, and others. Barnes stole the show’s visual factor, but the music was a collaborative tour-de-force that contained the tightness and infectiousness demanded from funk-heavy efforts.

Performances of “Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider” and “She’s a Rejector” reminded me how wonderful Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? was. Even though Barnes is three years past the divorce that plagued him to write many of the exceptional but forlorn efforts on Hissing Fauna, the same intensity was there as if it happened yesterday. It is questionable whether an audience should enjoy an artist’s suffering, so perhaps these tracks sounded bouncier and more fluid than usual because the issue is not as sensitive. Or maybe it is simply that the band was on their game. The intro to “Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider” focused on some very interesting glitch-pop, while “She’s a Rejector” retained the same successful anthem-against-heartbreak feel as it did three years ago. These songs were fantastic additions to the False Priest-heavy set, showing more alt-rock and electro-rock than funk but achieving a similar degree of irresistible uniqueness.

These earlier efforts had little dependence on the set or scenery, which Barnes described to Spinner as being a very collaborative effort: “It’s like we’re an art collective, in a way,” he said. “Everyone in the band is contributing, everyone is the crew is contributing and this is very collaborative experience for all of us. Our bass player is responsible for building 85 percent of the props we’re going to use on tour. My brother designed all of them. All of us are involved in filming all the video content.” Seeing as how tightly involved the band’s music was, it is not surprising to see that this was a mutual effort. Barnes may steal the show on more occasions than one, but it is clear that the Georgia-based collective are blessed with additional talent beyond their enigmatic frontman.

For a tour that has seemingly been developed like an elaborate film, with costumes and sets taking the entire summer to create, it certainly lived up to expectations. I am not sure how Barnes had enough time to write a great album like False Priest AND help organize an intricate tour like this, but that is beside the fact. The band put on an exceptional show that was lively but also somewhat grounded, featuring a very accessible setlist (for Of Montreal’s standards) and not straying too far from it, apart from a few admirable Michael Jackson covers to close the night. I recommend that you listen to False Priest, fall in love with it, and check to see if the band is coming somewhere near you. If not, it is one of those tours you will regret missing a year from now.

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Of Montreal – Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider

Of Montreal – Coquet Coquette

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The post Of Montreal: 09/18/10 @ Terminal 5 appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

by Lauren Tischler

The sound of Ghost Mall is indescribable. But the band, made up of college roommates Pierce, Alex, Cody, and Jimi, give it their best shot. “Garage-y ramshackle pop/ethereal,” lead singer Pierce Lightening struggles, attempting to put a label on his own music. With a lead singer named Pierce Lightening, and influences along the lines of “Babes, Springsteen, Comic Books, and Star Wars,” you are naturally drawn to the quartet. What is surprisingly more interesting than the band members themselves is the music on their first album, Goons.

The album, produced by DJ Teenwolf of Ninjasonik, features five well-done and oddly classy songs. The EP starts out with the marijuana-induced “40 Nugs”, and while I would have chosen a different track for the first, it sets an appropriate tone to the album without giving away their mysterious style. Next is “Senile Felines”, setting a dark synthesized tone that lures the listener further in. The next couple of tracks are “Young Liars”, followed by “Balloon Idea’s”, which captures an eerie essence while keeping it light; it samples a few lines from Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” with convincing maneuvers. The final track, “Johnny Appleseed”, serves as a near-perfect ending. It is more of an anthem than anything, providing the listener with a soft sort of closure.

The album itself is a work of art, but it is clear that Ghost Mall are about performance art more than anything else. Ethan Barnett, a fan, describes a show in full detail. “The first time I saw them, it was in the basement of SUNY New Paltz. It was one of the coldest nights of that winter, but as soon as I got into the basement and Ghost Mall was about to begin their set, I began to sweat because there were about 75 people packed into a small classroom. They began their first song and the room turned into a beehive, with everyone dancing in every direction. The lead singer was lost in the crowd, and all you could see was one of his hands. By the time they began their second song, the keyboardist and guitarist were lost in the mess too. Midway through their set, Pierce was thrown up into a crowd surf, and he held onto a water pole that was soaking wet from condensation. After the final song, “Johnny Appleseed”, everyone ran out the exit covered with sweat. Head to toe.”

