Hailing from Chicago, Santah put catchy, no-frills alternative rock back on the main stage. The five-piece fuse the ambition of all members into a cohesive and successful album, White Noise Bed – a group courtesy of GroopEase, who recently offered their full-length for $3 – a $6 discount. Fans of The Walkmen, The Veils, and The Morning Benders will love this one.

While their name may get you excited for Christmas, Santah have an edgier sound than the conventional Christmas jingles of years’ past. “Neighbors & Cousins (Are We Lovers?)” jumps right into the bright effervescence of the group’s songwriting, which has a soaring excitable quality reminiscent of The Walkmen and The Black Keys. Guitars, drums, and vocals are layered beautifully to help carry Santah’s messages of hope and collective consciousness. It is refreshing to hear a youthful perspective on the world we live in, especially ones omitting generational stereotypes. The members work well together to highlight each other’s strengths. The vocals are strong, and help make way for a lively piano melody toward the end of the song. This is where the vocals pick up intensity, and ask a youthfully universal question: “Is anyone out there confused? Oh, me too.” Surely, quality music serving as a numbing antidote to an uncertain future is nothing new.

The album’s title track “White Noise Bed” does not disappoint; it’s one of the best tracks on the album. Stan McConnell’s voice is reminiscent of The Veils’ Finn Andrews and The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser: beautifully raspy with a lot of depth. The fluttering keys are also akin to the style used in the Veils’ “Advice for Young Mothers to Be”. Santah keep it fresh by layering all of their tightly wound instrumental elements and using straightforwardly effective lyrics that are pertinent to our daily life. While Santah are comparable to many contemporary bands, they do not forget their alternative rock roots. Listening to White Noise Bed can bring one back to certain anthemic rock of the ‘90s, some of the most prominent examples being Radiohead, Muse, and Stone Temple Pilots. The twangy and soaring “Chips of Paint” is a perfect representation of this. Additionally, “No Other Women” opens with sweet guitar riffs and an equally enticing drum beat. The song sounds instantly familiar with a newly added spice. The balance of the various instrumentation is pleasant and uplifting, producing an easy-flowing tune representative of the album.

White Noise Bed is an accessible album that one can listen to for hours. It is easy to develop nostalgia for the past while listening to Santah, but they are also a new band that has reinvents several relevant trends to their own escalating infectious vein of alt-rock. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the sounds of the present and the past.

RIYL: The Walkmen, The Veils, The Morning Benders, Surfer Blood, Radiohead, Stone Temple Pilots, Spoon, French Kicks, My Morning Jacket, No Age, Girls, Women, Real Estate, Okkervil River

Santah – White Noise Bed

Santah – No Other Women

Official Site / MySpace / BUY

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January rain is unbearable. Precipitation this month should involve snow… not freezing rain. This is the time of year where vacation days are farthest away, so having cold buckets of water dumped over your head with the looming prospect of once again repeating the same dull instances day after day is demoralizing. Returning from the solace of winter break emphasizes the somberness of this procession to work/school even more. As a result, it almost seems ironic that January is an appropriate time for a band that produces shimmering surf-pop. Instead of coming across like decorating a Christmas tree in July, the music of Tennis is a refreshing and apt reminder of anticipatory feelings that would usually take months to arrive from January. Thanks to the emotionally eclectic qualities of the husband-wife duo, Tennis are one of 2011’s most buzzed-about bands thus far and their debut, Cape Dory, lives up to expectations.

Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore comprise the duo, and like many healthy musical couples the origin of their band’s name stems from an inside joke: Alaina used to make fun of Patrick playing tennis in college because she considered an elitist sport for affluent men (though I would disagree with that; golf fits the stereotype more, but Golf would be a pretty bland-sounding band name). Marriage followed shortly after the two philosophy majors met at the University of Colorado Denver, but the couple soon found life in Denver to lack the adventure they were seeking. So naturally, they embarked on an eight-month sailing trip along the North Atlantic coast. The funniest part is that neither one knew the other had musical talent; Alaina had no clue Patrick could play the guitar, and Patrick never knew Alaina could sing so well. It almost sounds like the beginning of a quirky rom-com, except for a great soundtrack in lieu of a pathetic one.

