Pop Addict Archives - Page 3 of 3

Pop Addict: The Dears’ Degeneration Street

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

The Dears: Degeneration Street (Dangerbird, 2/15/11)

The Dears: “Blood”

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Following its 2006 tour in support of Gang of Losers, the existence of Montreal indie-rock band The Dears was questionable at best. A relentless touring and recording schedule fueled tensions within the band, and, despite its success in Canada and abroad, it fractured.

However, lead vocalist and songwriter Murray Lightburn and keyboardist Natalia Yanchak pushed forward, recording the stripped-down Missiles in 2008. Now it looks to stabilize a relatively rocky period in its 15-year history with its new album, Degeneration Street.

The Dears’ fifth album, Degeneration Street is a reunion of sorts. Guitarists Patrick Krief and Robert Benvie, who departed following the Gang of Losers tour, have returned, as has early-era bassist, Roberto Arquilla. With newcomer Jeff Luciani on drums, this is arguably its most stable lineup in years.

Pop Addict: Cut Copy’s Zonoscope

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

Cut Copy: Zonoscope (Modular, 2/8/11)

Cut Copy: “Take Me Over”

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Indie has evolved drastically over the years. The genre is defined differently by anyone, and for good reason. In the past decade alone, it has borrowed from nearly every genre of music, with a plethora of bands infusing their music with rock, blues, jazz, folk, techno, metal, shoegaze, dubstep — the list goes on and on. Keeping in step with this pattern, indie has recently developed a kinship to dance pop, and it has fully embraced the metamorphosis that it underwent in the past few years.

The transition was perhaps at its peak in 2008, when widely unknown Cut Copy burst on the scene with the exceptional In Ghost Colours. The Australia-based band was armed with an expansive sound, showcasing soaring dance-pop anthems and a good portion of sunnyside-up indie pop. The album fused elements of dance, rock, pop, techno, and more together, offering an action-packed LP that was bent on making you move and sway whether you wanted to or not.

Pop Addict: La Sera’s La Sera

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

La Sera: La Sera (Hardly Art, 2/15/10)

La Sera: “Devils Hearts Grow Gold”

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Fans of the noisy, riotous punk delivered by Brooklyn-based band Vivian Girls will find that La Sera — the solo project of bassist Katy “Kickball Katy” Goodman — explores decidedly softer terrain. More ’50s-era pop than riot grrrl, Goodman’s eponymous debut as La Sera exudes ethereal lushness.

Known primarily for her high-pitched backing vocals on Vivian Girls’ records, Goodman takes this opportunity to showcase a sweet singing voice through layered, heavenly vocals set to simple, clean guitar strumming. The result is a charming, dream-pop response to the hot buzz of Vivian Girls’ records. And though the songs began as simple guitar-and-tambourine demos, with the help of Brady Hall (director of Vivian Girls’ videos “Moped Girls” and “When I’m Gone”) Goodman was able to flesh the material out into tempered harmonies and celestial choral arrangements.

Pop Addict: Tennis’ Cape Dory

Tennis: Cape Dory (Fat Possum, 1/18/11)

Tennis: “Long Boat Pass”

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Fiction is at the heart of pipe dreams. Rarely when we scheme something far-fetched or grandiose do we actually follow through in executing our plan, especially if it’s something as profound as selling all of our possessions and sailing across the map for about a year or so. But that is precisely what husband-and-wife duo Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, the masterminds behind indie-pop outfit Tennis, did.

After graduating from college, the two philosophy majors sold their belongings and ventured away from Denver to embark on the unknown by means of a sailboat — a plan for which they prepared extensively. Navigating around North America, the couple then decided to document the experience, not through film or memoir, but through music. And thus Tennis was born.

From the get-go, Cape Dory, the couple’s debut effort on Fat Possum, gives you a glimpse of what its voyage must have been like. With 10 songs clocking in at less than 30 minutes, Riley and Moore’s feeling of staying put for too long in any one place is almost tangible. Once the album sets sail, it’s ready to move along without the need of staying anchored in any one spot. The songs, with titles like “South Carolina,” “Baltimore,” and “Bimini Bay,” move along swiftly, as the band looks to cover the most ground (or water, rather) in the quickest amount of time.

Pop Addict: Smith Westerns’ Dye It Blonde

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

Smith Westerns: Dye It Blonde (Fat Possum Records, 1/18/11)

Smith Westerns: “Weekend”

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Known primarily for its lo-fi blend of ’70s glam and Nuggets-era garage rock, Smith Westerns has discovered a sweeter, cleaner sound on Dye It Blonde, its sophomore LP on Fat Possum Records.

A hearty leap in production value is the most significant shift from the band’s 2009 self-titled debut. Gone are the fuzzy, washed-out melodies and underwater vocals of early recordings. Yet Dye It Blonde feels just as youthful and energetic as anything the band has released to date.

Though Smith Westerns has largely abandoned the murky, homespun sound that ignited the blogosphere only two years ago, fans of the band need not worry – Dye It Blonde is filled with jangly guitar hooks and young heartbreak. With the help of producer Chris Coady and an increased studio budget, however, Smith Westerns delves even further into the Brit-pop canon, culling inspiration from the likes of Suede, David Bowie, and T. Rex.

Pop Addict: Tapes ‘n Tapes’ Outside

Tapes ‘n Tapes: Outside (Ibid, 1/11/11)

Tapes ‘n Tapes: “Freak Out”

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It wasn’t too long ago when Tapes ‘n Tapes was indie rock’s next big thing. And there certainly was reason for the hype. The Minneapolis-based quartet’s 2006 effort, The Loon, is chock-full of raw pop hooks and a DIY sensibility that has often propelled forward the best that the genre has to offer.