“I don’t know what we’re trying to achieve,” Pierce says about his band’s music. “We’re just being honest. Sometimes it’s about our specific friends, sometimes it’s about how everything should be. Mostly, our songs are about the end of the world. So maybe they’re a warning.”

You can catch Ghost Mall on September 24th at 323 Wall Street in Uptown Kingston, New York.

RIYL: Japanther, Penguin Prison, Male Bonding, Urinals, Latterman, Cloud Nothings, Abe Vigoda, Times New Viking, No Age, The Mae Shi, Parts & Labor, Psychedelic Horseshit, AIDS Wolf, Wavves, Lightning Bolt, Jay Reatard, NODZZZ, Sic Alps, HEALTH, Arab on Radar

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Ghost Mall – 40 Nugs

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Ghost Mall – Balloon Ideas

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Ghost Mall – Johnny Appleseed (acoustic version)

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The post Ghost Mall appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

by Josh Taylor

Julian Shah-Tayler was born to make music. Putting out an EP every few months and pumping out 50-70 songs a year is no easy feat, unless you show prevalently the aspects of a well-rounded musician. His robust musicianship is responsible for his versatility as an artist. What I noticed after listening to his latest EP, Un Ange Passe, is that Julian is a songwriter who creates for his heart’s content. He strays from songwriting conventions and isn’t afraid to experiment if it amuses his untypical sensibilities.

Julian’s songs distinctly belong to their maker. Un Ange Passe is very personal and all the songs on the EP (with the exception of “Wetter”) were written for a dearly departed friend of Julian’s who tragically passed away. The literal translation of the title “Un Ange Passe” is “an angel is passing”, but is usually used when an awkward silence falls over the room. The EP tells a brief and interesting story about what happened to Christine. Julian tells it well, as the story is endearing and stripped down to the most honest details.

Instead of diving into the story headfirst, the EP begins with “Wetter.”  The songs on the EP are sandwiched by “Wetter” and the remix of “Wetter” by Karl Leiker. This song is definitely the black sheep… uptempo, naughty lyrics and electro influence. The feel of the song is great and could be a radio hit. The second song on Un Ange Passe is “Everything Is You”, serving as a good transition into the rest of the EP, which is more relaxed musically. The song begins with finger-snapping, chimes and some elusive and wandering exotic-sounding instruments. Then iit develops a direction and chooses to take on a New Order/Depeche Mode feel. The nameless exotics remain, lending a curious tone to the song. It’s almost as if they don’t belong, but are still welcomed.

“Communication” resembles the sparse feel of a desert. It’s expansive (at 5 and a half minutes) and filled with many instrumental breaks. The track lulls and winds but I don’t know that it goes anywhere. All I know is that when I listen to it, I start to space out.  If Julian wanted “Communication” to have a daydream-inducing effect, then bravo — well done, because that is exactly what happens.

“Christine” is where the EP starts to come together and the song clearly lays out what exactly happened to his late friend of the same name. Make what you want of the other songs and interpret them as you wish, but here is what happened, Julian seems to say. Musically, “Christine” brings to mind The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?” and has the same pensive inquiry.  One of the most striking and revealing lyrics is “as the kiss of the needle delivers you to the real world” followed by this lyric in the bridge “even if this life could give you all the love you need, I guess you had enough.” The verdict: overdose.

Un Ange Passe occupies a certain estranged darkness, but it is only when the listener gets to “Christine” that I feel they can go back and find its lingering presence in the background of the entire EP. Perhaps that misplaced discomfort is the awkwardness that the album title also refers to. Still, the way the song is handled is half ode, half something else that I can’t quite pin down. For a song written for a close friend the song isn’t particularly sentimental, which is odd to me. However,  I think those feelings find their way into the next song “Lullabies.”