After deliberating what their prospective band should sound like, one thing was certain: nostalgia would be at the forefront. They wanted a ’50s telecaster, ’60s Fender Bassman, old organs, and low-grade tape — familiar equipment to any fan of vintage girl-pop and surf-rock attempting to replicate the sound today. Chemistry was certainly no issue, and once the songwriting began with the creativity and spontaneity present Tennis’ work now it became evident that something real was taking shape. What began as music playtime on a boat rapidly progressed into a legitimate project, one that recruited drummer James Barone and signed to the same label as The Walkmen, The Black Keys, Andrew Bird, etc (Fat Possum).

While ‘60s girl-pop and surf-rock stand out as influences, Tennis are not a one-trick pony. Moore’s vocal talents make Tennis’ stylistic definition quite varied, ranging from the touch of ‘60s girl-pop in “Marathon” to the twangy indie-rock of “Cape Dory”, where she sounds more Neko Case than Mary Weiss. Cape Dory is an album that excels at sugary pop, highlighting the swooning backing harmonies, bouncy bass lines, and scratchy electric guitars that help define the style. An immediate comparison to Cape Dory would be Little Joy’s self-titled debut, which showcased similar influences and first-time effectiveness. The relation is particularly relevant on Binki Shapiro-voiced songs like “Unattainable”. Shapiro shows less enthusiasm and variation vocally than Moore, but the feel-good vibes contrasted with the occasional dose of melancholic sentiments are equally presented. Cape Dory with a fresh take on girl-pop and surf-rock that make Tennis an act to look out for in 2011.

RIYL: Little Joy, Gauntlet Hair, Games, The Shangri-Las, Neko Case, Kisses, Active Child, Women, Weed Diamond, Male Bonding, Ducktails, Vanguart, Wavves

Tennis – Pigeon

Tennis – Marathon

Tennis – Bimini Bay

Fat Possum / MySpace

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by Mike Mineo

Down There may be the most apt album title of the year. Avey Tare’s debut full-length sounds like it was recorded in some submerged swamp, where the croaking of frogs and buzzing of flies is enough to satisfy the percussive urges of Tare – AKA David Portner, best known for his work in Animal Collective. Portner’s production on his debut full-length is resourceful yet serene, sparse enough for his voice to tremble with signature passion yet expansive enough to allow for the monumental build-ups that Animal Collective fans are accustomed to. The truth is that Down There was recorded at a church in upstate New York, not some brooding cave that magically lights up in a variety of colors with each accompanying synth arpeggio. That is simply what your imagination will concoct when listening to an album like this, full of sounds and ideas that trigger the most bizarre of images.

The album begins with a very low-pitched voice ominously proclaiming “down there!”, followed by a scream that sounds like it came from someone or something that just fell into an endless hole of abyss. Through this, it is immediately apparent that Portner is taking this swampily melodic delivery seriously. There is not anything on Down There that resembles the spontaneous screams in “For Reverend Green” or the crunchy loops in “Summertime Clothes”. Portner said himself that songs on Down There will not appeal to fans of Animal Collective’s “sugary” stuff, like “My Girls”. This album’s tone is more along the lines of “No More Runnin’” or more appropriately “Bluish”, both tracks that contain initial sereneness that is flexible enough to allow for tonal expansion. Some tracks on Down There – particularly “Cemeteries” and “Heads Hammock” – lack the explosive hooks of such past favorites, but they are in the minority here. These “mood” tracks are not particularly dazzling on their own, but in the context of Down There – which finds literally every song transitioning beautifully into the next – they serve an essential purpose. This is an album that Portner wrote in response to some personal struggles the past few years, like the separation with his wife Kría Brekkan, the death of his grandmother, and the diagnosis of his sister with cancer. Even on the tracks where the melodies are not as strong, the savvy emotional punch of the content is not in doubt.

