Pop 'stache

With the surf craze winding down, it’s refreshing to hear a band that knows where to take it. Brooklyn’s Dinosaur Feathers, originally a bedroom project for vocalist and guitarist Greg Sullo, released its 2009 debut Fantasy Memorial as a light, tropical affair laced with bright melodies and Beach Boy harmonies – pleasant but unobtrusive. Now a quartet, the band seeks new, more distinguished territory for its sophomore release. Whistle Tips is a surprisingly divergent record and in every way for the better.

Drawing influence ranging from The Soft Boys to Wings, Dinosaur Feathers have practically overhauled their sound. This is in large part aided by the presence of a live drummer which invigorates Sullo’s music, once bound to basic, programmed drum parts. The vintage surf influence is still there, but it is integrated into a much larger pallet where those Beach Boy harmonies are met with angular, sometimes jazzy riffs and an forceful rhythm section.

“Young Bucks” might open the album sounding like The Drums, but when the song ends and the listener has decided they’ve landed on just another pretty good indie-surf act, “SURPRISE!” does just that with a punk aggression and Sullo wailing in a way he simply couldn’t before (which sounds oddly like Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance at times, but not in a bad way). The song brings a sense of urgency to the record that the band takes to the end.

The rest of the Whistle Tips is dynamic and wildly creative. “Certain Times,” for instance, starts as elevator muzak and ends as a psychedelic freak out. Lead single “Untrue” gives listeners a fair look into Whistle Tips as a whole. Up front it kind of sounds like what the next Vampire Weekend record will sound like if they try to blend the spastic style of “Cousins” with the sunny sound of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” but at the end it morphs into a funky jam that sounds a little like if Yes made a record called On the Beach instead of Neil Young.

But while the band definitely likes putting some odd twists into their tunes, they are also quite capable of writing a streamlined song. The mellow vibes of “Boats” and the bouncy “Beatcha” establish their basic melodies up front and expand on them over their durations and the result is no less exciting and enjoyable than the wilder tracks. The latter features some of the best hooks on the record, accentuated by Sullo’s excellent and sparse use of falsetto.

As it stands, Whistle Tips is a fun and fairly fresh take on a lot of today’s popular sounds. The revamping of Dinosaur Feathers has definitely made them a band to keep an eye on. Their identity is still forming, so those influences do peer through sometimes. It’s not the influences themselves that get in the way so much as the disparity between them and that’s a good thing. These guys seem poised to break through that in the near future.

Dinosaur Feathers – Whistle Tips tracklist:

1. “Young Bucks”
2. “SURPRISE!”
3. “Boats”
4. “Certain Times”
5. “City Living”
6. “Beatcha”
7. “Cure for Silence”
8. “Untrue”
9. “Pillars”
10. “Your Move”
11. “No Man’s Gospel”

London-based three piece Nedry serves up a decidedly mixed bag: a bit of dubstep, a bit ambient, a bit prog. They released their first album in 2010, and it’s to their credit that they’ve already managed to craft a unique and fully formed sound. Whatever you say about the final product, it always sounds like a cohesive whole despite the range of influences that can be clearly heard in it. The whole is a decidedly acquired taste, though, and the band’s sophomore album In a Dim Light creates a tense feeling that, while very intentional, is not always easy on the ears.

Nothing about the band is more love it or hate-it than lead singer Ayu Okakita’s voice. Undeniably expressive, it’s an almost animal mix of purrs, gasps, and atonal moans that seems to have only a lose connection to the techno-ish beats that animate a song like “Post Six.” It’s a unique experience, but not necessarily a good one: Okakita experiments with unusual cadences, a metallic twing that modulates her words, and she practically claws her way from moment to moment. Mostly, it comes off as a bit shallow, like an actor chewing the scenery and trying to steal a spotlight.

It just doesn’t have either the depth or pleasantness of what musicians like Julia Holter are doing with vocal work. There’s something about track two, “Post Six,” that is just fundamentally uncomfortable to listen to, like a dream where something chases you down identical metal hallways while your ears ring. While that may well have been what the band is going for, it’s definitely not for everyone. In other cases, like “I Would Rather Explode” the vocals are just sounds, not particularly innovative or interesting, but not really distracting either.

Getting beyond the vocals, the techno elements and the ice cold detached pace of this album creates the perfect soundtrack for some movie that doesn’t exist yet: some kind of neo-noir fusion with a breath of influences as wide as Nedry’s. And lots of rain. And maybe one of those vampire nightclubs, with flashing lights and leather.

