Peep on PoP- Yellowbirds

Yellowbirds- The Color (The Royal Potato Family- 2011)
~by Gabe McBride

 79

It’s been an embarrassment of riches at PoP in February, and Yellowbirds, Apollo Sunshine leader, Sam Cohen’s new going concern, is adding to the good times ‘round these parts. The difference between Cohen’s two bands could be best described as a different path in the same forest , as opposed to a different continent (he didn’t drop Apollo Sunshine’s Beatles-ish psych/folk to explore his speed metal side). That is to say, both Yellowbirds and Apollo Sunshine are 60’s influenced pop bands, with the latter leaning more towards fuzzy, but easy-going, kaleidoscopic tunes and the former going the Buffalo Springfield route, with country tinged music hall psychedelia-lite. 

Cohen’s voice is silky smooth and he sounds a good deal like Roy Orbison, with his plaintive, soulful moan, which suits the slower numbers (‘Ring in the Trees’, title track ‘The Color’) quite well. Cohen pulls some big hooks out of his repertoire, and rarely overplays them, letting the songs breathe and move organically. I know this kind of stuff dates back, and at this point is hardly what could be called original, but I have to admit to being a sucker for this kind of music, even if it is more 'Ricky Nelson' than 'Gram Parsons'.

For Fans of: Wilco, The Botticellis

Peep on PoP- Sic Alps

Sic Alps- Napa Asylum (Drag City- 2011)
~by Paul Mattson

 78

While not the instant classic it could have been, Napa Asylum an incredibly impressive record. Napa Asylum plays out like an ode to the past with a nod to the present. The tunes possess a timeless quality that is both comfortably familiar and refreshingly new. Like a long lost demo tape from an amazing band that was recently rediscovered. The music feels deconstructed with songs stripped down to their basic core, and presented in a low-fi hiss reminiscent of early Guided by Voices albums. The result is noise drenched psychedelic garage rock that is muddy yet vibrant.

The record as a whole seems to suffer from a lack of ambition, the effort put forth doesn't feel worthy of the talent behind it. Some tracks border on brilliance while others seem like half-hearted attempts. I realize that not every song needs to be a home run, (but at least swing the bat when the bases are loaded). Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but this band is so ripe with potential that my expectations are high.

I predict this band will garner a rabid fan base (consider me one). A real diamond in the rough. Standout tracks include: ‘The First White Man to Touch California Soil’, ‘Do You Want to Give $$?’, and ‘Meter Man’.

For Fans of: Guided by Voices, The Beatles

Peep on Pop- Puro Instinct

Puro Instinct- Headbanger's in Ecstacy (Mexican Summer- 2011)
~by Gabe McBride

 86

When Puro Instinct, then called Pearl Harbor, released last year’s Something About the Chapparals EP, the band was more famous for their back-story (the two Kaplan girls, Skylar, a teen and, Piper, in her early twenties decided to play some music together, and wound up forming a band) than their actual tunes, which were surf tinged California-mellow jams (think Real Estate). Something… had some interesting moments, but was really more a diversion than a statement; it was pleasant to listen to, but it was a case of there just not being much there there. 

For their full-length debut, the Kaplan sisters brought in Ariel Pink to produce, and his fingerprints are all over the record, to the point where it could even be considered Before Today part two. Headbangers songs, proper are interrupted every few tracks by canned radio announcements that sound like they bouncing back to Earth from another galaxy, distorted and eerie, which gives the sense of listening to an AM music broadcast late at night. The album’s first song, ‘Everybody’s Sick’ is the weakest here, with a generic, tossed off melody that doesn’t go anywhere quick, and thin, tinny instrumentation. Despite this momentary hiccup, Headbangers in Ecstasy is fantastic. While last year’s EP had interesting ideas, not fully formed, the LP takes the band’s best asset, atmosphere, and punches it up, adding samples, electro flourishes, funky bass lines, saxophone, and left-field fretwork to make a hazy, disco/dream-pop hybrid that sounds otherworldly and familiar at the same time. Where Ariel Pink’s sound is grounded in sleazy glam and lo-fi scuzz, Puro Instinct bring to mind Stevie Nicks and Carl Sagan. The music takes unexpected twists and turns throughout, the melodies are both airy and have heft, too, and repeated listens reveal unexpected and new surprises. It makes Headbangers in Ecstasy a surprisingly mature piece of work.

For Fans of: Aisler's Set, Fleetwood Mac

PeeP on PoP- Yuck!

Yuck- Yuck (Fat Possum- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

88__________________             

While there has certainly been no shortage of foreign acts carrying the indie/guitar/rock/pop banner in the last decade (Sweden’s Like Honey, England’s Spraydog, and NZ’s Surf City are my personal favorites), there has not been a whole lot of precious blog beachfront property in the hipsterverse reserved for these bands, or maybe I should say, these “types” of bands. Silvesun Pickups are the most obvious exception, but the backlash against them started seemingly within days of the release of Carnavas (2006), and of course, they made an even bigger mistake by becoming popular selling out. That said, it has been pretty cool seeing the recent buzz around Yuck. 

