Browsing The Hoard

A friend shared various tunes with me this last week, here's my impressions of the hoard.

Medeski, Scofield, Martin, and Wood – Out Louder – Typical jammy background music from these guys. I have and like three other MMW records, particularly Combustication; Scofield apparently added his guitar to this one. Not bad but not immediately spectacular.

Black Before Red – Belgrave to King’s Circle – Austin band. OK indie rock, but I was pretty bored listening to it. Like a boring version of Shins or Band of Horses. Again, nothing put me off but nothing really caught on, either. Yawn.

Grupo Fantasma – Comes Alive – Hey, guess what, latin music. Whoopty. There’s probably a time and place where this might entertain me, but this morning at work just wasn’t it. It reminded me of all the superfluous Vallejo/Scabs/Grooveline Horns combinations I used to choke down back in the day. Yawn.

Now It’s Overhead – Dark Light Daybreak – Didn't really get into this one, either. Like a boring Oasis - Calexico - Gomez mix. Yawn.

Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures – Interesting indie rock. Sounds like a mix of My Morning Jacket, Pinback and Sun Kil Moon. I liked the “California” song, very gentle like the final tracks on early Pearl Jam albums, but sung by Paul Simon. “You” is decent as well.

Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood – Smooth smoky surf country. The music (echo, heavy on the wammy-bar, brushed snare percussion) sounds like Chris Isaak, but Neko’s vocals are less sad than groovy. I had heard “Hold on, Hold on” once before on internet radio and I loved hearing it within the context of the rest of the record. “Dirty Knife” is also great. The lyrics are all fairly interesting.

Darin Murphy – Haunted Gardenias – A boring Rufus Wainwright. Generic and forgettable. Yawn.

Emily Haines – Knives Don’t Have Your Back – I’m back and forth about miss Emily’s solo and Metric material; her work for Broken Social Scene, however, is untouchably awesome. This album has nice piano and vocals but it was just too slow and quiet and nothing really stuck. Her lyrics have always been a dark mystery that I never really cared to try and decode. Track 6: “Bros before hoes, disagree on the sideline. Fight for a fee... the man needs a maid? The maid needs a maid.” Erm, ok. It all seems like mopey Lilith Fair opener material to me.

Little Radio Spring 2007 (SXSW) Sampler – Wasn’t familiar with the site before I heard this record. It seems pretty cool, though they really took a shit on the new Interpol and I take extreme exception with their review. They put together a pretty good little compilation, including these memorable numbers:
Welcome – “All Set” – twangy Who- and Kinks-like rock and roll
The Mooney Suzuki – “Alcohol” – a silly, clever, wordsmithy tribute to boozing
Jake la Botz – “For the Brothers” – deep dark delta guitar accompanied by a slow drawling voice, pouring out a lil’ liquor for those that have gone before.
Eleni Mandell – “Twin” – very enjoyable female vocalist and music.