“Violacea” is a winner of a track, mixing a simmering backing beat with more subdued vocals and well-used samples of rain and static to create a perfect sonic composition. Havana Nights picks up the energy a bit and makes excellent use of the more cold, mechanical influences (Is that a typewriter clicking in the background, or just something that sounds a lot like one? Either way, it works very well.) of Nedry. If it didn’t overstay it’s welcome at more than five minutes, it would have been nearly perfect. That’s a problem that we come back to on “TMA” a good track with an awful, faux-hardcore fadeout that leaves a bad taste in the listeners mouth.

While the compositions can get pretty technical, this never stops being music that needs to be experienced on a primal level. Lyrical arrangements are either non-existent or largely irrelevant. Nedry is a band that aims, in their post-rock post-everything way, to hit you squarely in the guts. Whether that’s pleasant or unpleasant varies from track to track, but it’s always memorable.

Nedry – In a Dim Light tracklist:

1. “I Would Rather Explode”
2. “Post Six”
3. “Violaceae”
4. “Havana Nights”
5. “Dust Till Dawn”
6. “Float”
7. “Land Leviathan”
8. “TMA”
9. “here.now.here.”
10. “Home”

Lockett Pundt is the guitarist for the insanely popular “ambient punk” group Deerhunter. And while Deerhunter’s frontman and lead singer Bradford Cox releases solo work under the moniker “Atlas Sound,” Pundt has taken the name Lotus Plaza. As Lotus Plaza, Pundt released a solo album, The Floodlight Collective, in 2009 to mixed reviews. Now, three years later, he’s back with another collection of his solo work, but unlike The Floodlight Collective, this second LP, Spooky Action at a Distance, is definitely a success.

It’s unsurprising that a guitarist’s solo record is very guitar heavy, and that’s certainly the case with Spooky Action at a Distance. Most songs are powered forward by constant guitar strums, and though the music is very layered and distant sounding, the guitars bring a sort of hypnotic pulse that keeps the listener interested and invested in the otherwise very noisy sound.

Those familiar with Pundt’s earlier work won’t be shocked by the way his guitar sounds here, but they also won’t be disappointed.

Surprisingly, the vocals on the record sound very similar to those found on Pundt’s earlier releases with Deerhunter: filtered and watery, set a little further back so that the guitar strums can take center stage. The vocal similarities are a bit strange because Pundt is in no way the vocalist for Deerhunter, but entirely acceptable because these types of vocals work really well with the trippier psychedelic riffs of the guitar.

Most other instrumentation is kept pretty low-key. Drums are very simple but serve their purpose effectively, and most songs are washed in an echo-y, spacey noise that gives the record some grit but isn’t distracting.

The diversity of tracks on Spooky Action at a Distance is also impressive and worth noting. Some, like the fantastic “Strangers,” are just straightforward jam/drone sessions that keep tempo and noise level consistent; but every so often the album throws a curveball that shakes things up in just the right way. A great example of this is the fourth track, “Dusty Rhodes,” which strips back a lot of the layered sound to bring forth something more tender and honest. Several times it cuts to just the sound of a lone guitar, a powerful contrast with the messier noise that really drives home the emotion that the song is trying to capture. It’s a pleasant switch-up (it also may very well be the best song on the entire album) and songs like it keep the album from getting stale. It is easy to power through Spooky Action at a Distance in one sitting because it stays varied.

Pundt has proven that he knows how to make excellent music. He’s proven it in his work with Deerhunter and he proves it again here. The instrumentation, the sound and the song selection on Spooky Action at a Distance are all excellent.

Those of you looking for something spacey yet noisy, dreamy but rough, are going to love Spooky Action at a Distance. Those of you who love Deerhunter are going to love Spooky Action at a Distance, and even those of you who don’t belong to either of those categories really should give it a try anyway.

Lotus Plaza – Spooky Action at a Distance tracklist:

1. “Untitled”
2. “Strangers”
3. “Out of Touch”
4. “Dusty Rhodes”
5. “White Galactic One”
6. “Monoliths”
7. “Jet Out of the Tundra”
8. “Eveningness”
9. “Remember Our Days”
10. “Black Buzz”

If Lower Dens dug any lower, they might reach the earth’s core, but odds are that would be a lot warmer than the chilly and atmospheric sound they create on Nootropics (pronounced No-eh-tro-piks). Not for nothing does the Baltimore quintet describe themselves as “dark nerds” on their facebook page, for that’s very much what comes across on their second full-length release, the follow up to their 2010 debut, Twin Hand Movement. Led by the sultry but subtle and unaffected alto of Jana Hunter, the group now includes drummer Nate Nelson and keyboardist Carter Tanton, in addition to original members William Adams on guitar and Geoffrey Graham on bass.

