The Lassie Foundation- Jet Stream, Three Wheels EP (2010)

http://www.mediafire.com/?1246e9h2x5r22zp


I had a strange musical childhood, with two parents who listened to those irritating Christian Church worship tapes every week. That was their definition of music, and because of that hideous weekly routine (**shudder**), we kids were expected to listen to "christian music." How can music be a Christian?


One of the few things that came out of that ridiculous musical wasteland was a band called The Prayer Chain, who later split into The Lassie Foundation. TLF was obsessed with The Beach Boys, Yo la Tengo, Built to Spill, Lilys, Medicine, and 60s garage rock like The Kinks and The Who. I couldn't get enough of that combination of sugar-sweet pop falsetto and make-your-ears-bleed loud noise rock.


Alas, the band did not age well. The Schlock Factor hit pretty hard. They were incredibly inconsistent and distracted, and seemed to have an "All or Nothing" approach, rotating band members with each new release.


Jet Stream, Three Wheels EP really surprised me because it's fantastic. The first song is negligible, but the two last songs are fantastic. I can't tell if it makes me forgive them of all the pedantic releases or hold it against them more...hmmmm?


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I just noticed this amazing link: on their website, you can download "fancy" PowerPoint presentations to accompany their songs in order to "Impress your teachers, professors, and office colleagues." I have to give them credit for these ludicrous extras. 

TV on The R(a)dio- Nine Types of L(i)ght (2012)

http://www.mediafire.com/?li1bbefvpzzbvc1

I've been a big TVOTR fan since i first heard Young Liars, and it's been great to watch the band expand, change, and grow since.

NTOL might be my favorite, if for no other reason than the full length movie that was created alongside the album by singer Tunde Adebimpe, my man crush and ridiculously cool person. Do yourself a favor: find an hour, and watch this. Then feel awesome.

One of my favorite things of this cd is the feeling of letting go for the band, of enjoying themselves and letting the music be much looser. Love, love, LOVE hearing the meaty baritone on some songs! It's like James Earl Jones stepped in to croon. Plus, did anyone else notice what an awful guitarist David Sitek is??? The term "Robbie Robertson" comes to mind... Just saying.

Following my previous post, I love seeing black folks playing rock music, not because it seems like a crossing over boundaries, but that it is a resituation of black presence within a black medium (rock music) that was taken by white people from black folk musicians and early rockers like Chuck Berry. People forget that Elvis was playing the "Devil's Music" (meaning, black music). It's a reminder that rock, like so much else in this country, was early stolen and rebranded by white people as white culture.

Anyway, kudos to you fellas. You go, boys. Way to rock.

Leif Fairfield- Facts of War

Leif Fairfield- Facts of War (2011)

http://www.mediafire.com/?m4mqviii9hj1fsa

Troubadour musician Leif Fairfield first cut his teeth with the 2005 "Delaware Sessions," a Berkeley-birthed cd that made pop music really tiny, basing songs around plucked violin and tentative vocals. Facts of War is his first full length offering since (with a smattering of EPs scattered throughout) and finds the emotional attachment cranked up a few notches, with some improved musical chops. An audio chronicling of his relocations from San Francisco to Knoxville to Cincinnati, this cd is full of screechy noise, darker lyrics, and pop sensibilities.

This cd squishes the devotional with the confessional, blurring the personal with the projected. And like all of Fairfield's cds, it has at least one song about suicide and/or dying. Go figure.

Think of it as a sound lasagna, with layers of violin and effects, filled with vocal harmonies, and drizzled with a small sprinkling of acoustic string instruments. Recommended for fans of Andrew Bird, Grizzly Bear, and Brian Eno.

Featuring Peralta Pirates Bryan Maurer and Matt Kronbach, plus Cincinnati staple Sonic Elf.