The second coolest Bird I know

Larry Bird is the first. We can argue about that later.

 

 Indie rock gets a bad rap…and for good reason. Most of it is crap. Mmm, 95% if you’re keeping track. “Hey look at us, we recorded this ourselves and it sounds like garbage and rips off the Velvet Underground a lot.” Listen to a Pavement record and you’ll understand where I’m coming from. Actually, skip that. It’s not worth your time. But fear not, there are some real classy indie acts that are both praised by their vest-wearing counterparts and are actually pretty damn good. Or, in this case, freaking rule.

 Andrew Bird has found a perfect balance in inconsistency. His gentle voice and world-class whistling, for some reason, seem to mesh perfectly with any random instrument he comes across. His harmonies are frustratingly, simply complex; his arrangements perfectly constructed. Record to record, he tries his hand at the un-ordinary, and it usually works. Select “singles” like “Heretics” and “Plasticities” showcase Bird’s uncanny talent for creating genuine hit songs in a much truer medium. 

 Check out Bird’s latest full-length releases, Armchair Apocrypha, for the man’s finest record to date.

 -Billy Yost

Trick Question: Lemmy IS God…idiot

In a list of heavy rock acts that consistently get the shaft, Lemmy and the like will probably not appear on the list…because they’re a heavy rock act that consistently gets the shaft. Motorhead has always been a meeting ground for the punks and the metalheads, the Brits and the Yanks, the heavies and the heavy-wannabes. You may not like metal, but you’ve got to love Motorhead. Unless you’re an idiot.

Video: Motorhead performing on the long-discontinued “Young Ones”

- Billy Yost 

Get hooked on Hooks

It’s difficult to be familiar with the local music scene and not know the name We All Have Hooks For Hands. They’re undeniable. But, this post is not about the quality of their music, nor is it a review of their 2007 album The Pretender. This post was created to alert the dear readers of a phenomenon that occurs once in a blue moon… a Hooks show in Vermillion. Alas, the nine eccentric members of We All Have Hooks For Hands have decided to give a little love to their USD fans by having a show at Maya Jane’s this Friday the 29th at 7:00pm. Given the raw energy and stage presence that comes with a live Hooks show, I recommend that everybody and their mamas get down to Maya Jane’s on Friday. Shows in Vermillion have a history of being unexpectedly 21+, so minors beware. To the rest, get off your butts, get on your feet, get to Maya Jane’s, and get hooked on Hooks.

- Tom Crouse 

Hey Fibonacci, check this sequence!

First off, let me begin with an apology. The title for this entry is awful. It does, however, bring you (the avid online reader) into the right state of mind. Forget that 800-year-old goofy mathematician and his spiraling number ratios, and focus some attention on the rising Indie starlet group The Helio Sequence. Get it? Fibonacci Sequence/Helio Sequence? Still pretty bad.

  Let not my hostility toward ancient mathematical laws fool you, The Helio Sequence move in a strangely precise pattern. It could just be an infantile correlation in my mind that links any quasi-electronic group with algebra, but I can’t help conjuring images of TI-83 calculators and quantum mechanics when listening to the jams of The Helio Sequence. Let’s examine their 2004 release Love and Distance. First off, Harmonicas? Do they even have a place in modern music? Judging by my heartbeat when the first (and quite originally titled) track Harmonica Song hit my play list, I’d say there is still some power to be milked from the old mouth harp. I don’t know whether to embrace the electronic grooves or move like an aging jazz-ster on Bourbon Street. Needless to say, the combination of both genres is delicious. Then comes Repeater. I never thought I would love a song named Repeater as much as I did when I was a massive Fugazi-head, but our Helio Sequence has proved me wrong. Call me an over-produced-indie-electro-fan all you want, Repeater showcases a raw mastery of musical fluency. These guys are good. The rest of Love and Distance clips along wonderfully, floating over standout tracks like Everyone Needs Everyone and Blood Bleeds before launching into the surreal world of So Stop! Imagine being a delicate robot fetus, floating tenderly in the artificial womb of your mechanical mother; nothing in the world matters, and the weightless atmosphere of mama’s android placenta provides everything to you. That is So Stop! to a T.