The kick-off cut, “Alphabet Song,” seems to rhythmically dig under a ramshackle Beach House with a child’s shovel and pail, until the very sand seems to slip away with the ebbtide. By comparison, “Candy” veritably gallops along, albeit at the pace of a polar bear lurching along atop a glacier; only Low or Codeine seem to have such a struggle “rocking out” as Lower Dens do, but that is never the goal here. Of course Ursus maritimus never has the luxury of hibernation, and it sounds as if Lower Dens are either struggling to emerge from such a deep sleep or are ready to shut their bodies down and embrace the approaching somnambulance. “Lion In Winter” parts one and two sounds more like an arctic fox piloting a solar sailor through the clouds to catch a warren of white rabbits, or at the very least a husk of snowshoe hares. So it comes as no surprise to learn that Nootropics was engineered at Key Club Recording in Benton Harbor, MI with producer Drew Brown (who has engineered work by Radiohead, Sandro Perri, Beck, and Blonde Redhead) and completed back home in Charm City.

Without a doubt there’s a grandiose, anthemic quality to “Nova Anthem,” but it’s not the kind one would sing in church on an Easter morning. But then again, you don’t build a church for Easter Sunday. Lower Dens seem to be worship at the altar of ambient Eno, but they’ve toured the vocal catacombs of Cocteau Twins, heard a Bel Canto in the process, taken Hugo Largo for a few spins and shuffled their feet to This Mortal Coil (at the hand of canned goods, perhaps).

That’s not to say that this record is merely an assemblage of influences– like it or not, there is enough going on here to support the claim that this music is truly new, and it’s either interesting or narcolepsy-inducing, and perhaps a little of both, if such a thing is possible. Nootropics is at turns either achingly beautiful or achingly slow or both, which is at turns deeply entrancing or gratingly annoying, depending on the listener’s mood. This is mood music, and not recommended for 3^rd shift truck drivers or cramming college students pulling an all-nighter, so caveat emptor, or waking up in a puddle of blood in a roadside ditch or a puddle of saliva face-planted in a hundred dollar textbook is a real possibility.

Nootropics is in no way tropical, so although it seems at first that the record has been poorly titled, it turns out that nootropics are drugs, supplements and foods that are supposed to improve mental functions such as cognition, memory, intelligence, motivation, attention and concentration. Thus it would seem that devoting one’s complete attention to the listening experience would be highly recommended. It’s a pity we live in a world plagued with such short attention spans. But if that’s really the goal of Nootropics, complete immersion is a good idea, and if an isolation tank is available, that would be even more conducive for “improved mental function.” If not that, a prolonged sleep might be the end result; regardless, it would be a worthwhile experiment, and the same should be said for this record from beginning to end.

Lower Dens – Nootropics tracklist:

1. “Alphabet Song”
2. “Brains”
3. “Stem”
4. “Propagation”
5. “Lamb”
6. “Candy”
7. “Lion in Winter Pt. 1”
8. “Lion in Winter Pt. 2”
9. “Nova Anthem”
10. “In the End Is the Beginning”

For years, the London-based duo of Apoloiges, I Have None could not avoid the Against Me! comparison, and with good reason. The group started out as a folk punk unit making use of an acoustic guitar, drums and impassion vocals, and while it was great at what it did – the Done EP is proof of that – it didn’t take on its own sound until it expanded its line-up to a full four piece.

On the group’s 2010 self-released 7-inch, the band unleashed it showcased its new sound by way of the songs “Sat in Vicky Park” and “Joiners and Windmills.” The folk-punk influence that permeated the band’s early releases was hardly present, but the energetic performances that made Apologies’ early work so enchanting hadn’t gone anywhere. Finally, after being a band for half a decade, Apologies, I Have None has released its debut album London, and thankfully, it was worth the wait.

The 10 song affair sees Apologies dissecting the human condition while framing it in the city that has helped shape the experiences of the band members. Songs such as “The 26” reference a specific bus route in London, but they use that as a mere starting point for the emotions that those local landmarks have informed.