From what I heard, “Lullabies” was written for Julian’s future daughter. But the listener is also led to believe that perhaps the song’s tender message is intended for Christine as well. The lullaby soothes the listener as well as the singer, perhaps reminding him that everything will be fine and there really is nothing to be afraid of during the night, and maybe in death…

Whatever the ultimate purpose of Un Ange Passe is, it can be listened to in many different ways. Julian is adventurous with his artistic choices and presents his subject matter though a twisted lens. This is not to say that his method is perverse, but rather aiming for artistic perfection on his own terms. Some say that’s a nifty idea. I would say it’s better than nifty, or original, or clever. I would say the whole EP is a noble effort. Too many musicians make music to turn a quick buck but lack the vision to make something worthwhile. Others write for their heart’s content, yet lack the talent to make sophisticated music. Julian, however, is the best of both. He is talented and passionate, which shows remarkably.

One last thing I noticed: None of these songs showcase Julian’s piano talents, but word on the street is that his full-length debut does. Entitled Coito Ergo Sum, it is due in the fall. So keep an eye out, or an ear rather.

RIYL: Depeche Mode, Dave Gahan, New Order, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, The Cure, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Alphaville, David Wrench, The Human League, Gary Numan, Tears for Fears, Soft Cell, INXS, Talk Talk, A Flock of Seagulls, Naked Eyes, Blancmange

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Julian Shah-Tayler – Everything Is You

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Julian Shah-Tayler – Wetter

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Julian Shah-Tayler – In Your Room (Depeche Mode cover)

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Impossible Things Records

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The post Julian Shah-Tayler appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

Despite what its name entails, the concept of a “super-group” is becoming increasingly relative with the gradual expansion and appreciation of emerging styles and genres. The days where unanimous and successful super-groups – like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the Traveling Wilburys – sell out concerts are long gone. Trends are more important in music than ever before, so committing oneself to a super-group full of stubborn veterans that are too honorable to sell out is not exactly a big label’s dream scenario. Therefore, what is left of “super-groups” are those that specialize in very specific genres or locales. It may sound contradictory in that a group with little recognition should not be considered “super”, but acknowledgment of such a tag has now come to suggest that the artists in the respective group are literally the best in the world at their specific trade. It does not matter whether the trade is Louisiana hip-hop, Japanese rock, or elevator music. Regardless of what it is, there is always someone listening. Nowadays, these type of acts now work in a very specific niche with a very specific type of audience in mind. It has resulted in more failures than successes, but every once in awhile there is a release in this hyped-up vein that satisfies.

In terms of lush German electronic-pop, there are few groups with more credentials than Lali Puna. This is mainly due to Markus Acher, who is primarily responsible for hefty successes of The Notwist and Tied & Tickled Trio (with drummer Christoph Brandner). The Notwist are most renowned for their fifth album Neon Golden, which to me was undoubtedly one of the best electronic-pop releases of the 2000s. Its essential status is mainly propelled by its stylistic distinctiveness, which combined generally expansive hip-hop and post-rock production techniques within a minimalistic atmosphere that contained pop-oriented synths and reverb-heavy vocals. The heavy use of strings helped make the album both dramatic and infectious, showing listeners that electronic-pop does not have to be bogged down in repetitive minimalism to be successful. Like the past success of Air and the more recent breakthrough of The Knife/Fever Ray, The Notwist proved to be one of the few foreign electronic acts that were able to make a huge splash in the US and UK. You may notice that artists like Air and The Knife had few comparable contemporaries at the time of their breakthroughs. Their influence, of course, was echoed in the years to follow instead. The same looks to happen for Lali Puna, who have made one of the most gorgeous and captivating electronic releases of 2010.

Lali Puna’s fourth LP, Our Inventions, will likely do for them what Neon Golden did for The Notwist. Acher and co. have expanded upon an already-successful formula to make it better, which for experienced musicians like vocalist Valerie Trebeljahr and keyboardist Christian Heiß is a seamless process. Following upon the success of 2004’s Faking the Books, Our Inventions contains treats for both fans of Acher’s keyboard-led work with The Notwist and those that prefer the more subdued work of Lali Puna. A gem like “Remember?” employs the sparkling keyboards and thumping bass that made Notwist tracks like “Pilot” so catchy, with Trebeljahr soft-spoken vocals providing excellent accentuation to the chorus. This part enhances the initial verse with an extra gurgle of bass and outro that plays with the glitchy electro-pop that made Acher famous in Germany and elsewhere. He really works well with other musicians who deserve just as much credit though, namely Heiß (who is purported to “rip it up on keyboards” during live performances) and drummer Christoph Brandner, who provides the stellar and natural-sounding rhythmic role that many electronic-pop counterparts are missing.

