The Decemberists - "Sixteen Military Wives" 7"

The Decemberists – “Sixteen Military Wives” 7”

Rough Trade, 2005

Acquired: Half Price Books, Used, 2013

Price: $1.50

 

“Sixteen Military Wives” is the high water mark of the Decemberists fun factor. They were always fun, with Colin Meloy’s yarns about chimbley sweeps and their penchant for sea shanties and the more morbid aspects of the grimy past, but “Sixteen Military Wives” is just a hoot. And a holler! It’s jaunty and clever and a distillation of everything the Decemberists did best in their prime before Meloy got obsessed with making grandiose concept albums. Where The Crane Wife seems to be considered their masterpiece (is it?), the songs were never as good as they were on Picaresque. It’s not as interconnected as any of their albums, but it works out for the best. The B-side delivers a demo of “From My Own True Love” which along with “Eli, the Barrow Boy” shored up the gloomy sad side of that album and helped tracks like “Sixteen Military Wives” and “The Sporting Life” really pop by contrast. The Decemberists’ most recent LP—The King is Dead—found the group returning to a more song-oriented approach, which was great, but the whimsy had clearly dried up. Which is fine. Bands get older and get tired of doing the same shit album in and album out and while The King is Dead is a fine record, it really pales in comparison to Picaresque. Plus, that video for “Sixteen Military Wives” was just fantastic, wasn’t it?

Hot Toasters - "Fish and Doctor" 7"

Hot Toasters – “Fish and Doctor” 7”

Drag City, 1994

Acquired: Love Garden Shotgun Room, 2008

Price: $.25

Hot Toasters hail from Japan and they are very clearly insane. In the best way. Japan is a strange and fascinating place. How would you feel if your country lived in isolation from the rest of the world up until 200 some odd years ago? You would probably be weird too. Over the years, I have had Japanese music and culture ruined for me by some really insufferable Japanophiles and I have only recently opened up my borders for things Japanese (i.e. Sushi, Haruki Murakami, anime, Japanese Baseball (which is fascinating and way more grueling than the American Pastime by the way)). I’ve always loved the great Japanese filmmakers, but that was always the exception (and Guitar Wolf, but Guitar Wolf sort of transcend national heritage). Still, my intake of Japanese music is very very limited. The “Fish and Doctor” 7” was Hot Toasters’ sole release, and it’s really a crying shame that they didn’t do more because this 7” is drop dead awesome. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a band navigate multiple genres within the same song with such ease. “Fish and Doctor” mostly plays like a jaunty, almost folksy pop song that devolves into guttural, sludgy metal halfway through before returning to the sweet, jet setting pop and then blending the two together in a really fun way by the end. It’s fun, it’s silly, it’s great music. “YUKIWATARI” has a bit of a ska flavor to it provided by trumpet/saxophone/accordion, and while it’s more straightforward than “Fish and Doctor,” with more lighthearted pop verses and punky choruses until the whole fucking thing melts down at the end in a wash of guitars, bass and skronky saxophones and horse-like screams. Awesome. The other b-side, “Milk,” rolls out the metal chops once more and once more blends them with the various elements that comprise the 7”s other tracks. There’s a weird sax solo in the directly after a minute of pummeling metal chords before the song morphs into a big, catchy indie rock song. It’s unselfconscious genre bending, which is really the only kind of genre bending I can appreciate, and after listening to this 7” a few times I’m legitimately sad that this is all the Hot Toasters I’m ever gonna get.

"Yukiwatari"

The Hot Melts - "Shrink" 7"

The Hot Melts – “Shrink” 7”

Epitaph, 2009

Acquired: SXSW, New, 2009

Price: $0

 

You end up with a lot of free shit when you go to SXSW day parties. Usually grab bags full of stickers, compilations in cardboard sleeves you will never listen to, SWEET CADET HATS!, and the occasional 7” shrewdly cobbled together by a band that thinks they have a better shot at getting your attention if they give you a piece of vinyl. For the Hot Melts, it worked. Five years later, I’m finally listening to this 7”. It sounds dated, or maybe ageless I suppose. Though it was released on the ‘Taph, the Hot Melts play a brand of Weezer-esque power-pop that is both ubiquitous and better than anything Weezer has done since Pinkerton (Note: Epitaph will release just about anything these days, apparently*). “Shrink” has a throwback pop vibe. Like thrown way back to the 1950s. Like malt shop throwback. It’s absolutely nothing special, but it is absolutely pleasant. B-side “The Alcohole” time travels forward to the 1970s and delivers a Bowiesque song about getting drunk and incapable of falling in love and possessing “lecherous ways.” There’s a little farfisa running through the verses, and for some reason, farfisa means fun in my book. It’s fun. The group is from England, which now makes so much sense as the English tend to be much more forgiving of run-of-the-mill rock and roll music (see the skyrocketing success of Arctic Monkeys). Or at least it seems that way, considering every five seconds NME or whoever is heralding some young new band as the saviors of rock and roll music. Or maybe that’s just a caricature of English music consumers that for some reason resides in my brain.