And back in 2006, Tapes ‘n Tapes certainly seemed destined to become one of the elite. When the everyday no-namers decided to self-release a bad-ass concoction of Pixies-style rock songs that were just as upbeat and catchy as they were introspective and self-exploratory, something new and refreshing was at hand. The band came out of nowhere, really, garnering a buzz that thrust it onto a major label, and it was crowned as indie’s great new hope.

Then, like many heavily hyped bands, Tapes ‘n Tapes fell victim to the dreaded sophomore slump. Its first effort on a major label, Walk It Off, in 2008, fell short of reviving the youth and vivacity that dripped from every track on The Loon. Gone were the rough edges and hook-laden pop songs; instead, the album featured a collection of songs that seemed intent on missing the mark. Aside from the album’s standout track “Hang ’Em All,” Walk It Off seemed unable to capture what The Loon did.

It lacked that same freshness, that same energy that the band was somehow able to bottle on its first album. The band no longer offered its sparse yet frenzied melodies that helped each song gleam. Each song purged on gluttonous arrangements and instruments, an indulgent examination of what the band should have done with a major-label budget. And so Tapes ‘n Tapes became another victim of hype — so much promise, but so much pressure. And it fell to the wayside, for better or worse.

Pop Addict: The Get Up Kids’ There Are Rules

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

The Get Up Kids: There Are Rules (Quality Hill, 1/25/11)

The Get Up Kids: “Regent’s Court”

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Seven years removed from Guilt Show, the album that marked the end of The Get Up Kids, the popular emo rockers will release their fifth full-length, There Are Rules, on January 25, 2011 via its own label, Quality Hill Records.

The Kansas City five-piece, which had been disbanded since 2005, returned to the studio in 2009 following a series of rehearsals to promote the tenth-anniversary tour of Something to Write Home About.

Recorded at long-time producer Ed Rose’s Blacklodge Recording studio in Eudora, Kansas, and mastered by Chicago’s Bob Weston (Shellac) — who recorded Four Minute Mile in 1997 — the album sprouted from the release of Simple Science, a four-track EP that was meant to serve as the first of three vinyl EPs in 2010.

Instead, the band pulled together the remaining tracks and, with the addition of new material, released a full-length record.

Pop Addict: Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s’ Buzzard

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s: Buzzard (Mariel Recordings, 9/21/10)

Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s: “Birds”

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Following the Animal!/Not Animal tussle with the bosses at Epic in 2008, Indianapolis’ Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s has released Buzzard, its third full-length album, on its own Mariel Recordings label.

A record very much about rebirth and reinvention, Buzzard signals the band’s shift to a louder, more energetic sound. Its signature chamber-pop melodies are now reinforced with fuzzed-out guitars and a more pronounced, uptempo rhythm section, helped in large part by the addition of drummer and producer Brian Deck (Red Red Meat).

Displaced after a fire damaged the home that singer-songwriter Richard Edwards shared with his seven bandmates in Indianapolis, Edwards moved to Chicago to record Buzzard in an abandoned movie theater in Ukrainian Village. It was there that he enlisted the help of Chicagoans Deck and Tim Rutili of Red Red Meat, Ronnie Kwasman, and Cameron McGill. The songs, loosely inspired by the 8mm nudie-cutie films that Edwards recovered from the theater’s basement, were recorded from 10 PM to 5 AM without the use of artificial light. The result is a strangely dark and eclectic album, filled to the brim with haunting harmonies and grungy guitar work not found on the band’s earlier records.

Pop Addict: Violens’ Amoral

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

Violens: Amoral (Static Recital, 11/9/10)

Violens: “Acid Reign”

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From the start of its debut LP, Amoral, Violens‘ strength is clear: revitalizing and embellishing 1980s-inspired new-wave pop.

By rejecting the raw, lo-fi approach so prevalent today in independent music and the all-too-common reverb-drenched sound, this NYC indie group sticks with what it knows best: clean, unabashed, dance rock. Even with the band’s overt arsenal of sounds — outer-space keyboards, calculated drumming, pop-driven bass lines, blissful resonating vocals, and fuzzed-out guitars — Amoral‘s production lets the band’s sound come off as tight and polished.

Pop Addict: Ólöf Arnalds’ Innundir Skinni

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

Ólöf Arnalds: Innundir Skinni (One Little Indian, 9/14/10)

Ólöf Arnalds: “Surrender”
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Icelandic singer and multi-instrumentalist Ólöf Arnalds has crafted an intimate and lovely sophomore record, Innundir Skinni, released on the London-based label One Little Indian. Arnalds, a touring member of Múm since 2003, follows up Við og Við – voted Iceland’s Record of the Year in 2007 – with nine songs produced by Sigur Rós keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson.

Classically trained on the violin and viola, and self-taught on the guitar and charango, Arnalds enlists the help of fellow Icelandic musicians Skúli Sverrisson, Davið Þór Jónsson, and Björk as well as Secret Chiefs 3 contributor Shahzad Ismaily.

Innundir Skinni – “Under the Skin” in English – is largely an album of balance, of the ebb and flow between quiet moments and orchestral bursts. It’s a calm yet affecting album, due in large part to Arnalds’ vocal charm. For the many instruments she plays, her most enchanting tool is her voice — at times folksy and melodic, at others high-pitched and lilting – drawing comparisons to Kate Bush and, in rare moments, Joanna Newsom. Yet her style, acutely Nordic, is distinctly her own.