“Everything is Always” is a great display of Brandner’s strengths, particularly how he is able to coordinate with Acher’s brilliantly implemented glitch effects and samples. Heiß is always there to provide a beautifully fluttering keyboard melody, best seen here and on “Remember?”. Trebeljahr’s observatory nature in “Everything is Always” really succeeds when aligned with the instrumentation, which is almost always led by a xylophone-like effect that finds itself expanded upon by various increments of both electronic and natural effects. The self-titled track is also interesting, namely because it sounds similar to recent greats like Beach House in its droning representation of dream-pop. Trebeljahr proves by this point in Our Inventions that she is a fantastic at emitting a wide range of emotions. While her actual vocal range is not noticeably limited, it is certainly not breathtaking enough to launch ships. What makes her presence so special though is her investment in every track, each responding differently depending on the mood and structure. With Acher at the helm, this makes for plenty of enjoyable experiments. Trebeljahr is a perfect fit for this type of atmospheric electronic-pop and, with her three other collaborators, has crafted an excellent album in Our Inventions.

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Lali Puna – Remember

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Lali Puna – Our Inventions

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Lali Puna – Everything is Always

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In one of New Orleans’ few instances where sports reigned over music, the super bowl has cast many into a week-long, universalized hangover. It permits locals to do, well, whatever they want as long as it is celebratory of the Saints. Even after its recent natural disasters, New Orleans is unarguably one of the most passionate and culturally thriving cities in the US. This is why such a reaction should not be surprising. If something “picks up” in New Orleans – whether it is a football team or musical movement – the locals feel indebted to its success and honored to be a part of it. This ideology has made for very close-knit communities among local niches, which to music fans is most identifiable in the genres of jazz and funk. It is not like most states on either coast, where rock and hip-hop continue to be the most influential styles among our youth. Although New Orleans has certainly impressed with a stellar hip-hop scene (Cash Money Records), most locals are too proud of their roots to let a new movement overshadow New Orleans’ unique musical identity. Styles will continue to emerge, propagate, and influence, but few other places have a history as rich as New Orleans. It would be impossible for such a historical influence to become obsolete.

A proud native of New Orleans, Blair stands out both visually and stylistically (you may remember I did a feature on her debut release, Pluto, in 2007). A petite white girl with a guitar is not going to demand the immediate presence that a voluptuous lounge singer or music ensemble would, especially in a place like New Orleans where one is catering to those accustomed to music with a rich African-American context. While it is not deemed necessary, there is certainly a disadvantage to attempting rock music in New Orleans. If there is no blues, funk, or jazz implemented, then there is a good chance that finding a gig will be very difficult unless you know the right people. It is not so much that discrimination is involved, but rather gradual appreciation for a genre that one grew up in. Taste is developed along with experience, and a distaste for rock music from one population or hip-hop music from another is a mere instance of developmental adaptation, in which one gravitates toward their classification of “appealing” based on previous experience and level of theoretical knowledge. Theoretical and practical utilization are both important, and this exemplifies why a type of sound can come to embody a culture or location without any racial or political repercussions. Defining one’s “taste” is a sociological/psychological study that would take hundreds of pages to cover, but in a rare instance like this the reason can be fairly evident without much explanation.