Where the group’s early EPs were always enjoyable, London is the first Apologies release that feels complete. Although it features both “Sat in Vicky Park” and “Joiners and Windmills,” the new recordings make them feel at home on the record as opposed to superfluous re-recordings. It makes sense that these songs find their home on London, as they feel like the songs that truly transformed Apologies into the powerhouse it is today.

Although the album is decidedly a punk record, it has an air of darkness that finds a way to reflect harsh realities while simultaneously attempting to rise above the negativity. “Clapton Pond” finds a way to sum up the album’s whole ideology with a few simple lines. “It’s always like this, things they fall apart when we just can’t let go,” is a chorus that points to a defeatist attitude, but is the song’s very last line that seems to sum up the band’s last few years, “This is progress towards perfection.”

London is not a perfect album – it has a few slight missteps – but overall, it is one of the most refreshing punk albums in recent memory. It finds a way to channel anger and frustration into something positive, and in doing so, it becomes one of the most heartfelt releases of the year. If there’s one thing that is true about London, it is that there is not a bad song on it, and that if Apologies keeps on pushing itself, it will reach perfection.

Apologies, I Have None – London tracklist:

1. “60 Miles”
2. “Sat in Vicky Park”
3. “Clapton Pond”
4. “Concrete Feet”
5. “Still Sitting Tight”
6. “Holloway or Anywhere”
7. “The 26”
8. “Joiners and Windmills”
9. “Foundations”
10. “Long Gone”

One of the best episodes of the FX comedy Louie revolves around the titular comedian Louis CK talking an old buddy whom he came up with in the comedy world, and who has been a road-dog comedian for twenty years, into not killing himself. It’s a harrowing, and almost completely unfunny moment in which Louis comes to appreciate the life that he made for himself, not having to relentlessly tour and sleep in his car. His efforts to prevent his friend from offing himself, however, are somewhat less successful. His life has devolved into a series of diminishing returns along the highways of middle America. His punk comedian ethos has come back to haunt him.

Certainly not to say they should off themselves, Margot and Nuclear So & So’s resemble Louis CK’s downtrodden pal in the way their career has progressed. Crowned a promising umpteenth-wave indie rock band, curated by larger scenesters Manchester Orchestra, Kevin Devine (and by extension, co-signed by Brand New), Margot found themselves taking their white van’d talents to the festival circuit. Their first album, The Dust of Retreat, was typical barre-chord heavy indie rock fare with flairs of Modest Mouse and Weezer experimentation, and their stints at Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo hinted at possibilities for a bigger audience. Theirs was a hard row to hoe – indie-rock band trying to surpass their own influences – but Margot seemed poised to make the jump.

Fast forward to 2012, and nothing really has changed. The band has played a few headlining tours, but previous few big stages, and they still occupy that middle ground of afternoon playing festival act whose sound has gotten conspicuously weirder, not necessarily better. Rot Gut, Domestic, the band’s fourth album (well, fifth if you count 2008s Animal! and Not Animal! as two separate albums) will likely do nothing to move the dial on their holding pattern of fame. Just so, Domestic isn’t better than Margot’s best (Dust of Retreat), but isn’t a marketed sellout to shamelessly move up a level (you all know who the major players in Fun are right?). Instead, Domestic is a casually interesting record with twinges of new sounds to satiate fans and add something mildly spicier to the recipe of their live show.

In true child of Manchester Orchestra fashion, Rot Gut trades among the dark, weird and seedy spots of the indie-rock mind. The first two tracks, the dirgy but endearing “Disease and Tobacco Free” and the strangely scary “Books About Trains,” deal directly with a lackadaisical slacker voice who still cloys for something greater than himself. Nothing remotely new, but done in such a Margot way as to engender fans to Rot Gut’s mission statement. This time around the Weezer references are easier to spot, as “Prozac Rock,” “Fisher of Men” and “Arvydas Sabonis” dive into the Pinkerton era heavy on the heavy hook pop-rock. It shouldn’t be completely surprising that this hooky rock are the best songs Margot has done in years, even if “Sabonis” pats itself a little too heavily on the back for making a cogent narrative out of a Lithuanian proto-stretch center who played for the Portland Trailblazers fifteen years ago.

