Mazzy Star Returns from the Semi-Dead

Hello everyone,

It's been fifteen years since Mazzy Star last released an album (1996's Among My Swan), and during that time, rumors have circulated every so often about recording sessions, new record deals, aborted albums, re-unions, etc. While David Roback and Hope Sandoval have played live shows together from time to time (most notably in 2000 and 2008-2009), no new Mazzy Star material has ever seen the light of day. However, their latest announcement (October 17) indicates a new single, "Common Burn / Lay Myself Down," will be released at the end of the month, with an album to follow at some point. To hear a small snippet from "Common Burn," click here. Pretty exciting news, but let's hope this legendarily mercurial and hermetical band doesn't decide to pull the plug before the release date (stranger things have been known to happen!).

Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter- "Hushed by Devotion" / "Come to Mary" / "Your Own Kind" / "Wooden Roses" (2011) Live at KEXP- Full Performance

An amazing full performance from one of my favorite bands. A Jesse Sykes post is coming up next...

W1dowspe@k- S/T (2011) / Harsh Realm EP (2011) / Gunshy EP (2011) MP3 & FLAC

"An empty home, a vacant hell. I knew you in the harsh realm."

It is sobering to realize that it has now been a decade and a half since Mazzy Star's last release, Among My Swan, and though the ensuing years have brought many attempts to replicate their narcotic brand of bluesy psych-folk, none have been able to convincingly capture the alluring darkness that characterized the collaboration between David Roback and Hope Sandoval. The closest, in my estimation, was Miranda Lee Richards' brief stint in The Brian Jonestown Massacre, which yielded some brilliant, sleepy psych-folk such as "Reign On" from the Bringing It All Back Home Again EP; however, that was before I had heard Widowspeak, who appeared on the scene in early 2011 with their single "Harsh Realm," a deliciously sullen bit of Mazzy-worthy navel-gazing dressed in heavily-reverbed fifties-style paranoia, which was reportedly recorded after having only played six shows together as a unit. A Brooklyn trio with roots in the Pacific Northwest, Widowspeak belie these origins by conjuring a Southern California Paisley vibe, while giving it their own twist by cutting it with the kind of fifties and early-sixties musical references that would make David Lynch proud, as well as introducing a subtle but gritty Garage-Rock element, both of which lend Widowspeak a bit more sonic variation than what can be found in the iconic sound of their obvious main influence.

Lead-singer and rhythm guitarist Molly Hamilton:

"I think during the first practice, in my apartment, we talked about the 50′s- Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, early Elvis, and we initially wanted the band to have that sound. I don’t think that happened, but that first practice was cool because all of our weird obsessions came out. Michael and I share an encyclopedic knowledge of the grunge era because of our Northwest upbringings, as well as a love for the Sonics and 60′s garage. Rob’s more into the 70′s, Television and the Stones. Rob and I love Pavement, but Michael is crazy and prefers Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks.  We all dig the Velvet Underground.  I also listen to a lot of really old country and blues and 90′s pop music. We cover “Wicked Game,” but we’ve also talked about covering the Cranberries and the Carter Family, if that says anything about how weird our influences are."

While it is the band's memorable cover of Chris Isaak's classic David Lynch-inspired slow-burner "Wicked Game" that has created much of the buzz surrounding Widowspeak in the early-going, it is actually their beautifully crestfallen self-titled debut album that is most deserving of attention. Admittedly, throughout the course of the album, the ghost of Mazzy Star is almost always within earshot (especially in relation to the lead vocals); however, Molly Hamilton, Michael Stasiak and Robert Earl Thomas never succumb to pure tributary. Instead, by deftly integrating a range of distinguishing influences and emotions, Widowspeak  is able to stake out its own sonic territory, thus earning the right to be heard on its own terms. The lead track, "Puritan," is a case in point; while for much of the song, Hamilton seems to be channeling Hope Sandoval to an uncanny degree, she also occasionally adds unpredictable phrasings to her vocals that lend the song a distinctly non-Mazzy glimmer of emotional lightness. This, coupled with Thomas' Morricone meets surf-rock guitar-style, allows Widowspeak to offer up a glimpse of what might make them truly unique down the road. Likewise, on their second single, "Gun Shy," the band adopts a more upbeat, hook-filled approach, thus finally providing Hamilton with a vehicle for transcending the chorus of Sandoval comparisons, something she takes advantage of to great affect. At first blush, it is tempting to embrace Widowspeak simply for softening the sting associated with Mazzy Star's sixteen years of silence, but on closer inspection, the quality of the songs and the album's range of material both suggest that Widowspeak have more on their minds than playing the role of pysch-folk surrogates.