I have to admit that it’s a little weird hearing 20 year olds playing music I was discovering when I was 20 years old, but man, they just do it so well. Yuck layer guitars on guitars on guitars, do the loud, soft, loud thing *very* well and toss out big, rip-snortin’, hooks with little apparent effort. It’s not all J Mascis shredding up in here, though (Yuck I mean). The band reference the big boys (Sonic Youth, Dino Jr.) when they rock, and the best boys (Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet) when they mellow things out . 

Part of the reason Yuck haven’t been thrown under the bus (yet) is because of this. Semi-nude Aubrey Plaza lookalikes aside, the other, better reason, is they just rock like they mean it, even if, somewhere in the band’s collective soul, they are just maybe having a little bit of a go, playing music for old farts like me. I can confidently say Yuck will be in my regular rotation for the rest of the year. But hey, sometimes the answer is just “more guitars”.

For Fans of: The Posies, Sisters

Yeehaw!

We are looking forward to being unbearably busy in the next few weeks, with upcoming reviews of new material by Radiohead, Yuck, Smith Westerns, MillionYoung, Telekinesis, The Babies, The Dears,White Fence, and even more! Yikes! It's all so overwhelming, I didn't make it to Portland to see The Love Language. So, to make up for it, here's a mini-classic from Moose, to tide y'all over until later this week!

PeeP on PoP- Oh No! Oh My!

Oh No! Oh My!- People Problems (Koenig- 2011)
~by Paul Mattson

 65

I'd like to preface my review by saying that Oh No! Oh My!’s debut album,  Between the Devil and the Sea (2006), is a personal favorite (it fits somewhere in the lower half of my all-time top ten). Between… was a smile inducing record, brimming with talent and charm. I know I'm not reviewing that album, but it's hard for me not to compare their newer work to it. They seem to have taken themselves more seriously with each newer recording while still retaining the whimsical quality of the songs. Until now.

People Problems ditches the catchy simplicity of hook heavy folk pop in favor of more sophisticated fair. The music on People Problems is meticulously crafted and eloquent, but sometimes less is more. Not to say that the songs aren't engaging, but they fail to amuse me in the same way they have in the past. This is not their typical "feel good" style, and that can be a bit off putting at first. This album comes from a darker place than previous efforts, and this is evident in the lyrics and tranquil mood of the songs. My smiles have been replaced by self reflection. It's like when your favorite comedian decides to switch to drama.

My personal viewpoints aside, People Problems is a quality endeavor. The band manages to visit new territory without appearing pretentious or naive. I just hope this is a side trip.

For Fans of: The Shins, Ok Go 

PeeP on PoP- James Blake

James Blake- James Blake (A&M/Atlas- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

81___                             

Just want to put out there, right off the top, I don’t know from dubstep. I couldn’t identify a discernable difference between grime, jungle (is that a thing?) or trip-hop. All that aside, James Blake is pretty intriguing. I am an electro music novice, at best, and I hear a ton of Kid A in the record, with its hollowed out synth chords and unstable, minimalist vocals, that frequently descend into nothingness, or a close approximation of it. Some of the time anyway. There’s a strong R&B influence on some of the songs, especially  when Blake sits at the piano and belts it out, as on his cover of Feist’s ‘Limit to Your Love’, although this track like much of the record, the bass throbs and threatens menacingly.

The heart of James Blake is in the dyad ‘Lindisfarne 1’ and ‘Lindisfarne 2’. The first half is Blake singing almost entirely  a capella, through a vocoder, with some short, muted electro notes that come in briefly for a few seconds toward the end of the track. The song almost disintegrates  into nothingness at least three times and comes to a complete halt with seven seconds left, before his voice interjects again, throwing in a final, indecipherable thought. ‘Lindisfarne 2’ is probably the most upbeat track on the record, and Blake sounds unapologetically joyful, soulful, and devotional. Just as on ‘1’, the vocals are masked through layers of code, piled on each other, and, as in other songs here, he accompanies himself three or four times. It’s heady stuff, and I have purposely avoided looking up lyrics online, as the tone of James Blake is vastly more interesting than what he might be saying. And I think, I think, there might be some dubstep in there. 

For Fans of: Burial, Antony and the Johnsons

Pe/eP on PoP- Bubblegum Lemonade

Bubblegum Lemonade- Sophomore Release (Matinee Recordings- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

 71

 Bubblegum Lemonade (along with the female fronted Strawberry Whiplash) is the life’s work of Glasgow, Scotland’s Lawrence “Laz” McCluskey. Sophomore Release is the second (natch) release of C-86 styled indie pop from Bubblegum Lemonade, and it doesn’t stray too greatly from the band’s first LP, Doubleplusgood, not that there’s anything wrong with that. 

McCluskey was born, it would seem about 40 years too late, as his sunny, effervescent mod-pop would have been better suited for the swinging London of 1964. Bubblegum Lemonade sound like a band that would have influenced The Jesus and Mary Chain, like some sort of long lost golden oldies group that never was.  There are nods to 50’s teeny-bopper pop, some light psychedelic flourishes, and even a beatnik inspired, bongo-beat-led jam or two on the album. Most of the songs are about girls, or listening to the radio, or girls listening to the radio and make me nostalgia for a time I never lived in, and maybe never even existed in the first place. 

For Fans of: Kai Reiner, Best Coast, The Hollies

PeeP on PoP

Young Prisms- Friends for Now (Kanine- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

83_________________

Shoegaze has an image problem. Relegated to its own ghetto, a lot like indie pop (they share much of the same genealogy as well as many current fans), there are a lot of current bands, good ones, mind you, get little to no consideration from the bigger indie blogs and are often signed to boutique labels like Slumberland or Clairecords, whose fans know what they are getting and spend their music dollar accordingly.   

Enter Young Prisms, on overwhelmingly awesome indie label Kanine, home to Eternal Summers, Chairlift, Viernes, and a couple dozen other up-and-comers. Friends for Now aims to rock, first and foremost, and while that might not be the most outrageous thing for a rock band to do, it’ something a whole shit-ton of shoegaze bands have tended lose sight of in a hurry, if they were ever doing it to begin with. I blame My Bloody Valentine. When MBV released  Loveless in 1991, there were song recorded over a 2 year plus period and Kevin Shields’ obsession with beauty and outright gorgeousness could be heard all over the record. Loveless wound up being a record that made a lot of people want to start a bands of their own and put in lesser hands (i.e., not Shields’) shoegaze, dreampop, whatever you want to call it, frequently became gauzy, formless, glossy, and, well, kind of boring. Not only was the sound frequently homogenous in that it was often hard to distinguish between guitars, bass, vocals, and keys, the bands tended to be easily interchangeable as well.

Young Prisms let you hear the bass and drums, and although the vocals are not necessarily meant to be interpreted, I mean, I have no idea what they are saying, they understand how to find a solid hook and allow it to spin into interweaving psychedelic threads. There’s still beauty there, sometimes amazingly so. The guitars have traction and sound like guitars and not synths, and the bass leads the way. The music isn’t glassy or shimmery, it’s solid, heavy, and it frickin’ wails. And it’s beautiful. Friends for Now is a terrific debut album from a group of kids who know what they are doing. 

For Fans of: Weekend, A Place to Bury Strangers

PoP Live! Tennis at Mississippi Studios Jan. 29

Tennis played all the tracks off of Cape Dory, plus three or four new tunes.

 Denver's Tennis blew through Portland last Saturday night and we have the pictures to prove it! Brooklyn's Air Waves opened things up nicely with their twangy, jangly indiepop, and can count Tennis as big fans, as Alaina and Patrick were in the crowd enthusiastically cheering on their tour mates. Portland's own Dirty Mittens whipped the home-town audience into a dance inferno as front woman Chelsea's upbeat, infectious charm, had the crowd up and gyrating. Their disco-pop reminded me of Sweden's great Concretes, without any of the Scandinavian existential ennui. Tennis took things down a notch, but sounded great nonetheless. Alaina talked with the crowd a bit, and even announced that her high school math teacher was in attendance. Tennis' set was tight and they sounded great. I will definitely be seeing them again soon.

Alaina from Tennis hopped on stage and sang backing vocals on one of the last songs of Air Waves' set.

Pretentious Elitism/Elitist Pretension

Cloud Nothings- Cloud Nothings (Carpark- 2011)

~ Gabe McBride

53

What a disappointment. Clevelander Dylan Baldi released his debut as Cloud Nothings, Turning On, in 2010.  And it was good. No, it was great.  Turning On was lo-fi, immediate and engaging, and mashed together punk presence and effortlessness in a way that belied Baldi’s 18 years. The hooks were big and plentiful, and dammit, it sounded like a long lost classic lineup GbV record. One of PoP's reviewers listed it as his personal album of the year.

So now we get the band’s first official LP, which has ditched the homemade aesthetic for the studio. My first reaction to CN was to think that was the root of the albums failure, but really it’s not. The melodies make appearances throughout the album and there’s no doubting Baldi’s enthusiasm, the problem, is he has ditched the indie ethos for a straight-up thoroughly unremarkable pop-punk sound. It’s not that the songs are bad, per-se, just incredibly pedestrian. There are some good tunes here (‘Should Have’, ‘Forget You all the Time’) but they aren’t enough to carry the load for the rest of the record. The most painful aspect of the record is Baldi’s singing. His strained vocals are pinched and nasal and they're front and center, for the most part, on all 11 tracks. It’s like he painted himself into a corner that no one even knew was in his house. Here’s to album #3. 

For Fans of: Sicko