Now that the fresh-faced Blair resides in Brooklyn, she is faced with the challenge of standing out among thousands of stylistically similar acts. She admits that New Orleans will always be home though, with its discouraging indie-rock scene not deterring her perspective one bit. While Brooklyn lacks the intimate glow of New Orleans venues, Blair should do just fine in Brooklyn since she produces a sound that the locales should love because they are already familiar with it. Her full-length debut, Die Young, has received quick attention as a result. Blair’s integration of reverb-heavy synths, rhythmically receptive vocal patterns, and polished guitar tones bring to mind a more electronic-friendly Liz Phair, especially in the regard that Blair appears fiercely independent and confident in her demeanor (which conveniently flutters from the emotionally-charged on “Murder” to lighthearted and romanticized efforts like “Hearts” and “Kamikaze”). There is a lot of extraneous woo-hoo’s behind the delicate acoustic accompaniments and twinkles of synth that Blair expertly interweaves, a trend that can get repetitive but still has some fine moments. The guitar-driven “Paris, France” is a pretty little pop song that does remarkably well with Blair’s creaky vocals, particularly in how she is able to accentuate even the most simplistic melodies without appearing superfluous. Angelic, bittersweet, and melancholic are a few words to describe her vocals, but their alternate approaches throughout the album is what make them so resounding and essential.

“Murder” may be Blair’s most accomplished track, at least in terms of an accessibly coherent vision. The twinkles of keys and acoustic strums recall ’60s pop, the track’s finest moment being a chorus that is heavily reminiscent of The Shins’ amiable indie-pop. The track is steadily ambitious with its ceaseless build-up, transitioning from minimalistic folk-pop to more grandiose chamber-pop that makes use of strings, intricate arpeggios, and Blair’s remarkable vocal range. Her natural tendency to sound high-pitched never proves to be an obstacle, seemingly because she writes these beautiful songs in accordance to her own strengths. Like Liz Phair’s classic Exile in Guyville, this specific process is precisely why Blair’s Die Young is an extraordinary debut that capitalizes on the singular vision of one very talented individual who shows no hesitation to experiment. Whether her career will take a sudden dive like Phair’s did remains a question, but an album like Die Young touting infectiousness from the first listen makes comparisons like these relatively futile. I believe Blair will prevail in Brooklyn and then the rest of the world, mainly because she possesses a fairly distinctive sound that shines with a plethora of hooks and decent production. As far as debut full-lengths go, you will not find many more confident than Die Young.

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Blair – Murder

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Blair – Hearts

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Blair – Paris, France

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The post Blair Dies Young, Lives Old appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

Canada holds notability for its bilingualism and multiculturalism in addition to their thriving music scene, which itself certainly benefits from this rich diversity. Malajube, Karkwa, and Les Cowboys Fringants are a few the best Canada-based Francophone acts out there today, all diversifying their lingual differences through exceedingly different styles. Malajube infuse an infectious form of indie-rock, Karkwa emit a moodily industrial alt-rock tone, and Les Cowboys Fringants perform more neo-traditionalist folk. There is little cultural differentiation from the US or UK artists among these Canadian acts, but Francophone music has always appealed to admirers of French culture beyond its linguistic presence. Malajube’s accordion-over-guitars sound is signature by now, and Les Cowboys Fringants hardly avoid topics that pertain to their tongue’s homeland. Dumas has been emerging in this scene ever since turning heads at a few French festivals in 1999. His releases since then have been a cult success of sorts, garnering outstanding reviews and ample crowds but with no recognition comparable to Francophone contemporaries. He was merely 18 years old then, and now at 29 he is beginning to effectively emphasize the struggles and triumphs of a talented songwriter.

The music industry is relatively unpredictable regardless of which language you speak, so to specialize in a language very exclusive to your geographic origin has its setbacks as well as rewards. Writing songs in English obviously has the most potential to be profitable, but niches are also very rewarding in independent music due to the broad selectivity of it. In a country where a good bulk of people speak French, the uniqueness of emitting a variety of musical styles within a familiar language is invigorating for all those that “get” both the lyrics and music. Not to say that it is a barren scene though; in comparison to Canadian indie-rock it just appears significantly diminished outside of Canada. Malajube may be the current most popular Francophone group that has a grip on the niche and is beginning to spread due to their indie-rock leanings, but Steve Dumas has his sights set on Francophone domination as well. The Quebec combines the seductively lush electronics of Sebastien Tellier with the thrilling indie-rock theatrics of Malajube, producing a sound that any fan of French music would love.