Widowspeak- "Ghost Boy" (2011) Live @ 285 Kent Ave.

Yeah, I know it sounds a lot like Mazzy Star, but since they have gone into permanent hibernation despite periodic rumors to the contrary, Widowspeak is a capable substitute with a few sonic wrinkles of their own...

Velvet Underground Series, #1: Dean & Britta- 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests (2010) MP3 & FLAC

"Hey, I'm not a young man anymore. I've got five nickels in my pocket, gonna get me some more."

Previous to coming under the aegis of pop art icon Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground, then comprised of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison & Maureen Tucker, had only been together for a short time, but it was clear from the beginning that they were a different breed altogether. As their first manager, Al Aronowitz once recalled, "They were just junkies, crooks, hustlers. Most of the musicians at that time came with all these high-minded ideals, but the Velvets were all full of shit. They were just hustlers." Warhol associate Paul Morrissey happened to catch one of the first gigs Aronowitz had secured for his presumptive band of hustlers at Cafe Bizarre in Greenwich Village and knew right away that Warhol and The Velvets would be a good fit. Classically trained, John Cale had played in minimalist composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, an experimental collective, also known as Dream Syndicate, that focused on drone music. Lou Reed, after graduating from Syracuse University, had worked as a tin-pan alley song-writer at Pickwick International, but his tastes ran toward far less mainstream musical pursuits. Initially, these musical polar opposites were resistant to working with each other, but a shared fascination with the use of a drone effect in music composition brought them together, along with Reed's Syracuse classmate Sterling Morrison, in a short-lived band called The Primitives, which quickly metamorphosed into The Velvet Underground. When Morrissey returned to Cafe Bizarre a few nights later with Warhol in tow, the latter was treated to a surreal scene comprised of The Velvets, now with Maureen Tucker on drums, playing their tales of S&M and heroin highs to a crowd made up of tourists sipping exotic drinks. Warhol was won over immediately and invited the band to join his Factory. Lou Reed: "To my mind, nobody in music was doing anything that even approximated the real thing, with the exception of us. We were doing a specific thing that was very, very real. It wasn't slick or a lie in any conceivable way, which was the only way we could work with him. Because the very first thing I liked about Andy was that he was very real." While The Velvets benefited immediately from Warhol's patronage, the relationship was soon strained by Morrissey's insistence that the band needed a figurehead that was more visually appealing than the often recalcitrant Lou Reed. German model Nico, who had visted Warhol's Factory the week before, was Warhol and Morrissey's choice. Cale & Reed hated the idea, but given the significant career perks of being aligned with a figure like Warhol, they eventually acceded, and Reed was even persuaded by his benefactor to write songs specifically for Nico, several of which would appear on The Velvets' debut album, funded and ostensibly produced by Warhol himself (more on this story later). During their stay at the Factory, The Velvets were used in a number of ways by Warhol, including providing largely improvisational soundtracks for some of his films and multi-media presentations, the most famous of which was the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, featuring the band accompanying a silent film directed by Warhol titled The Velvet Underground and Nico: A Symphony of Sound, along with dancers, strobe-lights, slide projections, etc.

