SOTD 1.7.10

Off of possibly the most slept-on album of 2008, Falling Off the Lavender Bridge, "Midnight Surprise" is indie at its finest with an alt-country tinge. The man behind the music is Lightspeed Champion, whose career began in the dance punk trio Test Icicles. If you've ever heard this band's frenetic sound, don't think that Lightspeed Champion is at all similar just by mere association; rather, ready yourself for heartfelt lyrics paired with acoustic guitar and flanked by strings and lap steel. And fortunate for us, Lightspeed Champ's sophomore release, Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You, is right around the corner, dropping February 1. You can watch the video for the first single, "Marlene," here. The LP is produced by Ben Allen, the guy who produced Merriweather Post Pavilion, so if that's not enough to entice you to give it a listen, then I don't know what is.

Lightspeed Champion: "Midnight Surprise"
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SOTD 1.6.10

Fanfarlo is what happens when Neutral Milk Hotel, Blind Pilot, and Noah and the Whale ménage and eight and a half months later, Arcade Fire's preemie cousin is born. And I mean this in the nicest way possible. While Fanfarlo certainly makes good music, I can't help but hear the component parts rather than the sum of them. This is not inherently bad, though; in fact, I'd consider their debut, Reservoir, within the top 50 albums of 2009. It's perfectly catchy, well-crafted music, but the pretentious critic in me just can't seem to take Fanfarlo completely seriously when their sound is more a live mash-up of styles rather than a unique musical offering. Overly simplified, Fanfarlo is to Arcade Fire as Blind Man's Colour is to Animal Collective. Undeniably enjoyable, but not earth-shatteringly original either.

Fanfarlo: "Luna"
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Holy ish!: Local Natives

I'm currently innovating. I'm adding the Holy ish! section right now to accommodate an absolute obsession of mine. Tragically, Gorilla Manor is not available in the US quite yet. Be patient and buy it when you get the chance.

Will constantly keep you updated. I love blogging.

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edit: ha, when you think you have something, Pitchfork has probably already interviewed the guitar player. Case in point.

SOTD 1.5.10

A band that, for whatever reason, slipped through the cracks in 2009 is Other Lives, who released their solid self-titled album in April, their first under the Other Lives moniker and their second as a band. Frankly a downright depressing release, the LP is nonetheless a great piece of indie folk in the vein of The Decemberists and Midlake. This particular track features the lush instrumentation found throughout the album, including piano, strings, and guitar, along with Jesse Tabish's languid vocals that add extra weight to the melancholic mood. I'll never understand why some bands hit it big while others wallow in relative obscurity despite their clear talent, but Muzjiks is here to hopefully remedy this problem one post at a time. Enjoy.

Other Lives: "Black Tables"
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Knux The Formula

Music is agile. Labeling is slippery. Music is changing at a rate that once a label is formulated for a sound, that sound has evolved so far past the label that it only sparsely applies. This is why you see more general terms stick. These are terms so broad that there is no way the music you love can out run the label you have formulated for it. Take alternative rock--huh, pretty interesting. It applies to almost everything and nothing all at the same time. Is it everything not played on Clear Channel radio? Is it Kings of Leon? You begin to see my point. I fear this same phenomenon is happening with "conscious hip-hop."

The origins of "conscious hip-hip" began with the politically driven acts Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. The label quickly expanded along with with growing national hip-hop scene in the '80s. Sound used to exclusively be associated with a geographic location and sonic locale. Obviously, once this stuff hit national radio and MTV, that was all over. Furthermore, the labeling phenomenon of "conscious" began to refer to those artists not entirely concerned with the '90s trends of "gangster rap" and didn't fall in line with the emerging conglomerate of factory produced club bangers. Conscious rap, at a point, concerned itself with social issues, more specifically, issues that socially affected the black community. However, once an issue becomes inherently attatched with a lyrical movement and a style of production, I think that the shelf life clock begins to tick. Somwhere along the line, the formula became a 4 on the floor kick, a sunny horn sample, and a yearning 70s soul vocal. This is what makes the work of Mos Def's on Black on Both Sides and The New Danger so incredible. He creates labels as songs. He justifies Girl Talk's notorious "fair use" copyright stipulation. Though we are on a dangerous path, a path filled with overly sentimental, repetitive, even soft production. We are to a point where we expect a formula when we put in a cd of "conscious hip-hip." We listen and say "that sample is sick." We are tragically distracted by soul and new wave samples and Jay-Zs "Forever Young" maybe be the most lazily constructed hunk of shit to grace my ear in the past year (note: it was ironic when the sample was in Napoleon Dynamite).