Dumas’ fifth album this year (and eighth overall), Traces, was released earlier this week and is already receiving great press. One of its most memorable cuts, “Dans Un Rétroviseur”, is a whirlwind of greatly inspired genres. With twinking synths, gorgeous strings, and classical guitar work, there is no apt stylistic classification for it. At times it can sound like it should belong in a Tarantino movie with its western guitar twangs and ominous mood, or at other times like A. R. Rahman with its ability to infuse world music with cumulative brilliance (flairs of middle-eastern, Eurotrash electro-pop, and classical Spanish music are all evident here). “Quelque Part” calms things down a bit with smooth acoustics and sputtering keys echoing over Dumas’ caressing voice. He occasionally enlists the aid of excellent female vocal accompanists in tracks like “Dans Un Rétroviseur” and “Passer À L’ouest”, the latter of which opens up Traces brilliantly, but his vocals are powerful enough in a subtly convincing manner to carry his beautifully crafted melodies most of the time. Perhaps the best example of this melodic gift is “Passer À L’ouest”, a clap-along strum-along anthem of sorts that kicks off the album in grand fashion with a developing assortment of keys and its conclusion of stampeding percussion and coincides perfectly with the accompanists’ na-na-na-ing and the excitable lead vocals. A crafty guitar solo is thrown in to finish it off in style, which is how most of the tracks on Traces reach significant heights. This is a fantastic album and one that hopefully does not evade year-end lists.

RIYL: Malajube, Karkwa, and Les Cowboys Fringants, A. R. Rahman, Jean Leloup, Ariane Moffatt, Tricot Machine

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Dumas – Dans Un Rétroviseur

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Dumas – Passer À L’ouest

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Dumas – Quelque Part

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England is one of the last places I would expect a musician to be “bored”, especially if they are native to the country. Its rich history aside, every major label houses an office there and there are certainly a surplus of venues present, not to mention an endless list of British influences to get inspiration rolling. It has all the privileges of the American music scene in a more condensed geographical area, which only helps in making European tours more convenient for the locals and artists alike. It was not singularly the people, music industry, or potentials of the UK that made Chris Hicken leave his native Birmingham, the second most populated British city (and home to the likes of The Moody Blues and ELO). Obviously those bands had little issue growing up in Birmingham, but like Hicken they eventually relocated after sincerely valuing their musical ambition. “It seemed very natural to me, something I could be good at,” said Hicks, who always showed glimpses of musical talent despite learning difficulties like dyslexia interfering with his school work. “Very quickly it became all I wanted to do.” Although there remain groups (primarily in the art-rock, Arctic Monkey-ish vein) that maintain significant success in the UK while encompassing a large US following, it often pertains most to a group’s style when determining which country they would fare best in.

Both the US and UK possess very similar mainstream tastes in regard to music, arguably more than ever before due to music’s new level of accessibility. We are seeing more simultaneous Euro-American successes more than ever, which opens up a nice opportunity for Hicken. The Birmingham native has always been enamored with American and British folk music alike, but his rarely complex taste at an early age allowed him to differentiate between the two country’s distinctive musical styles (which was a lot easier in the preceding decades to this one). His preference as an artist seems somewhat obvious, though much of it can also be accredited to the assimilation that took place after moving to New York City in 1993 with his then-band, Bigmouth. This project saw little attention apart from opening for UB40, but it opened up plenty of opportunities for Hicken. Times in the city were pretty routine for Hicken after Bigmouth was abolished, as he went to work as a bartender in the East Village before kicking off his solo career with 2004’s Championship Boxing. This job was actually where his alias, Cantinero, derives from; his Ecuadorian co-worker had always called him cantinero, which means “bartender” in Spanish. Prior to that he was actually contemplating starting his solo career with electronic experimentation, prompted by a recent fascination with Boards of Canada. Entertainingly enough though, Hicken was so touched by the musicianship on Ken Burns’ Jazz documentary that it made him reconsider going for a more natural sound.