"Shrink"

*I couldn't remember the band or the douchebag singer, so in order to find that Falling in Reverse video I just googled "Epitaph Records Douche." First hit: That Vice article that took the piss out of Ronnie Radke. 

Hornet Leg - Blood Trilogy 7"

Hornet Leg – Blood Trilogy 7”

K Records, 2008

Acquired: KJHK Music Staff, New, 2008

Price: $0

At least I’m pretty sure I got this one at music staff. Otherwise, I don’t know where the heck it came from since I only ever ordered LPs by bands I loved via K Records mail order. As the title suggests, all three songs on this 7” have blood in the song titles and blood in the lyrics. The music is pretty routine mid-fi garage rock and nothing to write home about. It’s just the sort of ubiquitous indie rock K Records has been releasing without filter for a while now and while there’s nothing wrong with the music, Hornet Leg does little to differentiate itself from the rest of that garage rock revival pack that roamed the college radio airwaves in the late 00s (and really, continues to roam the airwaves to this day because it seems like everyone and his mom is in a garage band). Of the three tracks, "Covered in Blood" is the most effective. There's something about that wailing chorus that I really dig. Depsite all of the quasi-hate I harbor for the garage rock revival, I'll admit a lot of it is plainly satisfying. Plus I can never truly legitimize my hate because garage rockers usually churn out songs that clock in around the two-minute mark and it's really hard to stay mad at a band that keeps 'em short and simple.

"Covered in Blood" 

Gut Feeling: Ola Podrida - Ghosts Go Blind

Ola Podrida – Ghosts Go Blind

Western Vinyl, 2013

Ola Podrida’s third album is hauntingly beautiful, and I’m not just saying that because it’s called Ghosts Go Blind and features myriad references to ghosts. Ok, maybe that’s part of it, but the rich atmospherics David Wingo brings to these folk-rooted indie rock songs makes Ghosts Go Blind sound like the sort of music one should listen to while driving around on Texas backroads in the middle of the night. Wingo is a Texan, of course. With all the backwards, bible thumpin’ tendencies of the Lone Star State, it’s easy to forget about that little liberal oasis called Austin. Wingo’s day job consists of scoring the films of Austin-based filmmakers David Gordon Green (going back go Green’s debut George Washington) and Jeff Nichols (whose most recent movie Mud is easily one of the best films of 2013). In a way, you could consider Ola Podrida a side project, and considering how busy Wingo stays on the film scoring front, it’s amazing that he was able to craft an album as rich as Ghosts Go Blind.

After a dozen listens, it becomes apparent that Ghosts Go Blind is an exceedingly tight record. It’s full of big, atmospheric guitars (Wingo recently worked with fellow Texans and atmospheric post-rock juggernaut Explosions in the Sky for David Gordon Green’s latest film Prince Avalanche, and it sounds like maybe some of their effects pedals rubbed off on him), somber songwriting, and gorgeous little melodies shepherded along by Wingo’s plain yet incredibly affecting vocals. It’s a beautiful record. Have I mentioned that already? The excellent opener “Not Ready to Stop” is a little deceptive. It’s got a little swagger to it where the rest of the album is often quiet and fragile at times (like track two, the achingly gorgeous and sad “Fumbling for the Light”). Album highlight “Staying In” is probably the most representative of what Wingo and Ola Podrida are trying to accomplish. It combines the rich, wall of sound-ish atmospheres, sad aching beauty, and a toe-tapping tempo. Ghosts Go Blind is a thoughtful, elegant indie-rock record that seems destined to be overlooked despite standing amongst the best albums of the year.