Dean & Britta- "I Found It Not So (Sonic Boom Remix)" / Screen test #7- Mary Woronov

Another of Warhol's mid-sixties projects was the filming of hundreds of screen tests of various visitors to the Factory (including Nico and Reed) with a stationary 16mm camera using silent, black & white 100 ft. rolls of film at 24 frames per second as well as a strong key light to set the subject in stark relief; these were later arranged into compilations and screened in slow motion at 16 frames per second. Warhol's screen tests were not limited to celebrities, however, as anyone who came into the orbit of the Factory, no matter how briefly, was a possible subject. As he stated in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, "I've never met a person I couldn't call a beauty [...] I always hear myself saying, She's a beauty! or He's a beauty! or what a beauty! But [...] if everybody's not a beauty, then nobody is." In 2008, The Andy Warhol Museum commissioned Dean Wareham of Galaxie 500 and Luna fame and Wareham's Luna band-mate Britta Phillips to compose music for 13 of the screen tests. In addition to original compositions by Dean & Britta, 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests features a cover of Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It with Mine" and an amazingly effective re-working of an obscure Velvet Underground song, "Not a Young Man Anymore." While Wareham's earlier work with Galaxie 500 suggests a strong affinity for the V.U. aesthetic, which shows throughout the project, his true inspiration here is Warhol himself. Wareham: "You could make a case that he [Warhol] was one of the first punks in two ways. 1) He suggested that anyone could be an artist, and that an artist could try his hand at anything. 2) Punk rock celebrates the commonplace and the ugly, and elevates it, and I think Warhol did the same."

Dean & Britta- "Knives from Bavaria (Spoonful of Fun)" / Screen Test #13- Jane Holzer

Dean & Britta- "Not a Young Man Anymore" (2010) From 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests

Here's an ode to one cool mother-fucker

Dean & Britta- "I'll Keep It with Mine (Scott Hardkiss Remix) (2010) From 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests

I'm going to start this series a little unconventionally, but don't worry, we'll cover everything you're expecting and a whole lot more. Enjoy your Nico!

@nna C@lvi- S/T (2011) MP3 & FLAC

"Hold me down, and hold me close tonight."

Every once in a while, a truly distinct independent artist becomes subject to the hype machine that the music press usually reserves for the pablum that emanates from the major labels. While this can be a blessing for an indie artist in terms of exposure, it can also become a curse in the sense that the hype is often comprised of reductive comparisons to other artists and/or ill-fitting identifications with specific genres. In fact, if there is anything that distinguishes much of the music journalism and music promotion of the last decade or so from that of earlier eras, it is the widespread need to over-define and micro-categorize both artist and artwork alike. Anna Calvi is an apt example of this phenomenon, with soundbites from the likes of icons such as Brian Eno claiming Calvi to be "the best thing since Patti Smith" preceding her like a calling card or a scarlet letter, depending on one's tolerance for hype-induced adjectives and predicates. To be honest, I'm usually instantly turned off by such things, but on rare occasion, there is something about an artist's work that speaks through all the hype and over-exposure, in effect, demanding to be heard on its own terms. Anna Calvi's eponymous debut album speaks in this way loudly and eloquently. Co-produced with Rob Ellis, otherwise known as the drummer for P.J. Harvey, another artist whom the music press is eager to compare Calvi to, Anna Calvi is a lush, Goth-tinged set of torch songs that tap into the same romanticized backwoods-blues template that has been so good to Nick Cave over the years, but with some intriguing sonic wrinkles, such as Calvi's guitarwork, sounding a bit like Django Reinhardt-meets-Tom Verlaine as refracted through a David Lynch film. The album's lead track, "Rider to the Sea," is both a fine tribute to the kind of moody guitar-based soundscapes that Verlaine perfected on Warm and Cool and a clear indicator of Calvi's considerable artistic boldness, as it isn't everyday a debut album begins with what is, for the most part, an instrumental. Calvi's sultry vocals make their first real appearance on "No More Words," perhaps the most understated song on Anna Calvi and arguably the strongest. Here, Calvi creates a sixties pop vibe complete with soft, almost whispered vocals, which belies the song's dark, desolate heart. Another brilliant song is "The Devil," a haunting, soul-searching ballad that reaches for the same type of dust-blown twang as Paula Frazer's early work in Tarnation and features some lovely flamenco-influenced guitar work by Calvi. All hype aside, Calvi's debut is the kind of album to get lost in, lovingly constructed, impeccably recorded, and featuring some of the most vibrantly assured Goth-pop you're likely to hear.

