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?


--
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. 

Shields Down- Powdered Sugar Avalanche

http://www.mediafire.com/?5uc3gdwbpym5hwh

Powdered Sugar Avalanche combines the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Brian Eno brand of pop music with the whirled sonics of My Bloody Valentine and the instrumentation of Magnetic Fields. It's ultimately a group of pop songs, but sounds a bit like Alan Lomax engineered a group of pop musicians that Brian Eno arranged and Kevin Shields produced. It's all over the place, in a nice way, i think.

The 'band' consists of brothers Ben and Leif Fairfield, who both make their own cds, and Lisa Chuang. Ben Fairfield tends to make poppy songs in the vein of Jack Johnson or Elliot Smith while Leif prefers the overall sound and feeling of songs, more akin to Brian Eno or Andrew Bird.

The songs here are shrouded in imagery and feel a bit like reading a book on a remote ocean shoreline. It has a song in Thai, a Chinese boys choir, and lyrics about Japanese history. It's familiar-enough as a pop cd, but even at its most intimate, it still feels pretty far off and abstract.

"Any Kind of Day" feels a bit like Sarah McLachlan-meets-Cush and "SwanDive" nearly sounds like Jeremy Enigk with a looser backing band. I have always appreciated bands that rotate lead singers, and i especially like the three part harmonies.



* If you ever get a chance to pick up a physical copy, it's printed letterpress! Woo ha!

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. 

Women- Public Strain

http://www.mediafire.com/?8yfmqd2wcls4ycf

A friend turned me on to Women's "Group Transport Hall," which i covered for a performance about jeggings. The song is really great-- weird, wobbly, beautiful, and catchy.

Public Strain could be described that same way. It has that uncanny element to it, where you recognize and don't recognize the music. It goes from sounding strident to blissful, and makes me feel like i'm underground looking at cathedrals when i listen to it. I read that it felt more like an "album" than most cds, and sounds best (*surprise surprise) when listened to on headphones. If you play it through speakers at work, like i did, people will just glare at you.

Recommended for fans of Deerhoof and Slowdive or Aaron Martin. *A disclaimer: it took at least 3 listens for me to really like this, which I think is a sign of a great album. One of my favorite discoveries of this new year.

St. Vincent- Actor

http://www.mediafire.com/?3yqdtb7gz9zspru

Probably a commonplace name at this point, but I am still really impressed by this album. I was especially impressed to learn that Annie Erin Clark (aka St. Vincent) wrote and arranged the CD, right down to the drum beats (which is contrary to the average singer-songwriter who simply writes tunes on a guitar, then has the pros come in and flesh them out until they sound like solid songs). She's more of a composer, in the classical sense, than a songwriter. But she's still composing songs.

There is an other-worldliness to some of her melodies, and they are sung in a delicate, lilting voice that is really strong. When singers like Bjork or Janelle Monae are able to impress by their sheer range and emotional range, St. Vincent does the opposite-- she impresses by possessing an incredible voice but refusing to show it off.

She's pretty theatrical, which turns a lot of people off. But i definitely appreciate the comprehensive approach: music, image, lyrics, production, execution. One could also call her narcissistic, but eh... what singer-songwriter isn't, really?

Definitely worth listening to, and recommended for fans of left-of-center indie pop songwriters, or fans of Sufjan Stevens, My Brightest Diamond, Neko Case, et al.