Animal Collective: Fall Be Kind

The first song on Fall Be Kind, Animal Collective's new five-song EP, is called "Graze", and it starts with a colorful swirl of Disneyfied strings as Dave Portner (aka Avey Tare) sings teasing lines like "Let me begin" and "Let light in" and "Some ideas are brewing." The song seems to be partly about the struggle of creation-- grazing on the imagination, maybe-- and then Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) comes in with his thick, honeyed voice to sing a bridge that seems a distant cousin of the Beach Boys' "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)". There's tension in this opening section; the words and music suggest a sticking point, something that needs to be punctured before the song (and ideas) can really flow. And then it happens, the break, but in an unexpected way: a peppy flute melody materializes and the rhythm becomes a kind of stomp that seems designed to inspire folk dancing, while Portner and Lennox pick up the tempo and start singing rounds: "Why do you have to go?/ Why do you have to go?"

The first time through, hearing "Graze" explode into this weird sing-along RenFaire jig is a bit of a shock. It sounds very far from what we imagine a hip, frequently name-checked indie band with abrasive experimental roots to sound like. And their performance of it is certainly not tongue-in-cheek: They sound joyful, and they're not smirking. (I'm not sure they're capable of that particular expression, to be honest.) And thus it becomes clear that Animal Collective, despite having become a certain kind of alt touchstone in 2009, doesn't much care about conventional notions of cool. If they want to get dorky and put in a section that asks you to bust out the medieval garb and hop around on one leg for a minute, they'll do it. And maybe they'll put this song in the lead spot on an EP that follows up the biggest and most successful record of their career. All this went through my mind before finding out, after reading Fall Be Kind's credits, that the flute sample comes courtesy of an artist whose name became a punchline after an endless run of goofy TV spots advertising his music: Zamfir, the Master of the Pan Flute. Cool? These guys aren't sweating it. (Mark Richardson, November 25, 2009)







"What Would I Want? Sky", a song that samples Grateful Dead's "Unbroken Chain" and is easily among the most warm, likeable, and melodic tracks Animal Collective have recorded. It refracts Aquarian optimism through a modern sense of uncertainty, undercutting the loop's jovial lilt with a tricky structure and lyrics that seem confused about what will happen next. "Sky" contains the first officially licensed sample of the Dead, and it's the best marketing move the band's organization has made since they greenlighted Cherry Garcia. It's not easy to take a cut-up voice and make it the centerpiece of a tune, and it's harder still to sing along with it in a way that doesn't sound forced. But "What Would I Want? Sky" sounds as natural as something that grew out of the earth. (Mark Richardson, November 25, 2009)







The new Animal Collective and more on BIPR Radio

Solo Fleet Fox : J Tillman (A Year in the Kingdom)

Joshua Tillman (b. 1981) is an artist based in Seattle, Washington. He has maintained a steady output of recordings since 2004 and has toured the US and Europe extensively with Pacific Northwest artists such as Damien Jurado, Jesse Sykes, and David Bazan. He is currently the drummer of the Seattle-based band Fleet Foxes.





A Year in the Kingdom: Tillman started recording in April, tracking most of the instruments himself: dulcimer, banjo, recorder, cymbals of varying size, and wheezing air organs all feature heavily. The string arrangements, performed by Jenna Conrad.






Ishmael from Montana writes of Year In The Kingdom

I heard Crosswinds on KCRW today and was an instant convert before I even heard the vocal. J. Tillman is the drummer for a famous alternative band from Seattle. His solo music is stark, evocative, and powerful. Year in the Kingdom is beautifully produced, with a kind of magisterial restraint. In the words of some anonymous internet pundit: "For a guy with the back catalogue (and quality back catalogue) he has, why is he not a superstar?"




Interview (by E.N. May on November 5th, 2009)

There are some dark moments that come out on this record, “Though I Have Wronged You” being an example. Did you have some demons to work out here?

Those guys are always around. I’m not interested in working them out, they’re pretty playful.

“There is no Good in Me” is a great story song. What inspired that one?

It’s kind of Zoroastrian narrative, good and evil existing outside of our perceived moral duality. Or the idea that someone with influence enough can just dictate what “good” and “evil” are.



There are some striking details on this record, like the string sections on “Howling” and the woodwinds on “Crosswinds”. Were they all your idea?

They were. My friend Jenna is an incredible cellist. She’s great about just letting me sing parts and melodies to her, and then bringing them into existence. That’s not something that a lot musicians can or are willing to do.





We would love you to listen to J Tillman & 150 other artists on November's Baroque Indie Pop Rock Radio Show

Doveman

Originally from Vermont, Bartlett studied piano in London before moving to NYC to attend Columbia University, which he did for one year, when he left to focus on his classical studies, before finally embarking on a career recording with more "pop"ular bands, and founding Doveman.