This is where bands like Outkast and The Roots come into play. They are important in the respect that they truly bridge the gap between the artists that inspire and the contemporary artists that innovate. There is a reason why I think the aforementioned genre of hip-hop is becoming tired--that reason is the literal recycling of these samples. Outkast and The Roots benefit from either the talent to play instruments at a high level or have the ear to construct a song that models that complete sense of song. This brings me to The Knux.

A family rap-duo hailing from from New Orleans, The Knux are something different--a tad bit innovative even. Heavily influenced by the prodcution of Outkast, The Roots, Lupe Fiasco, Jurassic 5 and ATCQ, the proof is in the song form. They flow like songs, not cut up samples looped in Reason.


From the recently released Fuck You EP...

The Knux: "Watchu Say"
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SOTD 1.4.09

I don't know what's going on. I'm going to hell with myself. Another Radiohead post? And a remix at that? I never thought I'd see the day when this Thom snob would even consider a mere remix surpassing the original, but I guess there's a first time for everything. Just take this as the official kickoff to 2010 (twen-tē ten), the year of the Muzjiks...

The word "mash-up" evokes an acne-faced computer nerd who thinks that an off-tempo combination of Ying Yang Twins and Ke$ha called "(Wait 'Til You See My) DiK ToK" is just the funniest, most ironic thing ever. This isn't a mash-up, though; rather, this is a subtle—albeit genius—reworking of an already near-perfect piece of music. Combining the In Rainbows opener, "15 Step," with Dave Brubeck's ubiquitous 1959 cool jazz number, "Take Five," is "5 Step" by the no-name French bootlegger Overdub. Shrewdly having recognized that "15 Step" is in 5/4 time just as the famously asymmetrical "Take Five," Overdub allows for strength of "15 Step" in its unadulterated state to preside, simply interpolating Brubeck's sexy piano and saxophone as an accent to further the musical interest. If I didn't know better, I would think that the classically-inclined Jonny Greenwood had infused this jazz element himself. It works that well. Better than the original? Debatable. A remix indicative of a clear appreciation for and knowledge of music in general? Definitely.

Radiohead vs. Dave Brubeck: "5 Step"
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(Quasi-) MuzjiksTV: 12.28-1.3

Nothing happened this past week in terms of indie acts on TV. I think everyone at network television stations was still reeling from the Mariah Carey "All I Want for Christmas Is You" onslaught. I could leave it at that, but instead, I will be nice and offer you this mindfuck of a live DVD from the incredible post-rock outfit, Mono.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzg0MDEzNzI=.html

Also, if you don't own (at the very least) 2009's Hymn to the Immortal Wind, do your ears a favor and buy it now...

SOTD 1.3.10

Despite the unlikely pairing between the mysterious jj and the soon-to-be-incarcerated Lil Wayne, "Ecstasy" proved to be one of the standout tracks of 2009. Rather surprisingly, jj's blissed-out, gauzy vocals mesh flawlessly with a dreamy reinterpretation of the "Lollipop" beat. In this time of web DJs and YouTube mash-up "artists," it was only a matter of time before someone combined the two songs into one love-drugged, cough-syruped entity. And here we have it...

jj vs. Lil Wayne: "Ecstasy (neo success mix)"
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(This Is Not A) Concert Review: Phish (12.31.09)

I have allowed myself a little a bit of time to process, categorize, calculate, and spit up my New Year's weekend in Miami, FL. I figured in interest of time, relevance, and archival efficiency, this write-up would serve better in the Muzjiks server space than simply floating around my spastic skull.

I was not the world's best concert-goer. I took in this foreign enviornement in stride--there was no need to seek out visual spectacle. I did not assume an active disposition. I did very little research into the band before the concert. I was largely unfamiliar with 95% of the band's catalog of over 200 songs. I was unfamiliar with the anecdotal aspect of the band's stage antics and live traditions. Here, I tried to be a sponge and allow myself to look for things that would potentially spark my interest in the Phish Kingdom, and make no mistake--it is a kingdom. To further understand my history of resistance to the band, I will provide a small anecdote of my own.

