Sloan – Hit & Run digital EP (Murder)
Sloan is that rare band that thrills on first play, and then as you get to know the material, you acquire an appreciation for the craft beyond that immediate visceral impact. Even in this short-form, 14-minute burst, the veteran Toronto quartet demonstrate all four’s multifaceted writing/singing outlook forged over nine albums, serving up the piano and delectable acoustic delight of Jay Ferguson*’s “Midnight Mass” only two songs before *Andrew Scott*’s breakneck, snarled, hard, quick, heavy guitar rock disillusionment, “Where Are You Now?” The sleeper, best track might be *Patrick Pentland*’s swirling, spacey, punchy, banged-acoustic meets heavy drums and chiming piano mini-masterpiece “It is Never,” which manages the same monster mood of John Lennon’s “Mind Games.” And the bookending tunes by de facto leader *Chris Murphy sit comfortably between these extremes, his honey-thick voice daring you not to sing along with such sincerity as “Oh Dear Diary,” with such typical tasty tunefulness you feel like you’re floating
The Lucy Show – _….undone (Words on Music)
Simply put, …undone is still dazzling. With supreme echoes (similarly ethereal, ghostly production!) of Joy Division and especially 17 Seconds and Faith Cure, its spellbinding encircling, cycling, eerily ringing guitars and Rob Vandeven*’s burbling bass are mesmerizing features, a spider’s web contrastingly underpinning strikingly wonderful melodies by Vandeven and the group’s other singer/songwriter *Mark Bandola!
Wilco – Wilco (the Album) (Nonesuch/WEA)
Perhaps the most creative commercial act in the country, Wilco’s mesh of classic pop and art-pop styles, combined with their sweetened harmonies and *Jeff Tweedy*’s Paul Westerberg-thick voice makes them formidable, still. They’re just more accessible, again, even while embodying Tweedy’s restless artistic yearning, and occasional flashes of lingering distaste, like his Bush-era lament “Country Disappeared.”
exlovers – “You Forgot So Easily” 10” EP (Chess Club U.K.)
This new London group led by Peter Scott uses well-trodden tricks of the trade, pitting the jangly-to-chimey guitars of ‘80s Creation label legends and earlier Postcard platters against dissonant riffing à la The Velvet Underground. They then funnel all that into mega-melodic guitar pop with understated undertones, like the apprehensive male/female harmonies between Scott and adorable-looking lass Laurel of no last name. An incredible debut LP is the only step that remains.
The Newtown Neurotics – Live 1987 Brunel University (digital)
and The Elephant Demos 1979 (digital)
(Anthology)
Leader Steve Drewett, bassist Colin Dredd and drummer Simon Lomond are so rip-roaring and knife-edge catchy, you might miss Drewett’s fierce, smart, passionate-instead-of-pedantic socio-political humanist protest/empathy/disgust hitting like a hurricane—verily one of the greatest lyricist this writer has ever encountered. Just for “Sects” and an astonishing, closing detonation of “You Must Be Mad,” Brunel is particularly a must.
Visqueen – Message to Garcia (Local 638)
And though there’re copious guest stars such as Neko Case on five songs, the high-energy, up-tempo, elastic blast of Visqueen is *Rachel Flotard*’s kick-ass licks, her commanding thick pipes and compassionate lyrics (the many about her recently deceased father, whom she was taking care of, will choke you up), and *Ben Hooker*’s slam-banging. Man, it’s great to have them back!
John Mancini Band – John Mancini Band (John Mancini Band)
I don’t know why, but this singer-songwriter makes me think somehow of Randy Newman singing songs written by John Fogerty and Dr. John. Baltimore’s Mancini is not without talent; dig those pungent horns like my parents’ old Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass records, on the opening “Don’t Go Easy” and strings-laden “Evolution,” his molasses voice sliding to a point between Newman and Graham Parker, with a little bit of Supertramp’s Roger Hodgson. You have to like the barrelhouse piano rock of “Buried Alive,” too, with Mancini’s vocal surprisingly mimicking Bob Marley. At times, his band briefly jams off in a boogie wonderland of Mark Knopfler’s imagination, but that’s minor, and Mancini’s good-guy persona and pepper-pot energy always reels him back in. (myspace.com/johnmanciniband)
Idlewild – Post Electric Blues (Cooking Vinyl U.K.)
For the sixth time (plus a mini-LP), Idlewild delivers. Perhaps Post fits too safely with their last four albums; Idlewild have grown comfortable alternating mid-tempo, thick, crushing post-punk (more 2002’s intense The Remote Part than 2000’s juggernaut classic, 100 Broken Windows) with intermittent R.E.M.-ish folk-pop—you might even think some songs are ‘90s R.E.M. Yet it matters not.
For Against – Never Been (Words on Music)
Playing this record is to be sucked into another world, succumbing to its textural tenacity, so brimming with pocket passages of flickering luminous radiance and the coolest shade, dabbling in dissonance, light jangle, esoteric bass, hypnotic drums, and some of the most inventive guitar playing you’ll hear any year.
The Dimes – The King Can Drink the Harbour Dry (Pet Marmoset)
Portland, OR’s brilliant Johnny Clay chronicles Beantown’s history, spanning from rebellion , to abolitionist passions, to the 1872 Great Boston Fire, to the anti-Italian hysteria of 1921’s Sacco and Venzetti trial, to… my word! Hats off to one of the best/most entertaining folk-pop groups in years!