Elsewhere the pickings are slimmer – “Shannon” and “The Devil” shimmy a little bit too much and end up slimy and ugly, even for indie-rock. “A Journalist Falls in Love with Deathrow Inmate #16” holds a cute punch-line and the soft rock that Margot have always been underrated for, but the mystique wears off after a few listens. Ill-advised forays into Brit-rock (“Coonskin Cap”) or just incongruous acoustic based festival fodder (“Frank Left” and “Ludlow Junk Hustle”) pock mark the album’s hookier positives and leave a stale, if mildly satiating aftertaste.

Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s still do their indie-rock better than many of their peers (Manchester Orchestra, in particular, have fallen off a cliff), so comparing them to a road comedian who wants to kill himself may be a slight overreach. But the fact remains that Rot Gut, Domestic is a fan’s album, fit not for a larger audience but for the people who get up earlier in the day and trek from their RVs to see the little band in their back pocket play another medium sized festival stage.

Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s – Rot Gut, Domestic tracklist:

1. “Disease and Tobacco Free”
2. “Books About Trains”
3. “Shannon”
4. “Prozac Rock”
5. “A Journalist Falls in Love With Death Row Inmate #16”
6. “Frank Left”
7. “Fisher of Men”
8. “Arvydas Sabonis”
9. “Coonskin Cap”
10. “Ludlow Junk Hustle”
11. “The Devil”
12. “Christ”

In a world where surviving in the music industry is a feat unto itself, the forbidden forest where instrumental bands tread is an even more challenging endeavor. It is a somewhat niche genre that is harshly criticized and often overlooked; where technical expertise and compositional innovation is a must; and where very few manage to survive, let alone thrive. The American Dollar is a band that can contend with instrumental powerhouses like Explosions in the Sky and The Redneck Manifesto, especially with their fifth studio album Awake in the City.

While 12 tracks can be daunting for both listener and artist, The American Dollar makes sure to break any monotony and open with full force. The opening track “Faces in the Haze” begins with swirls of piano until cymbals quietly build and envelope the listener in a cosmic tornado of sound. Fluid electric guitar compliments the harmonizing simplicity and crispness of the song and gently ushers the listener into a rare musical experience.

“Faces in the Haze,” which amounts to nearly five minutes, is followed by yet another lengthy track “Heavy Eyes Ignite.” But after powering through the two beginning songs, the following tracks are easy to fly through. With almost indiscernible song transitions, Awake in the City is a cohesive body of work rather than a ragtag collection of songs, making its musical impact that much more profound and satisfying.

“Steeltown (Part One),” at just over two minutes long, bears a lasting impact. The electronic influences combined with angelic vocals almost too faint to detect results in an airy, thought-provoking piece. It appropriately ends with a myriad of electric twinkles and spare percussion while seamlessly easing its way into sister piece “Steeltown (Part Two).” Both emotionally charged tracks alone, together the two pieces coalesce to form a dramatic instrumental partnership.

Awake in the City houses 12 tracks amounting to a total of 40 minutes in material, Awake in the City isn’t a long piece; but what it lacks in length it more than compensates for with emotional power. The tracks at times transition almost too seamlessly and become muddled together in their profound similarities. But with this criticism comes the concession that a band composed of just a drummer and guitarist manage to create what few bands achieve with the help of lyrics—music that you don’t just listen to, but experience.

Closing track “Oracle” perfectly embodies the creative prowess that The American Dollar possesses. Starting with a foundation of keys and simplistic percussion, The American Dollar then builds musical masterpieces that one can only gaze in absolute astonishment, without words of description or reaction. It literally takes your breath away.

Awake in the City is one of those albums that you just know can be the score to your life. Upon listening to any song, an experience, emotion, memory comes to mind. The song seems to fit like a long lost puzzle piece that you’ve been searching for. And finally, the puzzle is finished, the finished product is revealed, and you can sleep soundly knowing you’re at musical ease with this chaotic world. Awake in the City brings peace.

The American Dollar – Awake in the City tracklist:

Foreign Body is the first album by Mirroring, an ambient music duo composed of Liz Harris and Jesy Fortino. Like most ambient music, the album is… ambient, and for the most part comes with all the pros and cons that the genre normally exhibits.

The pros: the music is entirely inoffensive. You could put Foreign Body on in a restaurant, at a party, in a dimly lit bar, or pretty much anywhere else where music is acceptable (and maybe some places it isn’t, if you’re quiet enough) and no one would complain. It’s soft, gentle melodies linger in the air, offending no one.

Foreign Body works hard to maintain a continuing sound that unifies the whole piece. Song transitions are never jarring or distracting, but come naturally. This is especially important for slower, acoustic music, so it’s good that it’s done well here.