When one looks at the highlights on Down There, it is not a crime to say that they compare to any classic Animal Collective or Panda Bear tracks. “Ghost of Books” is absolutely stunning, building up to a frantic combo of trickling keys and dub-like bass where Portner repeats, “I’m so tired of disappearing. You’re so beautiful you can’t hear me.” The final two minutes of this are quite extraordinary, melodically empowering and structurally gripping. “Ghost of Books” does have stiff competition for the album’s most impressive effort though. Any of the first three tracks, and later the heartrending “Heather in the Hospital”, holds similar worth. The latter contains morbid imagery over some translucent twinkle of keys, reminiscent in a way of Alan Ball’s “Six Feet Under”. “Machines of modern magic keeping folks above the ground,” he sings, before overlapping several vocal cuts to express that “it brings me down.” The passion is evident, illustrating the scene at a hospital where the light of day passes through windows to momentarily touch those that are bandaged and on their deathbeds.

He details the pain and suffering of boyfriend the dad, the mom… yet he remains unable to relate to the pain of the patient, suffering selflessly in their hospital bed. It is heartbreaking yet entirely comprehensible – the feeling of helplessness as you look at someone you love in pain. It is easy to spot the sincerity in this song, as Portner wrote it about his family’s experience with his sister’s cancer. It follows a similar delivery of The Antlers’ gorgeously tragic Hospice, one of 2009’s best and also one of the most genuine musical pieces detailing the witnessing of bed-bound suffering. The next track, “Lucky 1”, is essentially a continuation of “Heather in the Hospital”. Its bubbly synths sound like a triumphant reprise of sorts, ending the album with a hint of optimism after revealing one of Portner’s most personal tracks.

Down There is not all emotionally heavy, which may be fortunate considering it had the chance to override Portner’s blatant melodic tendencies. The exuberantly melodic “Oliver Twist” is more Animal Collective-like with its warbly vocals and heavy synth pads, which provide a beautiful arrangement that carries the synth stabs to a vibrant percussive accompaniment. It is here, in the final minute or so, that Portner’s vocal chops show their full potential. The ferocity of his vocals seem reliant on the ferocity of percussion; the consistently dubstep-like drums that take up much of Down There means that Portner’s voice is consistently restrained as well, at least compared to earlier Animal Collective material. But there is usually one or two segments of a song that yields very interesting results, where the song gets busy. In “Laughing Hieroglyphic” we find it when the keyboards subtly change melody; the instrumentation is only slightly different, but the dual punch of Portner’s climaxing voca melody and percussive stomps bring the listener to the song’s primary hook.

“3 Umbrellas” is more straightforward and tropical-sounding. The echoey Afro-pop and repeating structure make it perhaps the album’s most conventional track. It is not nearly as interesting as the others, but still delightfully catchy. It stands as one of three excellent tracks that open up the album though. If not for the dull period that encompasses “Cemeteries” and “Heads Hammock”, Down There would be a stunning listen completely throughout. As it stands though, it plays like a very well-crafted album that should allow listeners to appreciate Portner’s additions to Animal Collective’s vast catalog even more. Personally, I believe there are some tracks on here that overshadow recent Panda Bear solo tracks by a wide margin. There is little reason to compare though, as both artists remain required listening nonetheless.

8.5/10.0

RIYL: Animal Collective, Panda Bear, How to Dress Well, Deerhunter, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, El Guincho, Women, Teengirl Fantasy, No Age, Candy Claws, Wavves, Gold Panda, James Blake, Glasser, Active Child, The Tough Alliance, CEO, Magic Kids, Twin Sister, Here We Go Magic

Avey Tare – Oliver Twist

Avey Tare – Lucky 1

Paw Tracks

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Things usually fare well for film geeks when they show a passion for making music. By film “geeks”, I’m not referring to that friend who can name every David Lynch or Lars von Trier film. They might know every underground film in existence, but if they have no knowledge of production or the film aesthetic than they are merely a critic (and probably a bad one at that). This is not to say that an artist cannot simultaneously be an enthusiast of his own medium, and vice versa. The potential for artistic growth is wonderfully sporadic and somewhat randomized, and when it comes to film-savvy people there tends to be a greater advantage for them to grasp the necessities of quality music. It somewhat mirrors the tendencies of a quality film after all, where atmosphere, performance, and stylistic consistency are vital aspects. In a sense, even though mise en scène is visually bound, music has its own form of it. The subtle, sometimes indescribable tendencies that take place in music set the scene, and it is reliant on the artist to formulate the proper visual and/or audible accompaniment within their medium.