  In this far from comprehensive band review, I have highlighted only the album Love and Distance. These Indie-electro masters have also crafted the LP’s Young Effectuals, Com Plex, and 2008’s Keep Your Eyes Ahead. The Helio Sequence are about to embark on an international tour, keeping in stride with the success of most other Sub-Pop groups. My cliché band review conclusion goes as such: The Helio Sequence sound like The Unicorns if they instituted a Mercury Program in the 8-bit Monster school of music. Go check ‘em!

Tom Crouse 

 

Their Myspace, currently filled entirely with Keep Your Eyes Ahead tracks:

http://www.myspace.com/theheliosequence

 

RIYL: Being recommended to things…

Two words (combined into one word): TuneGlue. 

This new online “music map” serves as one of the most complete music suggestion sites on the web. It seems that places like www.pandora.com have opened the floodgates for music recommendation. TuneGlue is a powerhouse of RIYL information, combining knowledge from both Amazon’s and LastFM’s relationship data. And it’s oh so easy to use! 1. Think of an artist you like. 2. Type that artist in TuneGlue’s search bar. 3. Watch as a little “pod” appears. 4. Click on the “pod” and hit expand. 5. Watch as a flurry of similar artists erupt in all directions from your original search. 6. Lather, rinse, and repeat. Enjoy!    

BTW, here’s the address: http://clients.onyro.com/tuneglue/     

The Rumble Strips or: Put Your Shoulders Into It!

Here in the States, the phrase ‘rumble strips’ is tagged with a connotation of monotony and highway hypnosis. It conjures images of annoying little bumps that prevent over-exhausted Americans from driving their motor vehicles into a ditch. Rumble strips produce a sound that no one wants to hear when behind the wheel. In Tavistock, England, however, The Rumble Strips are producing sounds that everyone can get behind. Ambiguously formed from a long-lasting friendship between five English dudes, The Rumble Strips have no real inception date. Their formula for success combines one part Captain Beefheart appreciation, two parts expert musicianship, a dollop of ska sensibilities, and a splash of lo-fi simplicity.

  Upon the first listening 2007’s Girls and Weather, one finds a pleasant instrumental surprise. Horns! And how refreshing they seem! The horn section, long since bastardized by the ever-stagnant ska genre, finds itself full of life in the hands of The Rumble Strips. The brass melody bursting inside your eardrums during the track Alarm Clock bears testament to their obvious horn section mastery. As a song that is primarily about breaking an alarm clock and sleeping in, it serves as an ironically powerful motivator for getting up and seizing the day. Enter: Girls and Boys in Love. What is that you say, Rumble Strips? A poppy piano-riff driven piece? I’ll give it a listen! Heck*, I’ll even dance like a southern Baptist minister extracting Lucifer from his congregation. Devil, be gone! At this point, as I am running out of space and clever phrases, I will simply mention the tracks Time and Clouds as other standouts from the album.

  Fresh off their debut release of Girls and Weather on September 10 of 2007, The Rumble Strips are just finishing the tail end of a European tour with Mark Ronson. There is no rumor yet of a stateside tour, but with enough luck (and support) maybe we could find ourselves with one more set of Rumble Strips on the American interstate system!

 Tom Crouse

 

Sample the Rumble Strips’ tunes on their Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/rumblestripsuk

 

Or check out the awesome video for Alarm Clock here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qp4C-54u3o8

 

*A blogger’s self-censorship. 

Oh No! A Music Review! Oh My!

Welcome to a world of trendy tunes, happy hippies, and catchy vocals. Welcome to the world of Oh No! Oh My!

 These four home schooled Austin, TX natives have been rocking a myriad of instruments since the ripe young age of fourteen. And let me just say, that myriad is one of the most impressive myriads I have seen in a while. According to the group’s Myspace profile, not one member plays less than ten instruments. That is, of course, assuming you count “hand claps” as an instrument. Now, I know what you are thinking: “Tom, aren’t bands from Texas supposed to huff in empty moonshine bottles and pluck at un-tuned banjos?” The answer is no. That stereotype is offensive and outdated. Still pretty funny, though.

