Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter- Reckless Burning (2002) / Oh, My Girl (2004) MP3 & FLAC

"Pretty thing, I've got you, right where I used to be. We ride across this city, 
starting fires recklessly."

Jesse Sykes: "I met Phil Wandscher in 1998 in a dive bar back when Seattle still had dive bars (how I miss those times!). I think I knew instantly upon meeting him that my life would change forever- just a gut feeling I guess, but I was right!" At the time of this fortuitous meeting, Sykes had just seen both her music career and personal life take a dark turn, as Hominy, the band she had started with her then-husband Jim Sykes, quickly dissolved following the release of their eponymous debut album, and it wasn't long before their marriage suffered a similar fate. Wandscher was best known as one of the founding members of Whiskeytown, the brilliantly combustive Alt-Country band from Raleigh N.C. that also featured Ryan Adams, who, during a legendary 1997 meltdown at a show in Kansas City, fired the entire band, including Wandscher, telling the stunned crowd, "You've just saw the last fuckin' Whiskeytown show!" before proceeding to smash his guitar and storm off stage. Ousted from the band he had helped create, Wandscher, thoroughly disillusioned, drifted to Seattle and was working in a restaurant when he crossed paths with Jesse Sykes. Both nursing emotional wounds, a romance sparked immediately, but their musical partnership was something that evolved at a more measured pace. Sykes: "Phil was really reluctant to work with, well, his girlfriend [....] But it just kinda morphed anyway; it was inevitable. People will warn you, but I like working with someone you're in a relationship with. There's a greater level of intimacy and trust [....] and when you're sleeping with someone, it's actually a lot easier to say 'fuck you' or 'that's a shitty song.'" After initially gigging around Seattle as a duo, Sykes and Wandscher decided to assemble a full band, and, after doing so, quickly garnered enough critical praise for their languidly dark approach to psych-laced Americana that they were soon signed by indie label Devil in the Woods, allowing them to immediately set about recording their debut LP, Reckless Burning.

Jesse Sykes

 Sykes: "I like to refer to that time of my life as 'the reckless burning years.' It was less about making that record than it was learning how to just 'be.' Two estranged people going into lonely dark places- beautiful places. All we had was each other. We didn't even talk that much but somehow we just knew each other's story. That record was our story." Powerfully conveying the bitter pain and foggy, desolate spaces of emotional loss, Reckless Burning is clearly indebted to certain aspects of traditional Appalachian music, but the laconic darkness of Wandscher's noirish guitar-work and Sykes' bewitchingly distinctive alto subtly and quietly push the music into dreamy regions more commonly associated with psych-rock. Nowhere is this more evident than on the stunningly mournful title track, a song often compared to The Cowboy Junkies, but in truth, walks fifty paces further into unmitigated darkness than anything the Timmons siblings would be capable of committing to tape (okay, maybe with the exception of "Sweet Jane"). And while the song charts a slow descent into the numbness of emotional resignation, conveyed unforgettably through the lyrics and Sykes' world-weary vocals, it ends where such pain always ends, in abject ambiguity, as an equally dreamy rendition of "Goodnight Irene" brings "Reckless Burning" to its conclusion. Another standout track, "Don't Let Me Go," uses a slightly brighter country-influenced arrangement to counter-balance the song's dark emotional subject matter, weaving a subtle sense of irony into the song's overall tone. Sykes: "When I sat down and started playing some of the original songs that later became Reckless Burning, it just felt like he [Wandscher] was building the house that the songs lived in [....] He gave them the visual, cinematic aspect that they needed. He would create these little vignettes within the song- that other character answering back to my vocals [....] It's almost like I never had to articulate my vision to him; it became intact and fully realized as soon as he started playing on the songs. We're just hard wired into the same muse." As in the dream-state itself, Reckless Burning and its equally gorgeous follow-up, Oh, My Girl, take familiar elements and by re-arranging and re-imagining them, create something uncannily meaningful, a sound that charts the darkest interstices of the human heart while managing to feel both timeless and new.