A typical weekday in university life calls for a host of mundane chores. However, an advantage to having a car on campus is that you constantly have access to a high quality box of speakers on wheels--a car, in my opinion, is the optimal place to test new and adventurous music. During one of these said mundane trips to the market or gas station or gym, I tested my Phish-head friend's musical bounds. The song I selected on my iPod on that chilly November day was Animal Collective's ingeniously ethereal and acidic "Bluish." Arguably one of my favorite songs of 2009, "Bluish" is a brilliantly constructed folk song with layers upon layers of Animal Collective's magic smear (also known as Panda Bear). The song played and my friend said to me, "it's trippy, but its too thick." I though about this for a good long while. I think I finally know what he means.

Animal Collective: "Bluish"

The music of Phish, in my experience, seems to "move" differently. It seems to progress in such a linear fashion that your (as in my...) mind never stops to consider individual stacks of sounds--points in a song where instrumentation and melody build to a combustible head. I believe this is where me and Phish miss. I listen again and again to "Bluish" and consider it's "thickness," and to me, this is what I love. That being said, I believe I am starting to understand these differences as simply auditory preference. There is something burrowed inside the ear of every Phish fan and every Dead Head. There is something that is tickled whenever those melodies dance across the mix, maybe we call it some kind of "nomadic auditory perception"--its something that constantly wants to chase those cascading strings of notes around the amphitheater. Juxtapose these fleeting phrases with exemplary pieces like the aforementioned "Bluish," Radiohead's brilliant "Up On The Ladder," and Menomena's mind shattering "My My." These songs simply move with a heavier stride. They seem to leave a crater sized footprint in my skull when I peel off my headphones at the conclusion of each track. Again, I don't know what intrinsic instinct the "weight" of our favorite music appeals to. What I do know is that it is a critical breaking point of your musical preference whether you like it or not.

Radiohead: "Up On The Ladder"
Menomena: "My My"

This was some kind of personal revelation this New Year's weekend. Great but perplexing way to start a new decade. Furthermore, this is not a concert review. A concert review would have highlighted the uniqueness of the set-list, the absurdity of the arena-ready light show, the immensity of the New Year's ball drop and numberous light-hearted stage antics. But again, this is not a concert review. This is a New Year's Revelation.

Mull it over and end it with a smile. The last song I listened to in the new millenium's first decade...

SOTD 1.2.10

While the rest of Band of Skulls' debut album is a heavy-hitting display of classic garage rock, "Honest" puts Emma Richardson's vocals at the forefront instead of those of frontman Russell Marsden to create a beautiful ballad. Besides being a nice change of pace in the context of Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, it serves as stripped-down setting where the raw talent of the Southampton trio can shine. The only other band that comes to mind that is creating this style of rock at this high of a caliber is The White Stripes, and that's some pretty good company to share. Having seen the band perform live as an opener for Metric, I can say that their gritty sound translates well into live performance, including the high-energy "heys" of "Hollywood Bowl" and the face-melting licks of "Fires" (which, for the record, is far better acoustic).

FUN FACT: Baby Darling Doll Face Honey was recorded at Radiohead's Courtyard Studios in Oxfordshire.

Band of Skulls: "Honest"
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Concert Review: Sugar Glyder (12.31.09)

Allow me to make a distinction here: There's a difference between a performance and a show. Any artist can perform music, for that merely requires playing one's songs in a live setting; however, it takes a special artist to put on a show. A show adds to the equation elements beyond just performance: charisma, entertainment value, connection with the audience, energy, and perceptible passion for one's work. By delineating the two, it becomes apparent that one can easily exist without the other, and indeed that it is often the case. How many times have we been to gigs where the band simply went through the motions, mechanically banging out their set and then robotically returning to the stage for a choreographed encore that includes stiff renditions of the crowd favorites? It's an all too common occurrence, especially in this day and age when TicketBastard has people shelling out 100 dollars* per ticket for a Nickelback concert that has the same terrible set list night after night. Amidst this dissatisfying majority of acts, though, there exists a class of bands who simultaneously dispel this malaise and revitalize the art of the live show—consider Sugar Glyder at the top of this class.