  Down to business: the music of Oh No! Oh My! And what glorious music it is! Their title, at once frightening and eccentric, proves to be a refreshing cross-section of the band’s sound. My ears were swimming in a pool of poppy riffs and light-hearted voices. Within seconds of hearing the track “The Party Punch” I was tapping my toes with the excitement of a young boy in summertime, with the rest of my body following suit in no short order. From the moment I heard the initial chords, I knew it was only a matter of time before I was swept to a land of merriment and child-like wonder. And the choruses, Oh My! The Choruses! They’ll be stuck in your head like a tumor… a tumor made of the sweetest German hard-candies. I considered having a surgery to remove the melody of “Walk in the Park” from my mind. Oh No! Tom, that visual was too gross. Maybe it was, but the point still stands, Oh No! Oh My! will having you grooving like the un-self-conscience child you once were.

  Lyrically, these boys make no attempt to explore the human soul, or berate ex-lovers, or (generic popular topic here). To quote, “Nice day for a walk in the dark, nice day for a drive-by shooting, this world has a warm, sunny heart.” I would otherwise have plenty else to say here, but I believe that that lyric serves itself and all others as an accurate description of Oh No! Oh My!

  Still fresh from the release of their self-titled full-length album on July 11 of 2006, Oh No! Oh My! has recently created an EP entitled Between the Devil and the Sea. Having shared the stage with Au Revior Simone in a cross-country tour earlier this fall, the group can only be looking up with two fine albums under their belt. Playing with the likes of The Flaming Lips, Of Montreal, Wilco, and Death Cab For Cutie doesn’t hurt either. Oh Yes! This reviewer is pleased. Oh Dear! This music is excellent. Oh No! Oh My! is something worth checking out.

 Tom Crouse

 

For some sample tunes, check out the band’s Myspace here:

http://www.myspace.com/ohnoohmyband

 For Information on shows and merchandise, check out Oh No! Oh My!’s official site here:

http://www.ohnoohmy.com/ 

 

The Dykeenies are giant people who live far, far away…

Those of us who grew up in eccentric middle-class households were probably exposed to the plethora of fantastical children’s movies that were made in the 80’s; the likes of which included films such as The Labyrinth,The Never Ending Story, and (everyone’s favorite tiny-people-laden masterpiece) Willow. The latter movie, which introduced a race of comparatively giant-people known as Daikinis, was the source of inspiration for the misspelled title of OffBeats’ newest indie interest: The Dykeenies.

As many savvy podsters already know, a next-gen wave of the “Scottish Invasion” hit American shores earlier this spring. The poster-children of said movement were The Fratellis, whose dance-hit “Flathead” was the centerpiece of one of iPod’s hippest commercials to date. As our eyes began to look more toward Europe for trendy jams, so were bred many new European Pop Groups. Queue, The Dykeenies.

First Things First: The music of The Dykeenies. I’ll be the first to admit that it is poppy. This group constitutes a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. While not as danceable (or popular) as their country-mates The Fratellis, their music is equally as infectious. Their full-length album Nothing Means Everything starts off with the slap-in-the-face vocal intro of “The Panic”, a dance-worthy tune that warrants more than a few toe-taps. This track sounds surprisingly modern and upbeat in comparison to the songs that follow. By the time we get to the beginning of “Pick You Up”, you’ll swear you’re listening to the soundtrack of the movie this group is named after. It is true, “Pick You Up” utilizes the long dead sound of synthesizers to create an atmosphere unheard of since Yes was playing music. But something is different. It is as if this track was brewed in the 80’s, and left to stew in a cedar barrel until it was unleashed in 2007 as a “vintage taste.” And let me just say, it doesn’t take a fine palette to appreciate what The Dykeenies have brewed. Lo and Behold! When the song “New Ideas” takes over your stereo, you’ll be flooded with the urge to drum, dance, and sing all at once. P.S. good luck trying to get its chorus out of your head.

  The Dykeenies have made a substantial impact on the scene since the release of Nothing Means Everything on September 17, 2007. This Scottish group, Having toured with such famous acts as The Horrors, The Fratellis and The Maccabees, is well on its to mainstream popularity. Not bad for such a young group.

The verdict: The Dykeenies are rockin’. They are well worth a listen, a dance, and perhaps even an air guitar solo. They are further proof that Europeans are fast re-establishing themselves as some of the best indie songwriters in the world.

Tom Crouse

 

Check out some sample tracks on Myspace:

www.myspace.com/gofindthedykeenies

 Or read a bio at their official site:

www.thedykeenies.com