John Kowalski and Rian Trench named their band Solar Bears as a tribute to famed Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The two had always shared a love for cinema, but it is hard to say if it ever trumped their love for music. Considering the degree of success they have experienced in the latter thus far, one could say their decision to focus on Solar Bears is in the best of their interests. When speaking about their music, their interest in film immediately emerges. “With Moroder, for instance in Scarface, some of the pieces are quite minimal but they are very effective,” Kowalski said excitedly in an interview with Dummy, who would also enforce the duo’s enthusiasm with their “ability to paint a vivid landscape with a relatively minimal palette; creating resonant textures from very little”. Judging by their colorfully atmospherically music, you get the sense they would produce something evolutionary on film… something that evolves from monochromatic dullness to a thriving gloss of colors and imagery. Their own music would be a perfect backdrop considering it can pull precisely the same thing off.

Solar Bears’ debut LP, She Was Coloured In, contains a rather apt cover image. You see a red woman crossing her hands with reflections of her by her side, all set in a different color. The colors actually reflect the three monochrome images on a TV – RGB – and the woman’s figure looks as if it is fading out against analog video noise. As one of the better electronic debuts of 2010, She Was Coloured In shows the band’s range of flexibility. They can at one point sound like a producer of lullabies, with soft sweeping synths collaborating with luxurious orchestral elements, like the lucid twinkle of arpeggios in “Solarization” or the exotic “Cub”, which dabbles in woodwind-like sounds over chirpy synth pads. That a song called “Quiet Planet” represents one of their more rambunctious works is ironic, but it certainly show their infectious works more in the vein of a Röyksopp or Ratatat. Their restrained efforts may be more impressive though, at least for those accustomed to more organic and atmospheric works by artists like Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Their music recalls Kraftwerk’s innate abilities to turn electronic sounds into consummate atmospheres, whether it be complete with lavish hooks or developmental chaos. The chiptune-like percussion maintains a steady futuristic tone, often in 4/4 and accompanied by instruments that are both organic and technological. Like the interlude in “Forest of Fountains”, around 02:19, when it goes from a funk-like trance into a soft interlude of guitars. The transition is mesmerizing, as the cohesiveness of the journey is worth listening for alone. Their bass also has a tendency to sound organic, like in “Children of the Times” where a deep bass tone resonates alongside a vocoder and soft electro-keys, and it is one component of an essentially powerful rhythm section. At least for the sound they successfully produce here. They tread an appropriate line between naturally existent field recordings and man-made electronica, pushing forth an interesting emphasis on the production of their own music in the process. The sonorous tone of the synth pad throughout “Twin Stars” has a cinematic feel to it, almost like the build-up to a frenzied battle in some sophisticated manga re-enactment. The little flicker of synths that gradually add on contribute to the pulsating suspense. With examples like these, the duo are clearly masters of believable soundscapes, and their elaborate songwriting and production really go a long way in separating Solar Bears from the masses of atmospherically-dependent electronic artists.

RIYL: Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Röyksopp, Ratatat, Gauntlet Hair, Twin Shadow, Tamaryn, Candy Claws, Women, Neu!, Elektric Music, Klaus Schulze, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, New Order, OMD, Orbital, Ultravox, Front 242, Laibach, Harmonia, Yello, Telex, Depeche Mode, Can

Solar Bears – Forest Of Fountains

Solar Bears – Children of the Times

Solar Bears – She Was Coloured In

Planet Mu Records

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by Jay Mattson

2009 was a big year for Nathan Williams. In March, he released his critically acclaimed sophomore album, Wavvves. Throughout the rest of the year, Williams made headlines, whether it was from his on-stage antics, collaborations (see Zach Hill, etc.) or his now-infamous scuffle with Jared Swilley of the Black Lips. In November, Williams joined forces with the Jay Reatard’s former rhythm section. At this point, when it seems like Williams’ reputation has already eclipsed his young musical career, he has returned with a third full-length album, entitled King of the Beach, that serves as a furious, rambunctious tour-de-force of what Wavves does best. The main difference between last year’s Wavvves and the recent King of the Beach is the level of fidelity. Last year, Williams’ sound was intentionally gritty, underscored and bleary. In 2010, Wavves still successfully express their beach-oriented style, only this time with lyrics that are delivered with more clarity.