Taking place at the historic Double Door Inn in Charlotte, the house was packed with people dressed in red, black, and white for the themed New Year's Eve show. It wasn't until around ten minutes before midnight that the band began setting up their gear, as an enthusiastic crowd had been begging for more from openers Marco Pollo and Terminal Reynaldo since the music began at around 9:30. As the setting up took place, the energy in the air was palpable with the new decade only minutes away and the band everyone was there to see finally about to do their thing. Festive red Christmas lights wrapped around the keyboard in front of where Emily Aoyagi would stand, fittingly-colored red and silver glitter covered Chris Rigo's drum on stage left that would later allow for Sugar Glyder's signature effect, click-on lights were rigged so that Rigo could illuminate the stage with a timely stomp of his foot, and a bubble machine was hidden behind drummer Bobby Matthews. On top of this impressive attention to detail were several other holiday additions that added to the crowd's enjoyment of the show, including band-supplied party poppers, confetti, and bubbles to help ring in the new year. With all the sound checked and all the gear in place, there were about two minutes left before 2009 was no more.

A Daniel Howie-led countdown began with ten seconds remaining, and then when midnight struck, poppers popped, couples kissed, and congratulations were exchanged, but ultimately, what midnight signaled was that it was time for Sugar Glyder to rock. And rock they did. When the chatter of a roomful of people was broken by Rigo's guitar with the opening riff to "Poor Baby Zebra," Sugar Glyder took off, and they didn't land for another hour and a half. With Howie's awe-inducing vocals at the helm, the band flawlessly navigated the better part of their discography.

The highlights of the show were numerous. With an adept spin of the drumstick between his fingers, Rigo delivered blows to a glittered drum so that the percussion resonated in your chest as the sparkles danced along to "Zebra" and "Spoils of War (The OK Song)." An energized crowd came together to wail "Where did everybody go?!" for the climax of "Flowers," a moment that gave me goosebumps. Under the direction of Howie, the crowd also participated in vocal parts for both "Ice Cubes for Igloos" and the final number, "Spoils." That said, singling out highlights is actually quite misleading because, in truth, the entire concert was phenomenal.

As a special New Year's treat, the band also debuted two new songs. The first, entitled "One More Snow," has a Death Cab for Cutie feel to it that emanates from the subject matter and vocal line, albeit significantly more intense than Death Cab. The second song's title was not divulged, although what was discernible was the number's catchy synth melody that was reminiscent of MGMT and would make for quite the dance track if arranged in the front of the mix when it's recorded in the studio. This second piece in particular was encouraging in that it may foreshadow the direction in which Sugar Glyder is headed, continuing the progress that the band has been exhibiting since The Unsaid and the Obvious. (As a brief personal aside, I must say that I would rather see the band head in the more Radiohead experimental or Explosions in the Sky post-rock direction, as opposed to the MGMT/Passion Pit direction, but that's neither here nor there). Regardless, getting the chance to hear two new songs from the Charlotte quartet was definitely a welcome surprise.

Throughout the show, the recurring thought in my head was: Why isn't this band bigger? I'm talking huge. Their sound could easily fill a stadium. Daniel Howie's vocals are unlike anything I've ever heard before; they're powerful and gentle and impassioned and, above all, melodic. He has a knack for injecting catchy little vocal intricacies like the slides that appear in "Blackbeard Has Feelings Too" and really come to the forefront in the live setting. Moreover, akin to Emily Haines (of Metric and Broken Social Scene fame), Sugar Glyder has gift for creating unforgettable melodies. There isn't one Sugar Glyder tune that doesn't have an earworm that sticks with you, that you find yourself humming throughout the day, that you end up repeating so much in your head that you just can't wait to queue it up on the stereo. This is an overlooked and undervalued quality of songwriters; not just anyone can come up with a catchy riff or a memorable melody. Also of note is the fact that not only is Rigo's guitar playing extremely clean, but his guitar tone is utterly angelic, its ethereal quality enveloping the listener. The band simply has all the ingredients to become a massively popular act; they just have to be given the chance.

When it was all said and done, I was fortunate enough to meet Chris Rigo, Emily Aoyagi, and Daniel Howie, and let me tell you that these are some of the nicest people you'll meet. Despite all the commotion going on around us, each of them was genuinely interested in meeting me and truly happy that I had spent my New Year's with them. All too often, it's the good guys that finish last, but in the case of Sugar Glyder, with their unparalleled showmanship and stellar song crafting abilities, it ought to be the good guys—and girl!—finishing on top. I am honored to have been able to experience this show early this morning because what I witnessed in the wee hours of the new decade was a band destined for stardom.