Indie Artist Feature: The Moles- The Future Sounds of Ashton (2010) MP3 & FLAC

From Brin Davies of The Moles:

"The album began as a fantasy recording project between me and Billy [Fuller] our bass player, inspired by our love of the Rubble uk psych comps. We threw the gauntlet down and set ourselves the target of writing and recording a song once a week. It was also a useful way for me to exorcise whatever ghosts I was dealing with in my job; I run a psychiatric admissions ward. We ended up doing this for a year or so until we morphed the project into a full band [....] most of the press we received focused on the 'English whimsy tag; I've always been a bit narked by this and see it as a much more neurotic affair. It's for this reason I don't feel it necessary to do the Bandcamp thing; I'm more interested in giving it a good send off."

(La) luna Review:

The term "psychedelic" literally translates from ancient Greek as "soul-manifesting," suggesting a (sometimes ecstatic, sometimes meditative) state of mental experience (often drug-induced) that allows for a sense of freedom or liberation from the intricate web of conventions/assumptions/expectations that rigidly govern every aspect of our conscious perceptions and experiences of the world. As such, the influence of psychedelia on artistic pursuits such as music and visual media has often been portrayed, quite reductively, as amounting to little more than escapism and fantasy.  And while there certainly are aspects of this cultural phenomenon that can be adequately defined by such terms, psychedelia also has a darker, chaotic side reflecting an experience of the incomprehensible abyss lying just beyond the flimsy trappings of society and the illusion society fosters of the normative psyche (or "soul"). It is this darker side of the psychedelic experience that The Moles explore on The Future Sounds of Ashton, which, while certainly owing a debt to late sixties psychedelic icons such as Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, bears the imprint of more obscure inspirations such as mid-sixties-era Garage-Rock as documented on the Rubble and Nuggets comps and the harrowing psychic journeys of singer-songwriters such as Skip Spence and Bill Fay. However, what also distinguishes The Moles' brand of psych-rock is the healthy dose of Punk and Post-Punk attitude the band infuses it with, giving the songs a claustrophobic grit often missing in the work of other psych-rock revivalists.  The album's opener, the title track, is a perfect example of this, as it almost suggests what Johnny Rotten would have sounded like sitting in for Syd Barrett on "Astronomy Domine." With Fuller's pulsing bass setting the pace for Davies' almost chanted vocals, the song is an absolute burner that is beautifully fleshed out by the Pink Floyd-style vocal harmonies that punctuate the melody. Another move on The Future Sounds of Ashton that sets The Moles apart is the inclusion of songs such as "Three Ghosts in My House," which is insistently memorable because of its use of dynamics; by intertwining the kind of psych-influenced singer-songwriter material mentioned earlier with occasional blasts of the formidable aural attack that characterizes many of the album's other songs, The Moles create a stunning centerpiece to an album that more than stands on its own as a fine piece of psych-rock, but also leaves the listener highly anticipating the interesting and less familiar avenues the band might take on its next album. Here's to hoping the music continues to wear its neuroses proudly and powerfully.

Anna Calvi- "Jezebel" Video (2010) Live at The Luminaire, London

Blues, Goth & Flamenco: pretty irresistible combination if you ask me.

Indie Artist Feature: Seeping into Cinemas- 100,000 Times (2011) Bandcamp Link & Videos

From Seeping into Cinemas Website:

"Seeping into Cinemas is the solo project of Dublin musician, Barry O'Brien. After playing in bands on the Dublin independent scene for a number of years, Barry decided the best way to find the sound he was looking for but had yet to find, was to go it alone. So began Seeping Into Cinemas. Initially starting with a few low key  but well-received gigs, Barry then focused his efforts on writing and recording. Holed up at home with a bunch of guitars, microphones and other music-making devices, he began work on what would eventually become his first album. In February 2010, he emerged briefly from recording hibernation with the self-released single 'Dour Hour,' then disappeared again for more writing, rewriting and recording.

