Kickstart My Art
My multi-fauceted friend Paula Carino recently released Open on Sunday, her first alboom since 2001's Aquacade. I've known Paula since the Eighties, so it's hard to be objective about her music; but I like it a lot, and I think her lyrics are smarter than the average bear (wolf, fox, or other animal du jour). Paula financed her CD through Kickstarter. You can buy it on iTunes, CD Baby, or direct from the artist via PayPal.
A long time ago, Paula sent me a mixtape featuring a great new singer-songwriter named Freedy Johnston. Hey lordy bebop, Freedy has a new record too: Rain on the City, his first album of new original songs since 2001. Freedy's back on Bar/None Records, and they will be happy to sell you his new CD (and those Individuals and Feelies reissues!) Follow me to Hoboko-stalgia and the Bar/None Store.
Paula recently recommended the Welsh trio The Joy Formidable. "A Balloon Called Moaning" is the unfortunate name of the band's 8 song EP. Female guitarist and vocalist! Loud layers of electric guitar! Uptempo songs with memorable choruses! Shades of grunge and shoegaze! Four free songs are available for download from Last FM. Paula Carino: The Great Depression
Freedy Johnston: Don't Fall in Love with a Lonely Girl
The Joy Formidable: The Last Drop
Set the Controls for the Phasers to Stun
There's something especially special about Australian rock. I absolutely LURVE Radio Birdman, You Am I, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Love of Diagrams, Anne McCue, and Grand Atlantic. North Americans have a unique opportunity to see the fabulous powerpop quartet Grand Atlantic this month. The tour starts tomorrow (March 5) in SF. They will swing through Chicago and Toronto. There will be two NYC shows (March 13 and 14), and then the band will go to Texas for SXSW on March 16-20 before returning to LA on March 21. Details are here.
The mighty Eddy Current Suppression Ring will release its third album, Rush to Relax (March 16 on Goner Records). These guys are fantastic. They recorded the entire album one wintry August afternoon, so you can't accuse them of over-thinking it. There are some live Eddy Current mp3s available at the band's website.
They are touring Down Under to support the new record, but maybe they will come back to the US for GonerFest in September? Goner has thus far announced three bands from Oz: Super Wild Horses, Total Control, and UV Race.
Crazy Rhythm Method Men
The Method Actors are a dream band for vinyl completists. The Athens post-punk duo released several 7" singles, a 10" EP and an album (in single LP and double LP versions). The sleeves feature lavish original paintings and arresting B&W photos of the Mutt & Jeff pair. But the music of the Method Actors has never been available on CD until now. On March 9, Acute Records will release This Is Still It, a compilation of the Method Actors' 1980 and 1981 recordings.
While there is a surfeit of guitar/drum duos on the indie scene today, that lineup was unusual in 1980. Half Japanese were contemporaries (and labelmates) of the Method Actors; but the Flat Duo Jets were yet to emerge. Today's guitar/drum duos -- Japandroids, No Age, etc. -- and their fans could take a lesson from "Do the Method", Vic Varney and David Gamble's recording debut and statement of purpose. Varney was as innovative a guitarist as Ricky Wilson (his primary inspiration), Randy Bewley of Pylon, or Peter Buck (who acknowledges Varney's influence in the liner notes to This Is Still It. Freed from the tether of a bassline, Varney's playing ranged from modal harmonies and drones to taut funky riffs.
This Is Still It begins with ten songs recorded for that debut (NME's Single of the Week) and Rhythms of You, the 10" EP that followed. The songs are imbued with surreal humor and oblique come-ons. "I'd love to go nowhere with you" is the refrain of "My Time", and "No Condition" ends with the punchline, "I'm in no condition to be sleeping alone." These early songs are danceable, odd, and fun; but the band has yet to escape the influence of the B-52's.
The second half of This Is Still It features nine songs recorded in 1981 for Little Figures (Sounds Magazine's Album of the Year). "Rang a Tang" opens with gentle guitar strumming, joined by steel drums (!) and bass (!!) Varney and Gamble come into their own on Little Figures, exploring new instruments, novel arrangements and song structures. This Is Still It was carefully mastered to CD from vinyl (the original tapes were lost in a fire). The bass sounds rich, the guitars crisp, and the drums expansive.
David Gamble left the Method Actors "by mutual agreement" in 1982. Gamble later recorded under the name Jack Heard, and he appeared in the Dexter Romweber documentary "Two Headed Cow". Vic Varney continued the Method Actors for two more years with saxophonist Stan Satin (of the Atlanta band VieTNam), Robert Schmid (Swimming Pool Q's) and Michael Richmond (Love Tractor). This later version of the Method Actors released several EP's on Press Records that are not included in This Is Still It. The CD focuses on the most innovative and celebratory music of the band's career. These 19 songs are brimming with vitality and joy, and that's why This Is Still It.
Do the Method
Bleeding