In 2007 Doveman contributed a cover version of Radiohead's "Airbag" for the downloadable tribute album OKX.

More recently Thomas has played or recorded with Antony and the Johnsons, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, The Frames, Bebel Gilberto, Arto Lindsay, The National, and Yoko Ono.[citation needed] In July 2008 he performed with Brooklyn-based Grizzly Bear on the Late Show with David Letterman.





Bartlett covered the entire soundtrack album from the Kevin Bacon movie Footloose, which garnered much attention and praise from the likes of Entertainment Weekly and NPR's All Songs Considered, World Cafe, and The Lillywhite Sessions at Avatar Studios.[citation needed] The recording was made available on his website, until receiving "cease and desist" orders to remove it from his servers. It is now available via imeem stream



Bartlett's vocal style seems to have been developed singing infants to sleep-- breathy, soft, hardly more than a melodic whisper, really. The music follows suit, but he manages to find a pretty amazing variety at a low decibel level. The guys in his band-- Dougie Bowne, Sam Amidon, Shahzad Ismaily, and Peter Ecklund-- have backgrounds in a wide swath of music including mountain folk, Moroccan trance, punk, jazz, blues-rock, avant-garde, and neoclassical, and you hear bits and pieces of all of these on the record, even as it remains resolute in its mission to remain hushed. The band's own website calls it "lamp rock," whatever that means-- my guess is they're referring to the way the music spills into the room like light from an area lamp, providing ambiance and a bit of illumination.

The Conformist bridges the album era and the mp3 era in a weird way-- it hangs together well, but sounds better broken down into individual tracks. When any of these come up in a shuffle, they sound great (and it's likely to sound different from whatever comes before and after), but the album as a unit requires quite a bit of patience due to its lack of peaks and valleys. The diversity comes from the backing tracks, which range from burbling, slow-core electro on "Memorize" to oozing, textural string arrangements that shift with György Ligeti-ish fluency on "Tigers", an American Analog Set-ish pulse on "Hurricane" (slathered in spacey synth), and basic strumming on closer "Castles", which ultimately takes on a country tinge.

It's hard to pick standout tracks, because the quality is as consistent as the level of intensity, meaning everything more or less comes out equal. The shifts from minimal passages to bigger arrangements and ultimately to a drum-led coda that hints at free improv elevate "From Silence", while Bartlett's vocal on "The Best Thing", doubled by a very quiet Matt Berninger of the National, offers one of the best melodies. "The Cat Awoke" is another candidate-- the brisk pace, led by banjo and some atmospheric guitar work, builds to a restrained climax that... well, it moves to another pretty quiet section. I don't mean for that to sound so facetious, but your enjoyment of this album will likely depend on how much attention you can devote to its subtle shifts and varied textures, as it moves from one muted moment to the next.

— Joe Tangari, October 15, 2009

Richard Hawley: Open Up Your Door

In 1991, Hawley auditioned to be a guitarist in Morrissey's live band, but was rejected after he started singing "One Night" by Elvis Presley during his audition

Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longpigs in the 1990s. He later played with Pulp, led by his friend Jarvis Cocker. As a solo musician, Hawley has released six studio albums to date.

Fiercely proud of his working class upbringing, he lives in Sheffield, with his wife and children and is an avid Sheffield Wednesday supporter.

Praise from R.E.M.'s Mike Mills led to him being approached to support the group on several concert dates in 2005. After contributing to Nancy Sinatra's 2004 self-titled album, Hawley supported her on a European tour in 2005.

Hawley's song "Baby, You're My Light" was included on the CD soundtrack for the 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

Truelove's Gutter is the sixth studio album from musician Richard Hawley, released on September 21, 2009. The album features some uncommon instrumentation, such as the waterphone, megabass, and cristal baschet.[1] Thematically, Truelove's Gutter is Richard's darkest album to date. Richard told the BBC that the album was inspired by particularly dark periods in his life and those of others.[2] The first single, "For Your Lover, Give Some Time," was released as a digital download on August 10, 2009. The album title refers to a location in Hawley's native Sheffield, which was named after 18th century local innkeeper Thomas Truelove, who had a gutter that used to dump rubbish in the River Don.

Swell Season

The Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) Feeling The Pull New song from forthcoming album Strict Joy


The Swell Season Announce New Album . ‘Strict Joy’
The Swell Season, the Oscar-winning duo of Frames frontman Glen Hansard and Czech ingénue Marketa Irglova, are putting the finishing touches on ‘Strict
Joy,’ (Oct 23/Plateau (Ireland), Oct 26/Anti (Europe), Oct 27/Anti (N America) & Spunk (Australia), Nov 3/Sony (Korea, Japan)), the follow-up to their beloved, surprise hit 2007 film and gold-certified soundtrack ‘Once.’ The twelve new, original songs on ‘Strict Joy’ were recorded last year and document a time of great change.