The months that followed were full of late nights, obsessive attention to detail, and Ups, downs, and finally in December 2010, completion. In January 2011, Barry called on the mixing skills of Dublin producer Stephen Shannon. Mixing went smoothly and 100,000 Times, the debut Seeping Into Cinemas album was finished. Consisting of ten songs, inhabited with dreamy soundscapes and Barry's whisper quiet voice, 100,000 Times is a melodic and haunting homage to a world full of broken hearted misanthropes and sad souls who dream of escape."

(La) luna Review:

The music of Seeping into Cinemas, the solo project of Dublin-based musician Barry O'Brien, is an evocative mix of dreamy, moody, wonderfully melodic soundscapes that manage to achieve a lush feel despite their spare arrangements and O'Brien's deceptively gentle, almost whispered, vocals, which will instantly remind listeners of Elliott Smith, but subtle ears will also hear the ghost of Big Star's Chris Bell creeping about. It's not by accident that I speak of ghosts in reference to O'Brien's music because on Seeping into Cinemas' debut album, 100,000 Times, there is a gauzy, ghostly sense of isolation at the heart of each track. One of the album's standouts is the brilliantly titled, "Red Words, Full of Promises," a bittersweet mid-temp gem that is suggestive of what The Clientele might have sounded like if they had hailed from Austin, TX. Perhaps my favorite track is "Still Frame from a Sunny Monday," with its austere arrangement and emotionally resigned yet sweetly vulnerable vocals, it is here that the emotional darkness alluded to earlier really becomes evident, and this is what distinguishes Seeping into Cinemas from any number of other bands: it is clear that O'Brien has far more in mind for his listeners than simply crafting low-key confessionals. Highly recommended.

John Maus- We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves (2011) / Love Is Real (2007) MP3 & FLAC

"And this is the time to gather at tables aloud with memory of our lost play
and silent pageantry."

A brief glance through some of the critical reviews of John Maus' three albums, and it becomes clear that he is a polarizing figure, inspiring either condescension or adulation with very few reviews falling in between. While some describe the music as featureless or derivative, others characterize Maus' sound as opening new vistas of possibility in pop music. In actuality, Maus embraces a gloomy, Lo-Fi aesthetic, which is largely constructed with vintage analogue synthesizers; however, he is not shy about introducing conventional pop elements into the mix, but does so in a way that refuses the glossy seductions and easy resolutions that straightforward pop deals in. On his second LP, Love Is Real, Maus approximates the overly bright yet wafer thin sound of eighties synth-pop but strips it of all its clarity by throwing it down a well of hazy reverb and by using his sometimes clumsy and often exaggerated doom-filled Ian Curtis croon to lend the songs a dark, claustrophobic feel. For example, on "Love Letters from Hell," a cheap drum machine and strangely funereal synth-based organ effect conspire to create a context for Maus' Dubby Post-Punk vocals that is equal parts Vangelis, Joy Division, and Lee Perry. While Maus' third album, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, does not stray far from its predecessor in terms of inspiration, it does demonstrate greater sonic depth, superior song-writing, and a slightly better drum machine. "...And the Rain" offers an interesting study in Maus' method; taking the most banal elements of cheesy eighties synth-pop, burying them in layers of foggy reverb, and juxtaposing them to his throaty vocals dripping with both sentimentality and irony, Maus approximates what Stephin Merritt might have sounded like fronting B-Movie in 1983. Nevertheless, there are moments on We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves where Maus transcends his deconstuctive retro-mode and points the way toward something new and intriguing. "Believer," the album's lead single, is one of these moments. Sounding a bit more produced than the rest of the album, the song's refracted Gregorian chant-style vocals provide an epic sense of depth, making Maus' stream of consciousness lyrics sound like echoes of something profound, and the procession of indelible hooks makes "Believer" easily the most memorable track on the album. Maus' music may not be as transformational as he wants it to be or, perhaps, as we want it to be, but given half a chance, it becomes clear that he is mining some interesting musical territory here.