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...

Galaxie 500- "Here She Comes Now" (1990) Live U.K. T.V. Performance

Dean Wareham & co. channeling the VU and getting it right....

Low- Things We Lost in the Fire (2001) MP3 & FLAC

"I don't need a laser beam. I don't need the time. Leave me in the car tonight; 
rest your drunken mind."

Formed in Duluth, Minnesota in the early nineties, Low embody the essence of the Slowcore genre: minimalist arrangements, glacial tempos, and fragile, achingly beautiful vocals. On second thought, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Low embody everything so-called Slowcore bands wish they could be. Taken as a whole, Low's considerable discography (they've been issuing records for 17 years now) can seem a little samey, but with proper care and attention, each album reveals a subtly different personality while not straying far from what makes this band so special. And what makes Low special is their masterful use of space as an additional element in the song arrangements and Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's breathtaking vocal harmonies, which often manage to convey by turns (and sometimes simultaneously) an icy despair and an epic warmth that make the songs sound timeless in the way certain old folk songs do. Things We Lost in the Fire is considered by many to be Low's masterpiece because it marks a juncture in their discography where they began to occasionally experiment with different rhythms and a slightly harder sound, the latter being something that would become a little more prominent on future albums. In many ways, lead track "Sunflower" is a quintessential Low song, as it combines darkly-themed lyrics (a tale of murder) with a beautiful minimalist melody that creeps out of the arrangement like a ghost, and then is chased out into the open by Sparhawk and Parker's sweetly melancholic harmonies. In contrast, "Dinosaur Act" introduces a harder edge to Low's sonic palette while still retaining their trademark tempo. Perhaps the most impressive song on Things We Lost in the Fire is one of the most minimally arranged, "Laser Beam." Comprised of little more than Sparhawk's arpeggios and Parker's stunning solo vocal performance, this song exemplifies what sets Low apart from the Slowcore pack: they use the spaciousness and the simplicity of the music to give voice to the silences, thus breathing a sense of emotional authenticity into the recording that would have been lost through a more conventional approach such as drenching the song in pathos-drenched strings. Truly, there is no band better at creating epic emotions out of slightly skewed simplicity.

Low- "Over the Ocean" Video (1996)

 A gorgeous, narcoleptic lullaby from one of the great indie bands of the nineties...

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.

The Antlers- Hospice (2009) MP3 & FLAC

"You return to me at night just when I think I may have fallen asleep. Your face is up against mine, and I'm too terrified to speak."

The hardest part of dealing with death is its incomprehensibility, the way it lifts the curtain on our quotidian lives and forces us to stare, if only momentarily, into an abyss of ineradicable absence. Anyone who has lost a loved one knows this disorienting feeling intimately, a stark sense of finality that no amount of preparation and emotional adjustment can soften. In a certain sense, The Antlers' debut Hospice is about how we engage with, and sometimes hopelessly struggle against, this incomprehensibility. Hospice, with its concept album ambitions, stands as something of an anomaly in this age of micro-genres and iTunes, but it wears its narrative well and is bolstered by Peter Silberman's dynamic but never flashy vocals. Lyrically, the story is ostensibly about a cancer patient, Sylvia, bitterly struggling through her last days and a hospice nurse who, despite the hopelessness of the situation, falls in love with her. Some have compared this album to Lou Reed's harrowing masterpiece Berlin (although Magic and Loss also comes to mind), and the comparison is apt; both albums are unblinking in their examinations of trauma, and both albums manage to integrate story and music masterfully, making them well-worth returning to despite the uncomfortable subject-matter. And this is something to remember about Hospice, concept album aside, it contains some wonderfully lush (and sometimes creepy) Chamber-Pop whose expansiveness can verge on Post-Rock at times. Coupled with Silberman's memorable voice, it all makes for a very distinctive and emotional listening experience.

