Music

Arrrrrrrr! Here be pirates! French Canadian pirates, that is. Pillaging, boozing and decrying prissiness is the name of the game for The Sainte Catherines. Part Rancid, part Madball, but mostly purveyors of proletariat punk (throaty vocalist Hugo Mudie is a janitor), the sextet makes up in electricity what they lack in manners.

I wanted to like this. As a huge fan of most things Will Oldham related (Brightback started out as Rainywood who did a spilt 7″ with Bonnie Prince Billy), I almost felt it my duty to like the follow-up to their debut album recorded in Kentucky with the Oldham family. Unfortunately, this record is just plain dull.

From the images on the cover of this disc, you really want to hate the Golden Gods. Half naked men wearing open fur coats, about to make sweet love to their instruments (literally) all just seems so excessively cliché. However, once you start to listen to the disc it is undeniable that this group has a lot of energy and they do rock and roll very well.

Before Bob Dylan and after Woody Guthrie, America had a favorite hobo-esque folk singer whose name was Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Jack befriended both contemporaries and has consistently been playing folk music for his entire life, but has gotten little attention outside of the traditional folk music scene.

A long time has passed since this media-touted super-group put out their last (and only record), but 2006 sees the coming together once again of Jim O’Rourke with Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche of Wilco.

The new EP from New York’s favorite pop outfit has a little something for everyone. The opening title track offers up a delightful indie pop song that burns its melody into your brain within about 5 seconds. This is juxtaposed nicely by the second track, “Arbuckle’s Swan Song” which has a smooth, almost 60’s crooner style about it. Where do we go from there?

Forming out of the ashes of the critically acclaimed Carrisa’s Weird, Band of Horses have had a buzz about them since they first posted songs on the internet almost a year ago. Then called just Horses, the band underwent a name change and hooked up with Sub Pop to finally release their debut full length in March. Band of Horses puts their own spin on the reverb laden vocal alt. country scene, and they do it well.

Casiotone‘s Owen Ashworth has really outdone himself on his fourth full-length album, Etiquette. While boasting a solid cult following for years, Ashworth has seemingly kept to what he knew, i.e. writing brilliant short stories and setting them to programmed electronic music using Casiotone keyboards.

Pay attention everybody, because this Is the story of the letdown of the year. The tale of a band that had all the hype two years ago (the Unicorns) who abruptly parted ways just as word was beginning to spread of their amazing live shows and their popularity was forming a huge wave that suddenly crashed down leaving a mere puddle of hype around Americas ankles.

After their critically acclaimed but unsuccessful selling commercial debut, The Minstrel Show, Little Brother returns with a mix tape to keep their fan’s appetite wet. An unlikely collaboration with Southern mix tape guru DJ Drama may raise an eyebrow or two, but the music far exceeds any stereotypical judgments.

Enter, a six-song, 44-minute coming of age of Chicago’s Russian Circles, ably balances lovely clean-channel melodies and big-assed riffs alike. Its deft combinations of interwoven harmonies, rhythmic grooves, and nod-inducing drum work, along with its substantial ability to structure all-instrumental jams, make the standard-practice eight-minute tune feel much closer to four.

This is a sharp right for Sondre Lerche; the Norwegian downshifts from guitar-wielding young indie popster into jazz quartet leader, and somehow makes it seem like this is what he was always meant to do.