Mike Relm: Spectacle

Mike Relm’s new album is serious. But I don’t mean it lacks fun in any way. The album is both a stray from some of the comedic live mash-ups he is famous for and a symbol of Relm’s recent success and his ascent into the “serious” music business. But what’s interesting to consider is how Relm got to be where he is – he’s always embraced a quite paradoxical blend between the silly and the serious. [More...]

Deerhoof: Offend Maggie

I’ll probably get myself in trouble for saying that I think Offend Maggie is Deerhoof’s best project yet. While many critics have been quick to point out that the band has settled into a pattern of similar-sounding experimental music after 10 albums, this project brings a kind of lightness and optimism that is quite new for this band. Many of their previous efforts have necessitated the listener have a certain, shall we say, sonic open-mindedness. [More...]

Winter’s Fall: Winter’s Fall

“Indie? Narco-Country?” That’s the question posed by Berkeley quartet Winter’s Fall on their web site, and it’s one that could be asked of a number of the bands dominating alternative music today. In recent years, groups like My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes have emerged as the spiritual successors to Neil Young and his CSN brethren, mixing reverb-saturated vocals and twangy guitars into music that’s firmly rock-pop but with an introspective emotional core. From the moment you hear singer Peter Stanley’s voice, it’s apparent that Winter’s Fall draws from this same lineage, but the band’s first full length album, self-released earlier this year, features strong songwriting and a warm atmospheric feel that have it quickly becoming one of my favorite Bay Area records of the year. [More...]

Birdmonster: From the Mountain to the Sea

From the looks of them, the members of Birdmonster are slightly unlikely folk-heads. They are skinny and wear tight jeans. Their hair is disheveled perfection. But when the music starts, it is raw and heartfelt, sometimes twangy — indie-folk tunes with grace. [More...]

20 Minute Loop: Famous People Marry Famous People

Formed by singer-guitarist Greg Giles in 1997, 20 Minute Loop is surely one of the longest running bands in San Francisco indie rock, having outlasted late-nineties peers who have either moved out of the area, broken up, or both. Perhaps the group’s secret is pacing itself; their latest album, Famous People Marry Famous People, released last month, is their first CD in three years, but it reintroduces them as pop songsmiths of the highest caliber, adept at crafting idea-packed tracks that are clever, catchy and wholly engaging. [More...]

Okay: Huggable Dust

It’s often the case that good music is filled with paradoxes. Whether it’s a calmly beautiful folk song that portrays an almost militant political message or a song that’s so sparse instrumentally but somehow expresses a complex subject, these songs achieve something spectacular. Such is the case with Okay’s new album Huggable Dust (2008, Absolutely Kosher).

The Fremont band, which is essentially one man - Marty Anderson - and friends, has caught the ears of the members of Deerhoof and many passionate and adoring fans throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Huggable Dust, a followup to the double-release of Low Road and High Road in 2005, is characteristic of the sound Okay fans have come to know and love, but with a few extra kicks. [More...]

Last of the Blacksmiths: Young Family Song

In the mid-1990s, a Houston DJ named DJ Screw gained widespread attention for pioneering a unique style of remixing known as “Chopped and Screwed,” in which he would use a turntable to shift an existing rap or R&B song’s pitch significantly downward and drastically slow its tempo. While the pitch adjustment added an unsettling and occasionally menacing effect, the slowed tempos provided an exaggerated abundance of room for the songs to breathe, and sounds or lyrics previously obscured in the mix were unveiled to listeners under the screwed-up microscope. When it worked, it could be moving or downright revelatory.

Young Family Song isn’t a rap album, and it certainly hasn’t been Chopped and Screwed, but San Francisco’s Last of the Blacksmiths filter their folk-rock through a slowed-down approach that similarly maximizes the impact of every detail. The album is the group’s second, following a 2005 self-titled debut which drew numerous favorable reviews comparing them to artists like Son Volt and The Band, from whose Cahoots album the Blacksmiths draw their name. Beyond the nominal connection, LotB share their predecessors’ love for warm multi-part harmonies and an inclination toward genre-melding jams that incorporate elements of Americana, country, blues and R&B for a sound that feels equally recognizable and unique.