Hicken’s follow-up Better for the Metaphor continues upon the infectious alternative-pop that Championship Boxing so effectively conveyed. Hicken’s style of alternative-pop touches both the eccentric folk of an Andrew Bird or Devendra Banhart while reminding listeners of a charming vein of power-pop where electronics are not entirely prohibited, but instead ushered in sporadically to maintain the natural harmonics of the power-pop or alternative-rock. (think Phoenix, Holopaw, Califone, Royal City, etc.). Hicken’s tendency for anthemic choruses and a boatload of hooks allow him to sit comfortably in both genres, combining both British and American schools of pop music to produce an album that improves upon Championship Boxing in its sheer diversity. The opening “My House” describes Hicken quite nicely as an artist – straightforward lyrics, bouncy variations of keys and percussion, and a chorus that strikes gold. What makes Hicken such an accomplished pop songwriter and a track like this is the variation between momentary transitions. While “My House” is mainly an ode to proper gratitude, Hicken avoid monotony by implementing a variety of successful techniques. Whether he temporarily subdues the percussion or brings in a masterful keyboard progression to accompany an already-familiar melody, every small contribution leads up to a plethora of efforts that are accessible and contagious.

Whereas Championship Boxing supplied us with a fusion of folk, pop, and electronica by providing samples of an acoustic nature with natural instrumentation, Better for the Metaphor succeeds even more because of Hicken’s willingness to play it all himself. A talented multi-instrumentalist for sure, this effort sees less in the way of samples and more naturally constructed hooks. “Go-Getter” is reminiscent of Beck so much that, without Hicken’s unique vocal range, it would be difficult to distinguish between the two. Like Beck’s best and earliest work, “Go-Getter” an instance of awe-inspiring stylistic multifariousness. As the rhythm section hints at a story based around smooth-flowing jazz, Hicken’s rushed and hushed vocal delivery sounds tranquilly suitable for chillout electronica instead. The gurgles of synth that he introduces prove surprisingly compatible with the natural acoustics of a piano, and this chorus-focused element serves as the primary source of melodies reflective of alternative-rock or power-pop. This is precisely Hicken’s most treasured ability, one that allows him to introduce various genres with instrumentation that would be contrary to popular belief. Whether he is incorporating psychedelic nostalgia into maudlin ballads or jazzy rhythm sections into electronic ambiance, it all comes off so cohesively that these short pop songs expand into a more memorable territory. There are plenty of these tracks on Better for the Metaphor, which is finallyE seeing a wide release after its initial pressing in 2007.

RIYL: Beck, Phoenix, Holopaw, Califone, Royal City, The Sea and Cake, Marjorie Fair, Apollo Sunshine

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Cantinero – My House

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Cantinero – Go-Getter

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Cantinero – Medicated

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The post El Cantinero appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

The month of October always seems to root out the Album of the Year contenders, making this and November one of the most active months in new music releases. Similar to the several months preceding the Academy Awards for film, many marketing agencies and labels are thrusting out the last of their ’09 products before focusing on the new year. This includes everyone from veterans (The Flaming Lips) to newbies (Surfer Blood), each providing their fanbase with an early gift for the holidays. This month provided everything from infectious electro-pop (UltraChorus, Midnight Juggernauts) and ambitions psych-rock (The Flaming Lips, Her Vanished Grace) to indication of several stylistic revivals in the vein of surf-rock (Surfer Blood) and psychedelic electronica (Washed Out). Even unclassifiable artists like The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble  and Lymbyc Systym provided focused and memorable efforts this month, making October 2009 unsurprisingly a month where artists of all different genres find a meeting point in their qualitative nature.

01. Surfer Blood – Take It Easy (post)
02. Washed Out – Belong (post)
03. Total Babe – Bearbones (post)
04. Midnight Juggernauts – This New Technology (post)
05. The Flaming Lips – Convinced of the Hex (post)
06. Tim Williams – Ozone Street (post)
07. A Brief Smile – Bigger Lies (post)
08. UltraChorus – Bestin the Farther (post)
09. Her Vanished Grace – Blue (post)
10. The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Embers (post)
11. The Library – Tomorrow Is Better (post)
12. Aficionado – The Myth About Real Life (post)
13. Lymbyc Systym – Ghost Clock (post)

DOWNLOAD ENTIRE COMPILATION>>> (52.3 MB, .RAR)

The post Obscure Sound: Best of October 2009 appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.