And the cons: actually immersing yourself in the music is incredibly boring. This ain’t no Sigur Ros: soundscapes aren’t sweeping or intricate; they just flow from one thing to the next semi-aimlessly, and while that’s great if you aren’t actually paying any attention to the music (again, it’s good for background noise) there just isn’t enough depth of sound to make a full, rich listening experience.

You might not notice when one song becomes the next because they are all so similar. Cohesive sound can be a double edged sword: if there’s not enough continuity an album will become uncomfortably sporadic and unpredictable, but too much similarity between songs will leave listeners bored and listless, drifting in an out of each song as it drones into the next.

Unfortunately, Foreign Body tends toward the latter, and while there are differences between each song, they are few and far between, leaving us with something closer to one 40-minute song, instead of the nine individual songs given in the track listing.

After all its pros and cons, Foreign Body is a good enough album to just put on and sit through, but you’ll want to be doing something else at the same time, like reading a book or solving a particularly engaging puzzle. If you absolutely love quiet, ambient music you might find yourself enjoying Foreign Body, but if you don’t already live for sparse, slow and subtle arrangements, there’s absolutely nothing here that’s going to change your mind.

Mirroring – Foreign Body tracklist:

1. “Drowning the Call”
2. “Fell Sound”
3. “Silent From Above”
4. “Cliffs”
5. “Mirror of Our Sleeping”
6. “Mine”

Portland outfit Chromatics has gone through a slew of member changes and style swaps, all lead by producer/multi-instrumentalist/mastermind, Johnny Jewel. With their forth full-length studio effort, Kill for Love, the quartet takes their dark electronic disco sound from In the City EP and adds a hazy coat of synthetic pop. Throughout valleys of ambient tones, Kill for Love is a hauntingly beautiful breed of abstract pop.

From start to finish, Kill for Love spans a variety of dark tones and hypnotic melodies. Beats hum in a distant and sparing pace at times, and during others they are plucked down a nightmarish path. The album begins with a synth version of Neil Young’s “Hey, Hey, My My (Into the Black)” titled simply “Into the Black.” Chromatics has covered Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” and Kate Bush’s “Running up that Hill” in a similar eerie fashion. It’s a trend that Chromatics has previewed on other albums, but has seemingly perfected it on this one. Ruth Radelet’s elegantly soothing vocals naturally blend into the ghastly guitar licks in “Candy,” yet youthfully complement tracks like “The Page.”

Similar to In the City’s title track, “Kill for Love” is the stand-out pop track. Slathered in ‘80s pop keyboard and Radelet’s airily sweet vocals, “Kill for Love” is bouncy and undeniably catchy. It’s unfortunate this is one of the few tracks with enough punch to ensue a dance party. Spanning over an hour, Kill for Love acts as a dramatic score. Songs like “Back from the Grave” and “The Page” are ridden in punk-tinged guitar riffs and electro rock grit, while “Running from the Sun” and “Birds of Paradise” are thematically tense. Chromatics find a balance between split personalities and enough variety. This album is constructed to be taken in as one. Each song on its own holds a lackluster aftertaste, but Kill for Love is woven with enough emotional variety to hold true in any circumstance.

Fourteen-minute long, “No Escape” is an ambient journey of melancholy tones and sparse, trickling beats. Rumbles of distant thunder transform this song into a somber cloud of minimalist sounds. It’s a hefty tune to chew through, and it honestly doesn’t seem worth it. The foggy reverb is a vast soundscape meant to follow the winding path that inevitably brings the listener to, but its spaciousness is only appreciated as a poignant resolution.

Chromatics – Kill for Love tracklist:

1. “Into the Black”
2. “Kill for Love”
3. “Back from the Grave”
4. “The Page”
5. “Lady”
6. “These Streets Will Never Look the Same”
7. “Broken Mirrors”
8. “Candy”
9. “The Eleventh Hour”
10. “Running from the Sun”
11. “Dust to Dust”
12. “Birds of Paradise”
13. “A Matter of Time”
14. “At Your Door”
15. “There’s a Light Out On the Horizon”
16. “The River”
17. “No Escape”

Over the past two decades, Brendan Kelly has been one of the most active participants in the Chicago punk scene. Each one of Kelly’s acts is notable for one reason or another, but after spending over a decade as the bassist/vocalist for the Lawrence Arms, it seems only natural that when that band began to slow its pace that the man-of-a-thousand-bands would release a solo album.