John Maus- "The Believer" Video (2011)

Keyboard player for Animal Collective, Panda Bear and Haunted Graffiti with some lush, lo-fi ear candy:

Gil Scott-Heron- "I'm New Here" Video (2010) -R.I.P.-

Gil Scott-Heron died today. I'm feeling pretty much speechless right now

Menomena- Mines (2010) MP3 & FLAC

"I made myself an open book; I made myself a sitting duck."

There is a deceptive complexity at the heart of Menomena's sound; buried beneath all the intricate layers, random loops and deconstructive tendencies are some really fine pop songs. This conventional side of Menomena, something they expended much effort in obscuring on I Am the Fun Blame Monster! and slightly less so on Friend and Foe, steps a little more boldly into the limelight on Mines. This is not to say that Mines doesn't contain its share of moments when form threatens to overwhelm content, where refraction crosses over into distraction, but overall, this is a wonderfully melodic and sumptuously recorded album; in fact, Mines is one of those albums that your ears feel they can wander about in, such is the level of sonic detail and sense of spaciousness. For example, on "Dirty Cartoons," an off-kilter tale of romantic disaffection, the arrangement slowly builds from isolated acoustic strums to tinkling piano arpeggios to the ominous undertow of the bass, which is pushed to distortion through some kind of fuzz effect. The song has an insistently repetitive structure that lends it both a haunting and world-weary feel. Another standout track is "Queen Black Acid," which establishes a gentle down-tempo groove that is occasionally punctuated by a gorgeous harmonized chorus. While not Menomena's most experimental effort, Mines is arguably their most fully-formed in terms of composition and is positively full of smart, evocative lyrics.

Cat's Eyes- S/T (2011) Rough Trade Limited Edition (Bonus Disc) MP3 & FLAC

"Don't go looking where you shouldn't look, 'cause you won't like what you find."

Who could have predicted that the all-too-brief late-sixties pairing of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood would continue, more than 40 years later, to exert the influence that it does?  Essentially, it's a simple aesthetic built around a contrast of sexual opposites: a world-weary and/or wrecked male vocal married to a coy, girlish, Lolita-esque female vocal, which is more or less a variation on the old "beauty and the beast" theme. The best of the various contemporary (re)incarnations of this sound is the ongoing collaboration between Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell. However, while Lanegan and Campbell play this sound pretty much straight up, Cat's Eyes, a collaboration between Faris Badwan of The Horrors and Canadian opera soprano Rachel Zeffira, use it as a point of departure, crafting a sound that is both convincingly retro but absolutely contemporary in its manipulations of texture and space. What is most striking about Cat's Eyes' eponymous debut is its ability to import sixties-era Motown and mainstream pop influences into a darker, gauzy, Goth-tinged context. For example, the opening title track fades in with a thin claustrophobic electronic-based drone before erupting into what sounds like The Birthday Party doing a mid-sixties Nuggets revival, but what really elevates things are Zeffira's vocal contributions, which lend the song some eye-winking humor while remaining creepily distant. "Not a Friend," possibly the album's best track, is a gorgeous fifties pop knockoff that features Zeffira taking the role of chanteuse but the lyrics render the sugar-coated setting both ironic and paranoiac. While not the first indie artists of late to mine these influences, Cat's Eyes manage to recontextualize and occasionally transform their Nancy & Lee fetish, and in the process make it all sound exceedingly dark and new.

The Antlers- Burst Apart (2011) MP3 & FLAC

"Pulled together but about to burst apart."