"Staying In"


"Not Ready to Stop"

Honeybunch - "Count Your Blessings" 7"

Honeybunch – “Count Your Blessings” 7”

K Records, 1994

Acquired: K Record Mail Order, New, 2009
Price: $3

 

“Count Your Blessings” was one of my favorite songs from my indie rock era. I played it consistently on my radio show—“Pop Rocks”—and though the song isn’t as flashy as other pop hits, it has tremendous replay value. Lots of little subtleties worm their way into your brain. They’re not afraid to break out sweet guitar solos here and there, which puts them on the Teenage Fanclub side of the pop spectrum. The back cover notes that Dave Auchenbach recorded the songs. Why does that name sound so familiar? I thought to myself. That’s right! Dave Auchenbach was in Small Factory, who I have been thinking about a lot lately via recent write-ups of Small Factory offshoot the Godrays (which notably did not feature Auchenbach, presumably because he wanted to record other bands from his native Rhode Island and establish a classic “Rhode Island Sound”). Alas, I’m a sucker for members of bands I like working with other bands I like. 

I gave up on trying to find a way to upload and share "Count Your Blessings" so here's another one of their excellent singles, "Mine Your Own Business." Both tracks can be found on their terrific career retrospective Time Trials via Summershine. Honeybunch are one of those great little forgotten indie pop/twee bands from the 90s who never really got their due despite crafting subdued songs that could hang with the best of Sarah Records.


And while we're at it, I might as well add on "Hey Blue Sky." Because it's wonderful.

High Risk Group - "Flag" 7"

High Risk Group – “Flag” 7”

Harriet Records, 1989

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2009
Price: $1

 

Through the 1990s, the Cambridge, Massachusetts based label released almost exactly half as many 7”s as Sarah Records. They brought us the Magnetic Fields, the Mountain Goats and the Extra Glenns, Tullycraft, Vehicle Flips, and Hulaboy. While Harriet’s releases were much more varied than the uniform, rainy day pop of Sarah, I still want to collect as many as I possibly can. It was pretty easy to find all of the Sarah Records releases on the internet, but the Harriet Records 7”s are near impossible to track down in digital form (or they were the last time I tried to find an MP3 version of that amazing Ampersands “Annabelle Bleach” 7” I own) which makes hunting down the vinyl all the more thrilling. Though I usually associate Harriet with indie pop, their first release—High Risk Group’s “Flag” 7”—is a hearty slice of DIY post-punk. The music is repetitive, bass-driven, and the band attempts to carve out interesting sonics with their guitar sound but it gets lost in the shoddy mixing (especially on the B side tracks “Tapped” and “Katrine”). Ultimately it’s the title track that feels like the best distillation of High Risk Group (go figure, huh). It’s a murky, serpentine and lulls you into that dark, post-punky sound with its cycling minute-and-a-half long intro that consumes half the song. Hilariously, I played this at 33 1/3 because I’d noticed side two was designated for that speed. What I got was borderline sludge metal and even when the vocals finally kicked in, I still couldn’t tell I was playing it wrong. That’s versatility right there!

"Flag"

Flag from Sue Metro on Myspace.

Heavenly - "Space Manatee" 7"

Heavenly – “Space Manatee” 7”

K Records, 1996

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2010

Price: $3

 

Heavenly know how to get it right. Every single is a total joy. They’re like the clutch hitter who knows when to come through when the game is on the line. In my head, I just uttered the line “Heavenly are the Evan Gattis of twee pop.” I got baseball on my mind. The Royals are in the wild card race and have a legitimate shot of making the playoffs if they stay hot! This is new to me! I’m so used to my lovable losers being light years away from the playoffs in September, my fantasies are running wild. Granted, my fantasies involve the Royals getting that second wild card slot and losing in five games to whoever they would have to play, but still, it’s somethin’. Today I was thinking about how I like sports the wrong way. Whenever I have to talk to a real Man about sports, I feel like I’m doing it wrong. I care about stats and numbers and the beauty of Chris Davis’s swing and admire the real effort Eric Hosmer shows when he tries to run out an infield groundout. Most sports fans don’t really give a shit about this stuff, at least in my experience. I like sports like a sensitive loser in my own private little way. But back to Heavenly, who are pretty much the end all be all of indie pop in my book.