I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever is the first album Kelly has released with his new band The Wandering Birds – group gained its name by consisting of a revolving cast of musicians, based both in Chicago and Denver. So how does it stack up to Kelly’s past work? Well, it doesn’t really. Where Kelly’s former works were always anchored within the punk realm, I’d Rather Die is his most varied stylistic work to date. Sure, it has its punk-tinge – the regrettably titled “American Vagina,” as well as “What’s a Boy to Do?” – but the album runs the gamut from straightforward rock, to acoustic ballads, to Nick Cave-inspired waltzes.

From the album’s onset, Kelly deals solely with dark, off-putting subject matter. “Suffer the Children, Come Unto Me” is an upbeat, hooky number about raping and killing children. If the lyrical content on the track is any indication, this father-of-two is exploring the most vile content of his career. This album isn’t rife with the beer-soaked sing-alongs found on the Lawrence Arms 2006 full-length Oh, Calcutta!. Instead, these are the songs that were taking place in the alley behind the bars that inspired those joyous numbers. Instead of going to punk-gone-folk route like so many of Kelly’s peers, he’s punk-gone-sadistic. In a sense, it’s a more palatable version of the Dwarves, or even a rock ‘n’ roll take on Odd Future.

The question still remains: how successful is Kelly when he strikes out on his own? The answer, sadly, is as varied as the album itself. A track like “East St. Louis” is a bare bones rocker that doesn’t feel all that far removed from something Craig Finn would write, and the slow burning “Covered in Flies” is perhaps the most subtle hook Kelly has ever integrated into a song. However, some tracks just fail to resonate as well. “A Man With the Passion of Tennessee Williams” is the most ambitious track of Kelly’s career, but the drum machine and spacey effects that base the track make it feel like a demo instead of a fully realized idea.

On the whole, I’d Rather Die is a successful leap for Kelly, as he puts all the material unfit for his other acts in one place. Kelly’s knack for songwriting proves he can adeptly navigate these various styles and only falter in small measure. It’s not the album that someone who swears by Ghost Stories would want, but it doesn’t need to be, I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever is successful on its own merits.

Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds – I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever tracklist:

1. “Suffer the Children, Come Unto Me”
2. “Doin’ Crimes”
3. “A Man With the Passion of Tennessee Williams”
4. “What’s a Boy to do?”
5. “Ramblin’  Revisited”
6. “The Dance of the Doomed”
7. “American Vagina”
8. “East St. Louis”
9. “Latenightsupersonicelasticbags”
10. “Your Mother”
11. “Covered in Flies”
12. “The Thud and the Echo”

As the American jazz scene continues to dull, gathering its many shriveled variants into one bucket (labeled New York City), the International Jazz Scene continues to grow, producing new and exciting talent each year—from the Netherlands to Australia, the “most American art form” is finding vital restoration overseas. Anna Luca is one such act, a Swedish/German singer/songwriter and veteran of Nu jazz act Club Des Belugas. Listen and Wait marks her first solo effort, an incredibly luminous and variegated work. She sings of one-night-stands, wanderlust, love, loss and even suicide.

Nujazz is a peculiar terminology, more of an adjective than a proper noun but has its roots in fusion—Lounge, Samba, Swing, Soul, Bossa Nova—almost anything goes, as long as it’s blended into one cohesive performance. Here the arrangements wind and steam, at who’s command is anybody’s best guess—but to hail the album ‘jazz’ seems a misnomer. This isn’t some highbrow putdown about what is and isn’t jazz—there’s nothing unimpressive about the musical talents of Luca and band—but it all seems a little too sing-songy to be coincidence. In that sense her work is more in the tradition of her idol Billie Holliday, a confessionary singer/songwriter whose compositions are palatable enough to be Pop but smack of something all her own.

From the vibraphone and giddy drums of opener “Beautiful Dawn,” it feels like stumbling into the middle of an album, such is the briskness in which it commences. The production quality is raw, warm and clean; acoustic guitars, shimmering keys and sunny grooves. According to her website, it was recorded in two days at E-Sound in Amsterdam. If it was done in a few takes, it’s the tight feel of the band that holds it all together. And yet, there’s some veritable quirkiness to the recordings. Luca’s accent is just bad enough to be endearing—this in contrast with her startling command of English idioms provides for quite the giggle. She’s an awfully gifted singer and seems to be having a ball. There is an even-handed honesty to her voice, honesty and conviction and she can vary her tone from bright and milky to the crackling sizzle of a whisper in a turn.