The Antlers- "Kettering" (2009) Live, Spinner Interface

Brooklyn prodigies with some serious mood music:

Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter- "The Air Is Thin" Video (2007)

An absolutely incomparable voice that too few people have heard. Let's fix that...

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions- Suzanne EP (2002) MP3 & FLAC

"I don't think I'll come around, letting my hair hang down, making my way through your door, I ain't gonna do that no more. "

Released a year after Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions' debut, Bavarian Fruit Bread, had hit the stores, the Suzanne EP seemed something like an afterthought at the time, but in addition to recycling one of the album tracks as a single, it offers three b-sides, which, given the dearth of material from Sandoval, makes it well worth having. Though not as strong as the earlier EP, At the Doorway Again, it does feature the sultry "These Things," which finds Hope very much in Mazzy Star mode. Beautiful stuff.

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions- At the Doorway Again EP (2000) MP3 & FLAC

"She's got a smile like a flower. She looks so fine by the hour."

Following the release of Among My Swan, Mazzy Star went on permanent hiatus in terms of recording new material, and it wasn't until 2000 that Hope Sandoval finally surfaced again with a new band, The Warm Inventions.  Essentially a collaboration with ex-My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O'Ciosoig, At the Doorway Again retains the narcotic atmosphere of Hope's work in Mazzy Star, but, perhaps owing to David Roback's absence, the EP seem lighter in mood with less psychedelic overtones. The obvious highlight is "Around My Smile" which replaces Mazzy's psych gloom with a moody 50s-style guitar vamp, but the deliciously thick reverb is still in full force. The real gem, however, might be "Down the Steps," a gorgeous piano ballad featuring one of Sandoval's prettiest vocals (which is really saying something).

Mazzy Star- Flowers in December EP: Parts 1 & 2 (1996) MP3 & FLAC -For ranxerox-

"In your smile there are many a ways to cut the pain."

The first single pulled from Mazzy Star's presumptive swan song (pun intended), Among My Swan, was "Flowers in December," a lovely country-tinged ballad that features Hope Sandoval on harmonica. The single was released in two parts in the UK, with each part featuring two non-LP tracks. The highlight of Part I is "Hair and Skin" written by Dan Stuart whose band, Green on Red, was a mainstay of the Paisley Underground scene.  The song is a dark psych-rock slow-burner that hearkens back to the pre-Mazzy Opal days. Part II's highlight is "Had a Thought," a simple, straightforward acoustic song featuring one of Hope's livelier vocals. While not essential by any means, non-LP tracks were a rare commodity with this band, so it's nice to hear them work their magic in a slightly less polished context.

Mazzy Star- Among My Swan (1996) MP3 & FLAC

"Take away everything that feels fine. Catch a shape in the circles of my mind."

Mazzy Star's final (?) album, Among My Swan, has long been saddled with the reputation of being inferior to the band's two earlier LPs, She Hangs Brightly  and So Tonight That I Might See. The arguments for this have ranged from "sounds too similar to the previous stuff" to "sounds too dirge-like to retain listener interest." This negative critical response was partly due to the fact that three years had passed since the release of Mazzy Star's breakthrough second album, and the hushed confidence of Among My Swan, despite evidencing a number of subtle changes to the band's sound, was deemed an unworthy product for such a long hiatus. It is true that on Among My Swan, David Roback has turned the reverb (and thus the pysch-haze) dial down a notch or two, but in its place are many new textural nuances, such as glockenspiel and harmonica, that allow the songs to tread in a slightly less claustrophobic country-folk direction. The first single, "Flowers in December," is a perfect example of this. Here, Hope Sandoval's harmonica takes the melodic lead that would have been handled by Roback's guitar on one of the previous albums. This gives the song a distinctly desolate feel, and opens things up for one of Sandoval's best vocal turns. Conversely, on "Roseblood," the psych-rock gloom returns with Sandoval's vocal at its sleepy-sultry best, but what really pulls the song together is the backwards guitar effects that handle the main instrumental breaks. A masterstroke Mr. Roback. Rather than their "weakest" album, Among My Swan is their most "underrated" album, a distinction that, while wholeheartedly undeserved, makes this album ripe for rediscovery.