I love this band, and while indie pop gets an unfair rap for being frivolous or without substance (haters gonna hate, I spose), Heavenly served up some of the best singles of the 90s (or any decade for that matter). They didn’t get any radio play out side of college stations, but they totally won my heart with Amelia Fletcher’s wonderfully normal yet incredibly appealing vocals and the sort of pop hooks that makes you want to stop everything and sing along. They managed to be sweet without being cloying, which is the hardest line to walk in indie pop. “Space Manatee” is culled from their final full-length Operation Heavenly. It’s a brilliant little gem that’s maybe not as memorable as “Our Love is Heavenly” or “C is the Heavenly Option,” but it hits all the right buttons and adds a nice twist with a bass line that sort of pummels you through the intro and verse and makes the chorus all the more powerful once it comes crashing in. The b-side features covers of the Flamin’ Groovies’ “You Tore Me Down” and the Jam’s “Art School,” both of which are the sort of fun and enjoyable covers that are nice to find on the b-side (opposed to finding more tracks from the album which really, what’s the point?).

Lemuria - The Distance is So Big

Lemuria – The Distance is So Big

Bridge Nine, 2013

Acquired: Mail Order from Lemuria’s Website, New, 2013

Price: $14

 

I really don’t think 2013 has produced a better song than “Brilliant Dancer.” I’ve listened to that song a hundred times and I’m sold. Song of the Year. Hand’s down. No one else even comes close. Jenny loves it too, and I often find her singing it around the house, in the car, etc. It does everything right. It’s got a breezy intro with Sheena Ozzella’s pleasing vocals before Alex Kerns’ drums pummel their way in and the chorus totally sweeps you away. It’s like being on a boat, rolling with the waves. Imagine the empty heart meter on a video game getting filled to the brim. And the thing is, I’d be totally content with the song if it just repeated the verse and chorus for two and a half minutes, but halfway through everything switches up and Lemuria do everything they can to make it sound like a totally different song while keeping it rooted to the first part of the track. The pianos come in on the refrain of “brilliant dance dance dance dancer” and punch it into your brain and Ozzella, despite having those beautifully plain not-a-singer-singer vocals reaches absolute transcendence after that first refrain. This is what pop punk sounds like when it grows up, and it’s exhaustingly great. And that is the first fucking song on the record. What follows is the sort of tour de force that restores my faith in indie rock. This band is wonderfully inventive and has so much depth, and yet they still seem to be having a lot of fun. The hooks are like pure joy. The vocal interchanges between Ozzella and Kerns is playful and effective, and it’s one of the most replayable and straight-up fucking enjoyable albums I have had the pleasure of listening to in 2013. 

"Brilliant Dancer"

"Scienceless"

"Oahu Hawaii"

Note: Every time I listen to this record, I pay a little debt to Nick Spacek, who has been responsible for introducing me to three of my favorite albums of the year via his blog Rock Star Journalist. Of all the people on earth, he is the person whose taste in music I implicitly trust the most. So while the Internet is great for letting you listen to anything you could ever want to listen to at any time, I still find it refreshing to navigate that morass of MP3s via the recommendations and/or blog post nudgings of a friend.

Gut Feeling: Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt

Waxahatchee – Cerulean Salt

Don Giovanni, 2013

 

Cerulean Salt is a small album. It clocks in at just over thirty minutes and most of the songs hover around the two-and-a-half minute mark. Those are the sorts of stats that make my eyes light up, and Katie Crutchfield’s understanding of concise songwriting is what really makes this album work. It makes frequently often heart wrenching songs that much more potent, and while Cerulean Salt may not be my favorite album of 2013, it’s one of the albums I have listened to the most because Crutchfield’s (mostly) quiet songs are just the sort of thing I like to listen to late at night.

Crutchfield seems to have a lot in common with Laura Stevenson. Both have played in pop-punk bands, both have released albums on well respected DIY labels (No Idea for Stevenson and Plan-It-X for Crutchfield), and both are signed to Don Giovanni records. That’s really where the comparisons end (other than the obvious fact that they are both supreme tunesmiths). Stevenson is more soulful and more idiosyncratic where Crutchfield is fragile and hits you straight in the gut with her confessional lyrics. Her songs oscillate between acoustic and electric guitar, but they almost always feels hushed, stripped down, and spare with the exception the punk-tinged pop tune “Coast to Coast,” the jaunty “Lips and Limbs,” and “Peace and Quiet,” which highlights what the album does best via its quiet verse and big catchy chorus. The quiet little songs are where this album lives and breaths. Though the songs feel small, they’re never slight. Crutchfield has one of those beautifully plain voices that really works to sell the humanity of her songs. Cerulean Salt’s most potent asset is that you feel like you’re sitting right next to this person spill their guts onto the floor.

"Misery Over Dispute"

"Peace and Quiet"

"Lips and Limbs"