Of the album’s twelve tracks, eleven of them clock in under four minutes, which is perfect for Wavves’ sound. The opening song, “King of the Beach”, doesn’t attempt to do any ‘opening’ or ‘introduction’, instead opting to jump straight into infectious, well-structured garage punk. This type of energy is held throughout an album heavily influenced by late-’60s pop that sounds like it has hit the bong one too many times and acquired prophetic knowledge of Pavement and No Age. To clarify, this is all excellent. The inclusion of a standard rhythm section has apparently given Williams time to structure his songs with greater care, even though they only play with him on two of the twelve tracks. They’re still as loud as Wavves, just more polished and tight.

“When Will You Come” brings a welcome break from the constant energy before getting back into full swing with the album’s first single, the incredibly enjoyable “Post-Acid.” This track sums up a lot of Williams’ feelings with lines like “Misery, will you comfort me…Understand what you understand, in my time of need that you’ll understand, that I’m just having fun..with yoooouuuu.” Much akin to Girls’ Album last year, King of the Beach is about having fun. Williams gets meta-fictional in “Take on the World” as he sings that “I still hate my music; it’s all the same” and “I hate myself, man; but who’s to blame? I guess I’m just fucked up…” Without skipping a beat, Williams and company make a central topic very relevant, which is the normal internal struggles facing many recent bands that get lumped into the ‘lo-fi’, ‘beach’ or ‘shitgaze’ categories. What makes Wavves stand out is that they have proven they can stand above the mass of bullshit that comes with every new label or ‘sub-genre.’ With underground music blogs making bands famous before they even release an EP, it is hard to distinguish the truly talented from the mere mediocre. Fortunately, King of the Beach is one of those albums that is wholly compelling. There is no false hype or mislabeled sub-genre here.

Moving into the second half of the album, “Convertible Balloon” is a funky, electronic-infused dance number that does a good job in keeping the energy high while treading new water and retaining thematic relevance. Next is “Green Eyes”, a song that sounds more like 2009’s Wavvves than any other track on the album, albeit with background jangles that give it a more lighthearted tone. Both of these tracks are excellent examples of Williams’ versatility on this album. While earlier work was very dark and similar-sounding, King of the Beach does an excellent job of showing the various facets of Wavves’ sound. Even the lo-fi “Mickey Mouse” is overlaid with a jammy snare beat, the likes of which were barely seen on last year’s effort. Arguably the most “out-there” song on the entire album is the last, and longest track, “Baby Say Goodbye.” With a style not unlike that of Of Montreal’s 2006 album, The Sunlandic Twins, the track opens with an extended psychedelic whistling montage that leads into a synth-backed bubbly groove that still has Williams’ signature rambling, but with a more sunny and pop-inspired tone. And while Wavves is a totally different beast than the Elephant 6 Collective members, they obviously present their similar tendencies from time to time.

I thoroughly enjoyed Wavvves last year. In this time of good bands slumping into either a rut (see Vivian Girls) or experimenting far too much (see MGMT), Williams and his new band have found an excellent middle ground that does not veer too far from the formula that worked, but also doesn’t rely purely on past successes to keep up their popularity. By jumping from experimentation to nostalgia and back again, Wavves has brilliantly crafted a follow-up that can match and possibly eclipse the success of last year’s effort. I’m confident that some fans and critics will denounce the raise in fidelity as a band cashing in on success, but I see it more as opportunity being seized and taken advantage of in order to make a more cohesive album that will not only satiate long-time fans, but also bring in new listeners that may have been turned off by the darkness and haziness that Wavves built their success upon.

King of the Beach is out digitally on July 1st through iTunes, July 13th through all other digital outlets, and physically by Fat Possum Records on August 3rd.

8.0/10.0

RIYL: Best Coast, No Age, Times New Viking, Vivian Girls, Abe Vigoda, Women, Washed Out, High Times, Crocodiles, Ducktails, Sic Alps, Japanther, Woods, HEALTH, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Ponytail, Thee Oh Sees, Dum Dum Girls

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Wavves – King of the Beach

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Wavves – Post Acid

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Wavves – Super Soaker

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Wavves Blog

MySpace

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