Mazzy Star- So Tonight That I Might See (1993) MP3 & FLAC -For marioscafe-

"Come so close that I might see the crash of light come down on me."

While So Tonight That I Might See can certainly be considered Mazzy Star's "breakthrough" album, the irony is that, aside from David Roback's slightly more lush production, the band hadn't sacrificed any of the dark psych-rock mystique that made  She Hangs Brightly so seductive. If anything, on their second LP, Mazzy Star had distilled their unique sound, resulting in a more focused and varied set of songs that would mark the creative apex of their (unfortunately) brief recording career. So Tonight That I Might See begins with "Fade into You," easily Mazzy Star's most identifiable song, and, as hard as it is to believe, a minor hit. Despite its unlikely brush with mainstream success, the song is a dark, haunting masterpiece that lets nary a ray light in. Also deserving of mention is the cover of Arthur Lee's "Five String Serenade," an exceedingly simple acoustic-drenched ode that provides Hope Sandoval with the perfect vehicle for the sultry torpor of her vocals. The often over-looked gem on this album is the title track, which, much like the title track on the debut album, allows the band to pursue the more aggressive side of its psych-rock pedigree. Overall, an exceedingly gorgeous piece of work to be sure.

Mazzy Star- She Hangs Brightly (1990) MP3 & FLAC

"Takes me down deep and wide, pulls me through to the other side."

Hope Sandoval was originally pressed into service as the lead singer of David Roback's Paisley Underground psych-rock band Opal after Kendra Smith left the stage halfway through a show while touring in the UK in 1988. The following year, after an aborted attempt at recording a second Opal album, Ghost Highway, the band rechristened itself Mazzy Star and released its debut, She Hangs Brightly, in 1990. In the interim, Roback had traded in the gauzy, languorous T-Rex-inspired space-rock of his Opal days for a sound approximating Robbie Krieger playing the Delta Blues as a member of The Velvet Underground. And then there's Hope Sandoval's oh-so-singular vocals: sultry, child-like, vulnerable, untouchable, and ably expressing both a heartbreaking sense of desolation and a disinterested sense of separation. She Hangs Brightly contains a number of psychedelic gems, including "Halah" and their inspired cover of Slapp Happy's "Blue Flower," but often overlooked are the acoustic blues-based songs, which Sandoval's vocals sell unforgettably. She Hangs Brightly tends to be over-shadowed by the band's breakthrough follow-up, So Tonight That I Might See, but it deserves far better. Its Delta-pysch hybrid still sounds fresh, and while often emulated over the years, it has never been bested.

Low & Dirty Three- In the Fishtank EP (2001) MP3 & FLAC

"I hear the window shake. I hear the silence break. I hear the moon turn to blood."

The pairing of Low and Dirty Three is easily the highpoint of Konkurrent's In the Fishtank series and never fails to leave me mourning the fact that these bands have not recorded together since. Nevertheless, what we do have here is an EP-length document of a truly inspired collaboration resulting in a creative alchemy that transforms these bands into something greater than the sum of their parts (and don't get me wrong, these are pretty amazing parts). Admittedly, Dirty Three tends to play a supporting role here, but their distinctive shambling Post-Rock ethos cuts through Low's hushed oceanic thickness, making it sound even more melancholy and epic. The centerpiece of the EP is a sublime 10-minute cover of Neil Young's "Down by the River," which proceeds by turning the song inside-out until Mimi Parker's deceptively lullabye-esque vocals lead us further into spiritual darkness. A small masterpiece.