*plus convenience charge and parking fee

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See also... "Sugar Glyder: Soaring Beyond the Limits"

SOTD 1.1.10

Approximately 97% of all Americans above the age of 16 are hungover today (NOTE: only an estimate). In order to combat the effects of last night's apeshit partying, Muzjiks prescribes some ambient music that will serve as auditory pillows for your ailing head. Crafting your ethereal soundscape is Three Month Sunset, a one-man ambient/post-rock/shoegaze act from Australia. Although Interpretations of Air is the outfit's only release, it's a phenomenal one, the clusterfuck of delay and reverb just washing over you in an orgy of sound. Put on your best pair of headphones and allow yourself to be whisked away...

Three Month Sunset: "Stom-Ache"
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SOTD 12.31.09

It's the last day of the 2000s. Tomorrow, a new decade begins. Who knows what that decade will hold? If Hollywood and the conspiracy theorists of the world had its say, this coming decade will only be two years long, for the apocalypse is nigh. Well, if that's case, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to go out with an appropriate soundtrack. So, for today's SOTD, I offer you a piece by minimalist composer Steve Reich. Working with phasing and tapes during the 1960s to create phenomenal musique concréte compositions like "Come Out," Reich has continually produced innovative music. This particular work, Different Trains, movement ii, utilizes a string quartet interpolated with audio clips of interviews done with European Holocaust victims and American train porters. What Reich hoped to accomplish was to shed light on the role of trains in history depending upon the time period, and in so doing, he evaluated the recordings for melodic aspects found in the interviewees' speech. With its subject matter lending the music an inherent gravity, the song also features a haunting atmosphere created by frantic screeching strings, howling sirens, and eerily manipulated audio clips. If the apocalypse comes in 2012, this is probably what it's going to sound like...

Steve Reich: Different Trains, Europe During the War (mvt ii)
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SOTD 12.30.09

Once a member of the now-defunct indie pop band Harlem Shakes, ARMS is the solo moniker of Todd Goldstein. His debut, Kids Aflame, is a beautiful lo-fi record with impassioned lyrics delivered in Goldstein's rather rough-around-the-edges vocal style; however, this is by no means a knock against ARMS, but instead a quality that jives perfectly with the subject matter and overall feel of the album. Containing one of my favorite lyrics of all time is the second track off the album, "Whirring," which muses,

I wrote down all my thoughts
to see what I thought, I gave it a shot
and there thousands of spiraling knots.

Although Harlem Shakes' jangly pop is no more, the indie community is lucky that ARMS will continue to create lovely—superior—music.

ARMS: "Whirring"
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You and Your Effects: Quelling Our Tongue Tied Rivalries

I think that we are going to get through this. Maybe the first year of the Obama administration didn't go exactly as we planned. Healthcare may be less than fixed, Iran may be less than stable, and Sarah Palin may be less than dead but ye have little faith. I beg you, have a little faith in folk music.

Amidst the shit-storm that has been the last 3 years in this country, real American culture, I believe, has prevailed. Folk music is part of the popular conscience once again with the brilliance and omnipotence of Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver along with a resurgent love for the music of Elliot Smith and Nick Drake. Residing in North Carolina for the better part of the last three years, I have been privileged to the the landscapes these artists long to croon about-- they are as breathtaking as the melodies churning through your headphones. I have heard the story of the broken American south and it is sublime in its ability to both devastate and inspire. That American story is where we start in our introduction to You and Your Effects. A five piece band formed in early 2008 and centrally located in Davidson, NC, You and Your Effects effectively praise the beauties of these very same landscapes and the intricacies of the domestic. Lushly arranged but sparsely polished, authenticity shines through with every finger-picked note and every fluted breath. Songs such as "Skylight" are reminiscent of Nick Drake's beloved Pink Moon LP while "Fall" and "Red Swan" seem to be our answer to Ireand's The Swell Season.

YAYE has already experienced well deserved publicity within the state of North Carolina. NC State's student radio station, WKNC 88.1, named YAYE "the best band you may not have hear of...yet." The band will also being returning to play live shows in the spring in and around Davidson after a self-described period of diaspora. They have more than handful of tracks curretly streaming on their MySpace and their debut album, Wire Sharks, is on sale at Raleigh's very own School Kids Records. You and Your Effects is...

Jon Springfield- guitar, vocals, violin, banjo, accordion, piano
Michael Mellody- guitar, vocals
Lexi Valauri-Orton- flute, vocals
James Johnson- bass
Mark Crowley- drums

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Don't worry, the kids are alright.