‘Strict Joy,’ which borrows its name from a work by Irish poet James Stephens,




was co-produced by Hansard and Peter Katis (The National, Interpol), and recorded mostly at Katis’ Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT. In addition to Hansard and Irglova, the album features Frames members Colm Mac Iomaire (violin), Joe Doyle (bass), Rob Bochnik (guitar), Graham Hopkins (percussion) plus guitarist Javier Mas (Leonard Cohen), pianist Thomas Bartlett (Doveman), percussionist Chad Taylor (Chicago Underground Duo), horn players Steven Bernstein and Clark Gayton from Levon Helm’s band, and others.

‘STRICT JOY’ TRACK LISTING
1. Low Rising
2. Feeling the Pull
3. In These Arms
4. The Rain
5. Fantasy Man
6. Paper Cup
7. High Horses
8. The Verb
9. I Have Loved You Wrong
10. Love That Conquers
11. Two Tongues
12. Back Broke

Stream ‘Strict Joy’ in full on NPR.com.

Kings of Convenience: Declaration of Dependence

By Nick Cuce

The cover of Declaration of Dependence, the third full-length album from Kings of Convenience, shows the Norwegian duo relaxing on an idyllic tropical beach. Eirik Bøe, bronzed and nearly naked, contemplates his guitar, while Erlend Øye, pale and dressed in white, peers into the grey distance.




It’s a telling image, as the duo seem to have left the ice floes behind on Declaration, opting instead for a lighter, breezier set reflecting a growing interest in bossa nova. The album is a retreat of sorts from the group’s quasi-electric flirtations on 2004’s Riot on an Empty Street, but not quite the equal of the chilly, autumnal folk of their acclaimed acoustic debut Quiet is the New Loud.




As with any Kings record, there are many very pretty moments: "Peacetime Resistance," with its violin accompaniments, is a lush and rhythmic sequel to the previous record’s "Misread"; the vocals on the album closer (also titled "Riot on an Empty Street") recall some of the haunting quality that won the duo superficial but apt comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel. Elsewhere, the corny but catchy "Boat Behind" and the vaguely sea shanty-like "My Ship Isn’t Pretty" allude to the album’s nautical themes while reinforcing nicely-drawn allegories about longing for a specific person, place or time.

Girls: Album

John J. Knapik "johnknapik" (Orlando, FL)

"Album" is enjoyable from beginning to end and the order of the songs lend themselves to the continuity of the disc. Every person will hear different influences here.. I hear Jesus & Mary Chain, 50's rock n' roll, 60's sunshine pop, 70's mellow rock, shoegaze, and current indie rock. The group never sounds like they are trying to sound a certain way... it just seems to flow naturally. I agree with E. Mcmenamin's review in that this COULD have been the summer album of the year if only it wasn't released in September.



by Rob Webb

The story goes that Girls' singer/songwriter Christopher Owens spent the first 16 years of his life travelling with his mother in a separatist cult that forbade access to mainstream culture. His only exposure to popular music in that time came from the cult's own religious songs, and the occasional Everly Brothers or Beatles record that the more rebellious kids smuggled in from the outside.


His songwriting on the band's debut album – drawing on both the above – is shot through with a wide-eyed sense of wonderment, the kind that presumably comes from escaping that confinement as a teenager and discovering all of the normal vices associated with being that age.

Much of what's here certainly appears to be autobiographical: "I wish I had a father / And maybe then I would have turned out right," drawls Owens on opening track Lust For Life, and several tracks reference his nomadic upbringing. Two are named after girls (Laura and Lauren Marie), and the majority make at least some reference to relationships.

Still, that's far from an uncommon theme in pop music, the genre Girls fit into most comfortably. Theirs is an older, sepia-tinged notion of pop, with the Everly Brothers' influence looming large – most notably on Headache, a shimmering arpeggio-driven love song, and Ghost Mouth, which borrows the infamous Be My Baby drum beat.


The song which best embodies Girls, though, is Hellhole Ratrace: "I've got a sad song in my sweet heart / And all I really am is needing some love and attention," laments Owens with brutal honesty on this brooding psychedelic number. It's a great example of bass player Chet White's inventive production, which sets and builds the mood masterfully over the course of the track's seven minutes.

View it if you like as a document of disaffected youth, but beyond the unusual back story Girls' debut is a pop record stronger than most with a number of surprising twists and stylistic turns. Though it's perhaps a little saccharine in places for some tastes, the unswervingly strong melodies win out and cast the duo very much as ones to watch for the future.