I'll be honest, after Hospice, an unrelentingly bleak yet achingly gorgeous exploration of the impact of death on the living, I had no idea what to expect from The Antlers on their follow-up, Burst Apart. While the conceptual ambitions of the previous album certainly paid off in the form of a creative breakthrough, they clearly decided to traverse a different path on Burst Apart, which was a wise move as the album has a more expansive, wide-ranging feel than its predecessor. Yes, Pete Silberman still wends his expressive voice through the darkest corners of emotional turmoil and its aftermath, but in doing so this time around, The Antlers let a few momentary flickers of light shine through. Burst Apart, true to its name, is a collection of smaller statements rather than a group of songs all bending to the arc of a single narrative; however, when listening to the album the first time through, it is striking how big these songs sound, and even more impressive is the fact that they pack a similar emotional punch to Hospice without the tether of a single conceptual setting. On the album's opener, "I Don't Want Love," Silberman effortlessly leaps back and forth between a Jeff Buckley croon and a Jonsi-esque falsetto, while the band moves between Post-Rock crescendo and dreamy abstraction. Perhaps the most surprising track is "Putting the Dog to Sleep," which features one of Silberman's least restrained vocal performances married to one of his best lyrics; however, what really makes the song distinctive is its torch-song pathos and unsettling atmospherics. With Burst Apart, The Antlers have managed to retain the emotional impact that made Hospice so memorable and have me highly anticipating what comes next.

Cat's Eyes- "Face in the Crowd" Video (2011)

One of the more interesting versions of worship hour at the church of Nancy & Lee:

FL33t Foxes- H3lplessness Blu3s (2011) MP3 & FLAC

"I was raised up believing I was somehow unique, like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes."

While a cursory listen to the Fleet Foxes' long-awaited and much-delayed follow-up to their brilliant debut album suggests that not much has changed in terms of the band's sonic approach, those who dig beneath the ornate surface of Helplessness Blues will discover a journey into darker, often existential, territory. With Phil Ek once again manning the production booth, Fleet Foxes inhabit an even more expansive reverb-drenched soundscape than before, lending both a bottomless and timeless feel to their meticulously constructed baroque-folk compositions. Whereas their debut album tended to be a bit abstract lyrically (which put a lot of responsibility on the music itself to convey the album's emotional power), Helplessness Blues finds Robin Pecknold venturing into singer-songwriter territory; for example, in "Blue-Spotted Tail," Pecknold ponders humankind's greatest yet utterly unanswerable question: "Why in the night sky are the lights on?"  On "Helplessness Blues," one of the most powerful songs the Fleet Foxes have yet recorded, a similarly reflective existential theme emerges, as Pecknold peels away the illusions we cling to in order to give a vestige of form to our lives in the face of inconceivable randomness: "If I know only one thing, it's that everything I see of the world outside is so inconceivable, often I barely can speak."  While Helplessness Blues does depart occasionally from the soaring harmonies that have become the band's trademark (there are several tracks with Pecknold playing lone folk troubadour), overall, their sophomore album manages to improve on one of the best debut albums in recent memory. Go out and support this band.

Lambchop- Live at XX Merge (2010) MP3

"The link between profound and pain covers you like Sherwin Williams."

It's hard to believe that when they first appeared on the scene in the early nineties, Lambchop were considered a country band; of course, it didn't take long for this highly idiosyncratic, artistically brilliant, and ever-evolving collective to alienate the schlock-masters who have turned Nashville into a vapid quagmire of commercialism over the course of the past 30 years. While country is certainly a recognizable element in Lambchop's sonic pastiche, it is often twisted, reshaped, and interwoven with Jazz, Soul, and a nice helping of Indie guitar pop;  there simply isn't another band that sounds quite like these guys. And then there's the singular sound of Kurt Wagner's witty, droll, and seemingly elastic vocals, which can stretch from croaking baritone to soulful falsetto in the matter of a few seconds. Live at XX Merge crisply documents this perennially under-appreciated band taking the stage at Merge Record's 20th Anniversary bash, and by all accounts, they brought the house down. Running through a nice cross-section of songs from a discography ten albums deep, what is most striking in this set is how beautifully and seamlessly Lambchop integrate all the disparate parts into a sublime whole. Modern American music doesn't get any better than this.