Utilizing a diverse arsenal of styles and sounds, the Blacksmiths build and deconstruct some seriously hypnotic grooves. The first song, “Autumn Vacation,” alone has three distinct movements: a lonely piano-backed introduction, which morphs into a slowcore-touched rock ballad, and then into a horn-punctuated swell. Others aren’t quite as structurally ambitious, but their moments work just as well, like the beautiful guitar solo that closes “The Records,” or the evolving interplay between guitar and organ throughout “Beard Tongues.” Things remain pretty stripped-down throughout, but the Blacksmiths have the skill to make each subtle shift matter.

While the music is moody, the alternating feelings of mournful and wistful reflection that pervade are driven by the lyrics, through which the band looks back on once-loved records and once-loved lovers with an eye for fragmentary moments and details. The vocals weave in and out of the music, sometimes lost in the sound, or soaring through some beautiful, fragile harmonies. On “Giving Up,” perhaps the album’s most fully realized distillation of R&B mixed with droning rock, the singer’s caution that he’s not giving up on his lost love floats vulnerably above the thick bass and organ tones that cement the mood.

There are a number of hummable and more immediately accessible moments on this album too, but I think it’s best to give Young Family Song a close listen and just get lost in it, as every spin seems to reveal new details to enjoy. That might be too heavy a burden if you’re just looking for some background music, but there’s a real joy to continuing to unfold new layers from this album, and I don’t expect to have it fully figured out any time soon.

This post was originally written for and republished from KQED Interactive.

Port O’Brien: All We Could Do Was Sing

Port O’Brien, claimed by both the Bay Area and the Central Coast as their own, has been continuously growing in popularity as their music moves beyond the college radio curcuit and across the country. The band’s indie-infused folk tunes are painfully catchy, tugging at heart strings and boot straps alike.

Port O’Brien’s new album All We Could Do Was Sing (released Tuesday, May 13, 2008) is a fantastic collection of songs written while the band was living on a fishing boat in Alaska for the summer. The album is exhilarating and refreshing, yet cold and lonely at times, reflecting the idyllic setting in which it was written.

The opening track “I Woke Up Today” feels like a modern day “We Will Rock You,” only with a much less forceful message — the kind of tune that you and might sing (or yell) along to while cruising the sidewalks or jumping for joy. These anthemic group vocals have popped up many times in recent indie music, and while it’s not hard to see it getting old, Port O’Brien certainly does it best.
It takes a moment to get past some of the clearly out-of-tune (I suppose “dissonant” is a kinder word) vocals in songs like “In Vino Veritas,” but it’s evident that they’re trying to make that a style of sorts — slightly flawed recordings that feel real and not plastic. Listen to it a few times and the tinge of discomfort fades.

A highlight of the album is “Close the Lid,” a tune that builds from a simple, stripped-down melody to a danceable, guitar solo-injected rock tune. Some of the lyrics are heart-wrenchingly cute: “I’m not afraid to die / as long as you’re by my side / we can sleep the whole year through.” But this song is the perfect example of the somewhat ambiguous themes that pervade the album — switching between this familiar bliss and the isolation and conflict of being alone: “…we are on the brink / of a long civil war / between my heart and yours / we will fight by ourselves.”

This ambivalence is repeated many times throughout the album, with a recurring theme of true love conflicted with isolation, cold, and what goes through your mind when your mind is all you’ve got. The effecting melodies and lyrics are supplemented with simple string parts and lots of percussion. On the lighter side of the album is the stunning “Will You Be There,” the kind of achingly sweet song that sticks with you for days.

For the live shows, guitarist/vocalist Van Pierszalowski leads the band with an Elvis-like snarl and an excess of charisma. The band’s chemistry and love of the music comes out in full force.

This post was originally written for and republished from KQED Interactive.

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