Girl Groups

England’s Electrelane released their Albini-recorded second album, The Power Out, last year on Too Pure. How fitting that the label which brought us some of Stereolab’s earliest releases now offers this all-girl four piece.

Something about Electrelane reminds me of some of those early Stereolab singles collected on the first Switched On. [”Doubt,” I’m looking at you.] Maybe it’s in singer Verity Susman’s lower register, multilingual vocals. She sings alternately in English, French, Spanish, and German. Or maybe it’s the fairly dry, driving motorik-type drums, the presence of organs and synths. I’m not sure, but it’s there. On the other hand, the similarities are far from overwhelming—Electrelane are more guitar-heavy, among other things—and are certainly not a Stereolab clone.

The Power Out took quite a while to sink in. I knew I liked it after a few listens, but it’s taken time to really grow on me. With the exception of “The Valleys,” which, with its choir and organ-centered sounds, interrupts the pace of the energetic first two tracks, I’d say it’s a pretty damn good album all around. And if the progression made from their instrumental debut, Rock It To the Moon, to the stronger follow-up is anything to go by, I’m really looking forward to their next album, Axes, which is due out on Too Pure in May.

Listen to “Oh Sombra!”

Magneta Lane, whose six song debut EP The Constant Lover was released in 2004 on Paper Bag Records (and whose name I keep reading as Magenta), are a female trio from Canada who sound like they’re ready to fight. Heavy, distorted guitars, biting bass sounds, sultry/sassy vocals and aggressive drumming are make these cranked-up pop songs. Let’s just hope they get a little more adventurous on their full-length, eh?

By the way, Paper Bag seems to be building a pretty decent catalog. They first brought us Broken Social Scene’s awesome You Forgot It In People, then came one of my favs from last year, Uncut’s Those Who Were Hung Hang Here.

Listen to “The Constant Lover”

February 26, 2005 | Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment

Dad Music

So I’m going on this trip to the mountains with my family this weekend. I’m driving up there with my dad and his dog, and then the rest are coming up Saturday morning. Well, the idea of a 4+ hour car trip with this guy had me wondering about the music situation. See, he’s not at all a big music fan. He’s strictly mainstream oldies, “jazz” (which for my dad pretty much means white big band stuff) and classical. Zzzzzz… Sorry.

Luckily, I found out he has one of those tape deck/CD player combos. Thank jeezus, I can use my iPod. No ridiculous radio tags, no obnoxious commericals, and absolutely NO Big Bopper. But what do I play that won’t cause too much of a ruckus or make Dad want to check my bag for drugs? What do I have that is dad-safe? There’s not much, but I looked through my stuff and compiled a few basic playlists of father friendly music. Here’s what I have so far:

February 17, 2005 | Filed Under Music, Personal | Leave a Comment

WarTuning

I assume you’ve heard of Warchalking and Wardriving. Well, check it out:

WarTuning [via LifeHacker]

Friggin’ brilliant. Drive (or walk) around with your wireless-enabled laptop and download music from iTunes libraries everywhere. All it takes is some specialized software (plus the aforementioned laptop, open Wi-Fi, a shared iTunes library, and lots of HD space). OurTunes is a java-based app for Mac and Windows. Looks a little clunky to install for PC people, so I’d go with myTunes if you’re on Windows.

No laptop here, sadly, so someone try it out and let me know.

February 16, 2005 | Filed Under Technology | Leave a Comment

Books, For Listening

Paul De Jong and Nick Zammuto of The Books I recently got my grubby digital hands (aka my external HD) on a copy of the upcoming Books album, Lost and Safe, which is due out in April on Tomlab.

First impressions: This one, their 3rd album, is a bit less frantic than previous records. Though there are still plenty of plucked-and-cut strings (nicely contrasted with more legato sounds) and rearranged vocal samples, they seemed to have mellowed somewhat on the frenetic style of Thought For Food and The Lemon of Pink. Lost and Safe also features a stronger vocal presence by the younger half of the duo, Nick Zammuto. This is most often a good thing.

The odd personalities of Paul De Jong and Nick Zammuto are thankfully still evident. The Books love playing with words. For example, they get a big kick out of contradictions (“keeping your eyes gently closed, close your eyes tightly”) and the twisting of words, both in the vocal samples of songs and the song titles (e.g. “A Little Longing Goes Away,” “If Not Now, Whenever”). They’re clever, these two. Fortunately, their music exhibits the kind of whimsy that makes me smile rather than roll my eyes.

Listen to “Smells Like Content”

February 15, 2005 | Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment