PeeP on PoP- Seabright

Seabright- Feel Good (self released- 2011)
~by Gabe McBride

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One of my favorite things about laptop music is that it’s so damned democratic. A guy with a Mac, a dream, and a pirated copy of Garage Band can throw together some samples, slap a beat under ‘em, and have an album available for download before dinner. Well, maybe I exaggerate a little bit, but in the case of San Jose’s Justin Morales, AKA Seabright, democratic creativity is the name of the game, in that there is no musical stone left unturned. Feel Good really does make me, feel, well… good, with its nods to dance, classical, indiepop, hip-hop, experimental electronic, psych, traditional pop, smooth jazz,  shoegaze, dreampop, and pretty much any musical microgenre you could think of.

Feel Good is more than just democratic too, as its liberal use of styles and musical confabulations across the sound spectrum elicits a kind of ‘aw shucks’ populism, in that the album doesn’t have a mean bone in its body. Not to say there’s no edge on Feel Good’s 11 tracks, just that it is so lovingly blended into a dreamy amalgamation of groovy beats and textures that are just… happy. Amazingly, all of Seabright’s music is available for free on his Bandcamp page. It’s a no-brainer here, folks.

For Fans of: Small Black, Ducktails

PeeP on PoP- Chrome Sparks

Chrome Sparks- My <3 (self released-2011)

~by Gabe McBride

85________________________

Weird thing about the internet. A tossed of label like “chillwave”, or even worse, “hypnagogic pop” (barf) becomes so instantly irritating it sends up-to-the-minute music geeks like myself (sniff) into conniptions no sooner than a couple of similar sounding bands release like-minded tracks or albums, and a backlash has begun before a knob twiddling, laptop wielding depressive even knows what had hit him (them? I lost track of subject/verb/object/syntax about 50 characters ago). So, long story short- I had discovered Neon Indian and Washed out when there were maybe two or three taste making bloggers left who hadn’t traded in their cassette only releases by these wet-behind-the-ears-composers-busy-making-the-80’s-mysterious, in for crack money. And, honestly, I think missing out on the retroactive resentment and just letting myself enjoy the music (well, Neon Indian not so much) wound up being a net positive, all said. Which leads me to Chrome Sparks’ new EP, My<3, which on initial listen bears some of the markers associated with the movement of bands playing music that sounds like the stuff their mom was listening to while they were gestating in the womb, exactly as they remember it: pulsing synth wash, programmed hand clap drum beats, and processed, reorganized vocals.

Where My <3 differs from the class of 2009 (2008?) is that it’s a little more up front and demystified. Like Ford and Lopatin, this is mostly unironic electro, with the Reagan/Thatcher era used as a stepping off point. It’s not a reimagining of New Wave so much as it is an update of it, with nods to hip hop and indie, R&B and lo-fi electro. Highly recommended.

Available for ‘name your price’ over at Bandcamp. Which means fork over five bucks, cheapskate! C’mon, starving musicians gotta eat too.

For Fans of: Games, Toro y Moi

PeeP on PoP- Motel Beds

Motel Beds- Sunfried Dreams (Self released- 2011)
~by Gabe McBride

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It surprised me not at all to learn that the Motel Beds are from Dayton, Ohio, home of the inimitable Guided by Voices, given the band’s Brit Invasion styled pop chops. While the band’s name and the album’s cover hint at a smoky late 50’s/early 60’s vibe, Sunfried Dreams generally steers clear of the lethargic reverb-drenched sound dominating indie-dom lately, for an in-your-face urgency, somewhere between the mod of the Kinks and the nihilism of the Stones.

Sunfried Dreams  is unabashed in its sense of machismo and swagger, in an unironic way ( a Dayton attribute, I think) which also brings to mind, at times, more recent Brit imports, especially Oasis, if not so much in sound, although that’s there too, but in ‘tude. The band’s music would fit nicely as the soundtrack to a drunken bar fight, and that seems like a good thing to me. A straight-up rock ‘n’ roll fantasy we could use more of these days.

For Fans of: Apples in Stereo, The Zombies 

PoP Live- Yuck and Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Yuck were in Portland on a Sunday night (July 24, I believe) which happened to coincide with bassist Mariko Doi's birthday, and guitarists/singers Daniel Blumberg and Max Bloom decorated the stage  with ballons before the band played their set.

Awesomely, the opening act was Portland-by-way-of-New Zealand (both bands are on Fat Possum) mysterions (who's entire set was played in the dark, hence the 'unknown' thing... and the fact that there are no pictures, as none came out very well), Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who played a tight, energetic batch of debut album  (review to be forthcoming) tunes to a large (hometown) crowd, several of whom left after UMO exited the stage.

The joke was on them, however, as they missed Yuck play all the songs off of their February debut, as well as single b-sides 'Coconut Bible' and the shoegazy 'The Base of the Dream is Empty'. I was able to get a good spot right in front of the stage and was able to take in lead guitarist Bloom shredding his Fender Jaguar for all it was worth. The band seemed to lack a little bit of energy at times, but still played the shit out of thier songs, and I left a happy man, getting to see two bands, with two of the best albums of the year, play back to back, in a small venue.

Overrated!

What band (talking "indie" here folks) does everyone else seem to love, and you aren't on the bandwagon? Please leave your comments at the blog. I'll start, it rhymes with Barfaid Tire. Juvenile? Yes.

Bloated, self-important, no fun having fake Canadians. No sir, I don't like it!

Comment below, please!

Talk on Purpose- Night Manager

I ran across Night Manager over at No Fear of Pop a few weeks back, and it was love at first listen! Caitlin, Ezana, Tim, and Tassy play melodic, noisy pop tunes that seem to be custom built for yours truly. The band is two 7'' singles into their young career, and have another coming down the pike soon (see below). Please be sure and stop by the band's Band Camp page, and toss a few dollars their way! It is money you will not miss for songs you will not stop listening to. I caught up with these New York noiseniks via email and they were gracious and funny....

PoP- So where are you all located, and who are the current members of the band? Did you know each other before you started playing music together?

Tassy- Tim and I live in Brooklyn while Caitlin and Ezana live in the lower eastside. Caitlin is from France, Ezana is from San Fran, Tim is from Upstate New York, and Tassy is from Connecticut. Tim and Ezana were in the music program at school. Through our discomfort and dissatisfaction in the program we started Night Manager. We met Caitlin through the program, and I met Ezana in acting class.

Ezana- FYI: we're prolly gonna tackle this thing individually, each of taking about 2 questions. That was Tassy, our bass player. He likes to take acid and pretend he's writing for federal grants with a Remington noiseless. He used to a court stenographer, he once transcribed the case of peanut butter vs. jelly and I’m sure he was on acid when he wrote this

PoP- Do you guys find that your musical tastes outside the band converge? Are you influenced by bands you listened to growing up or music that’s more contemporary?

Ezana-I grew up listing to a lot of my schoolmates call me a faggot, that and Nirvana are big youth influences. i also like a lot of 60s pop...girl groups and shit. bands like Sweet Bulbs, Reading Rainbow, Tonstartssbandht, Total Slacker etc. are current (semi) local faves. 
 
Tim- Convergence is a good way of putting it. We all have different tastes, or different levels of enthusiasm for any given artist or song, but there is obviously a lot of places where we all agree, and these inevitably influence our sound the most. As far as contemporary versus old stuff is concerned, the sound and effect of the music have more contemporary influences but most music I write, regardless of genre, has a lot of common structural themes, so it probably has more to do with preferences I've formed a long time ago. And the songs Ezana writes are so structurally unique, I can only guess as to where they're coming from.
 
PoP- On that same kinda note- are there any bands people might be surprised to hear you are fans of or that your bandmates might look at you weird for liking? I hate to call them 'guilty pleasure', because that's so, well, lame. But youknowhatimean?

Tim (via Ezana)- I'm really into this dude:

Ezana-Oh man! You can’t fuckin’ rickroll on gmail!

PoP-Nice. My favorite thing about Rick Astley, is he looks like a butch lesbian. With a deep voice. So, is having a female singer in the band a happy accident, or a little more based on your love of 60's girl bands? Was there a plan?

Ezana- Yeah, that and I don’t like it when there's too many dudes on stage. You know?

Tassy- I wanted at least a choir of young males fully nude covered in "fart juice"

PoP- Dang. That was a weird left turn right there. Fart juice. I feel like I know what that is, kind of instinctually, but do please elaborate.

Ezana- Fart juice is kind of a curveball tassy throws out from time to time, it's un-hittable so we should move onto something new.

PoP- If you insist! So, I live down the road from Portland, which, like NY, is one of those places you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a band. Is it a struggle to carve out your own niche when there are so many other bands trying to be successful?

Ezana- New York is kind of a struggle in general; it's competitive on all fronts. I think if you're smart about where you play and who you play with you can carve a niche and find the right audience. Still the hardest and most important struggle is actually being good.

New York is unique because a bigger band is usually playing the same night you are, but honestly our biggest obstacle has been the weather. We played 7 consecutive rainy gigs last fall. Once it hailed, and once there was a fuckin’ tornado in Brooklyn. So if we had to blame anyone for fucking up our shit it would have to be God. (PS I rickrolled you)

(Left to Right) Tim, Ezana, Caitlin, and Tassy

PoP- You SO rickrolled me! One thing that seems to get overlooked a lot is dumb luck, too. There are bands that seem to have the right sound or even the right "look" at the right time. It almost seems a lot of the time talent falls down to somewhere around 32 on the list of important things a band need to be successful. And god forbid a band be consistent. That seems like the kiss of death, right there. I guess that's not really a question...

Tassy- It took awhile for me to learn personally that sometimes talent isn't all you need. All you need is a pretty face and the right people backing you. The only artist I can think of who has the full package and could enviably succeed in music regardless is Hoku. Shit is pretty rad.

PoP- Hoku? Like ‘Don Ho’ Hoku? So is there an album in the works? Going by the bands you mentioned, I would assume you would want to keep a think layer of noise and scuzz on the songs, or would you guys be more likely to spit shine stuff a little, once it's time to records an LP?

Ezana- Pretty sure Tassy was talking about this:

(Ezana cont.)- Anyway, as of now there is no full length in the works, we're recording single for Big Love Records in Japan and we're going into an actual studio for the first time. The sound will definitely be less dirty--our previous stuff was recorded in the most budget, DIY fashion--this time we'll have more options as to how we want to sound. A lot of bands make the jump to the more polished sound and end up sounding corny, like something gets lost in the transition. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen to us.

PoP- I have to say I put "I Love Night Manager" in the subject header of the email, not only to get you guys' attention, but because it is true! Will the Big Love single be available through your bandcamp page? Any closing words for your fans out there?

Caitlin- Yes, it will be on bandcamp and itunes along with the label's web site. As for the fans, anyone who digs our music, thanks for appreciating us, we love you!

nightmanagerbk.bandcamp.com

facebook.com/nightmanagerbk

myspace.com/night_manager

twitter.com/nightmanagerbk