But there are times when the lyricism gets genuinely uncomfortable. When she sings, “I want to be the one who whispers in your ear, ‘Everything is going to be alright.’” in “Your Girl” it comes a little too close for comfort, even creepy in a way. Luca’s degree of experience conveyed in “Cigarettes and Wine” like “Everytime I try to start the day with gymnastics, to practice my scales.” makes her seem like a character straight out of “The Sound of Music”. Anna stems her blunt honesty from confessionality—of a long-festering love or even of detestation, “You really make me wanna hit you so hard” (“First Class Suicide”) creating a brand of music that’s at once loveable and odd.

Listen and Wait is a pop record, ambitious and unfulfilled. When the artist sings on the title track, “I need to calm down myself, and learn to listen and wait,” one can’t help but wonder if she’s heeding her own advice. The album is a bold first step into new territory for Anna Luca, it may take some time to find out just where she’s landed, where she’s going.

anna.luca – Listen and Wait tracklist:

1. “Beautiful Dawn”
2. “Miracle of Love”
3. “Listen and Wait”
4. “Everything I’ve Got in My Pocket”
5. “Old Fellow Fear”
6. “Collecting Pieces”
7. “You Can Keep What’s Yours And I Will Keep What’s Mine”
8. “Someone Who Moves My Feet”
9. “Love Me Quietly”
10. “First Class Suicide”
11. “Your Girl”
12. “Cigarettes and Wine”

What if Jesus had a twin? What if said twin died at birth, and then was reincarnated? (Hold that thought: it’s not as Rasputin, though we love that storyline as well). What if Jesus-deux then went on some crazed turbulent adventures through time? What would that be like?

Such ponderings aren’t the makings of some hallucinogenic-fueled sci-fi fantasy, but the underlying story of De Vermis Mysteriis, the latest offering from Bay Area thrash outfit High on Fire. What reads like a C-movie knock off of The Passion of the Christ meets Primer meets Heavy Metal is actually the so-crazy-it-works concept behind an incredibly solid sixth album. Whatever was in the kool-aid that Kurt Ballou of God City Studio and band leader Matt Pike were drinking, De Vermis Mysteriis will have listeners lining up to do keg stands of the stuff.

Opening track “Serums of Liao” is the sounding call to High on Fire’s return. It is powerful and commanding, featuring Des Kensel’s drumming at the forefront. Followed by the classic-metal tinged “Bloody Knuckles,” it’s hard to recall the last High on Fire album that stuck this close to the basics while still sounding so fresh. Matt Pike’s vocals sound as rugged and animalistic as ever, shaking the bowels of listeners. Does this man eat microphone heads as a savage dog would shred its prey? The drum-circle inflected “Fertile Green” is the cherry on top of this trio, driving the pace forward into the surprisingly psychedelic down-tempo noodling of “Madness of an Architect” perhaps a subconscious tribute of sorts to Pike’s other life in Sleep.

Without losing any steam, the track glides seamlessly into “Spiritual Rites,” a no frills banger that focuses on what High on Fire do best: thrash. The onslaught of bass, drum, and guitar all pitch in to keep the chugging energy, and even Pike’s guitar solo sounds inspired and rejuvenated. Giving the listener 7 minutes of reprieve (we’re talking Hunger Games-like reprieve, here.) is “King of Days,” a sludgy foray into guitar riffs that would sound at home on an Electric Wizard album. But rather than sounding out of place here, it’s a welcome change up, reminding us that High on Fire is no one trick magician.

In its entirety, De Vermis Mysteriis accomplishes more than just providing an extremely intense narrative of bizarre, pseudo-religious sci-fi metal. It takes that signature sound that the trio have made so very much their sound, and yet avoids stagnation or predictability. More notably, they’ve done this without the bells and whistles that other maturing metal acts resort to. This is straight, in-your-face exciting; a reminder why we enjoyed Death Is This Communion and Snakes for the Divine, but longed to have that core sound on Surrounded by Thieves return. Get lost in time with Jesus-Deux. Drink the kool-aid.

High on Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis tracklist:

1. “Serums of Liao”
2. “Bloody Knuckles”
3. “Fertile Green”
4. “Madness of an Architect”
5. “Samsara”
6. “Spiritual Rights”
7. “King of Days”
8. “De Vermis Mysteriis”
9. “Romulus and Remus”
10. “Warhorn”