i(heart)music

Monday is the last day to enter to win Hind Hind Legs, the newest album from The Lovely Feathers. So:

1) Click here to read more about the album;
2) Download "Rod Stewart" if you need further convincing of how great the album is; and
3) Enter to the contest by e-mailing me (preferably with a nice pun in the subject line).

It's as easy as that. So enter!

And as a bonus...

Saturday is, of course, synonymous with clubbing (or so I'm told). As such, here's a song that sounds like it could been filling the floors of the hippest clubs everywhere: Munk's "Kick Out The Chairs", featuring none other than James (LCD Soundsystem, DFA) Murphy. The album which the song is from, Aperitivo, isn't really that great -- the duo comprising Munk, Mathias Modica and Jonas Imbery, head up German dance label Gomma, and too much of the album sounds like stereotypical Eurotrash dance music -- but that one song is easily the equal of anything Murphy, in any of his guises, has done.

As I said when I featured He Poos Clouds last week, Final Fantasy is one of the most interesting and innovative artists making music today. Songs like "This Lamb Sells Condos" and "Many Lives --> 49 MP" prove that Owen Pallett has an extremely unique voice, and if the early response to the album is any indication, he's very soon going to be known as much more than "the violinist who's worked with Arcade Fire". Pallett was nice enough to answer a few questions by e-mail.

ihm: Your songs tend to mix together everyday things with more fantastical ideas and concepts. Do you do this because of any literary background, or is it an outgrowth of your love of video games? Or is it something else entirely?

Owen Pallett: I'm not sure. If I could say things simply, I would. I love the way Steve Kado writes songs, in the sloganeering style. But I do a lot of cryptic crosswords, so it's hard for me to just say things without a bunch of descriptors. But hey! I can't resist. Here's my attempt at summarizing He Poos Clouds in 10 sentences.

Read the rest of the interview after the jump...

They may not sound anything alike, but it seems appropriate to discuss the new albums from The Flaming Lips and Built To Spill at the same time. Both are, after all, indie rock icons, and a nice quirk of fate has meant that both released have released albums within the last month.



To be completely honest, I've never heard Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (or, more precisely, I've never owned it, so I've never heard it in its entirety in one sitting, which basically amounts to never having properly heard it; ). As such, I went into into At War With The Mystics without many of the preconceptions that seems to have coloured the judgements, both positive and negative, of a large number of critics.

Bear that in mind, then, when I say that At War With The Mystics goes away from the band's usual symphonic pop sound towards something with a slightly harder edge. While first single/album opener "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" may fit in with the Lips' sound as defined over their last few albums, tracks like "Free Radicals and "The W.A.N.D." (available on the band's Myspace) are fairly representative of this album as a whole. They're still poppy, but -- especially in the former's case -- but much, much funkier, at least to the extent that Wayne Coyne could ever be described that way. It makes for a solid-but-unspectacular album -- which, at this stage in The Flaming Lips' twenty-year career, is about all you could ask from the band.



You could probably say the same thing about You In Reverse. The difference, however, is that Built To Spill sounds pretty much as they've always sounded, and this is pretty much what you'd expect from an album by them -- lengthy guitar solos, interspersed occasionally with Doug Martsch's thin-sounding vocals. After a while, you start to lose track of whether you're in the middle of the solo in "Conventional Wisdom" (available on Built To Spill's Myspace, along with "Goin' Against Your Mind") or "Liar" or "The Wait".

As both Chromewaves and So Much Silence have noted (the latter particularly eloquently), however, this isn't a bad thing. While You In Reverse may not break any new ground, it's still an enjoyable listen. Even if you're not usually a fan of guitar solos, there's something about the way Martsch (and his other two guitarists) do it that makes it easy to get caught up in them, to the extent that they're comforting in their own way. Obviously, it's not going to make Built To Spill the hottest thing, or probably even raise their stature in indie-dom any further than it's already gone...but if you want consistency and comfort, this is your band, and this is your album.

I don't understand why You Say Party! We Say Die! aren't bigger than they are. They have a fun name, great album (Hit The Floor!), an energetic stage show and the one thing guaranteed to attract male fans: an attractive lead singer, in frontwoman Becky Ninkovic.

It's probably safe to assume that it's not their politics, since it's hard to hear them over the shouted vocals and the pounding keyboards -- and, in any case, being vaguely left-leaning has thankfully never hurt a band in the world of indie rock. It's obviously not their music, since, as the songs below from the band's Radio 3 session earlier this year show, YSP!WSD! do the whole dance-punk thing quite well, sounding like a really invigorated, overcaffeinated version of Metric. This leaves, of course, only one possibility...

Some people just don't like exclamation points.


1. What's The Hold-Up?
2. Apocalypse Meow
3. Stockholm Syndrome, Parts 1 and 2
4. Love In The New Millennium
5. Midnight Snack
6. Don't Wait Up
7. The Gap (Between The Rich and The Poor

Enjoy!

Given that I've spoken at length about both Editors and Voxtrot, neither band really needs further introduction here. Their March KEXP sessions (from here and here, respectively) both showcase everything that's good about each band, so it only seems right to post the songs from both sessions for everyone to enjoy.



First off, Editors, whose 2005 album The Back Room was about as close to Joy Division as you can get without being Interpol, yet, somehow, still enjoyable to listen to.

1. All Sparks
2. Bullets
3. Fingers In The Factories
4. Lights
5. Munich



As for Voxtrot, they have a pair of excellent EPs under their belts (both of which can be purchased from Sonic Unyon), and it seems highly likely that whenever they get around to releasing a full-length, it'll be just as great a mixture of Beatlesque harmonies and angular dance-punk.

1. Heaven
2. Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives
3. Rise Up In The Dirt
4. Soft And Warm

Enjoy!

For today's first post, a pair of EPs that hint at much better things to come from their creators.



Montreal's The Call Up sound as English as they look in the photo above, but that doesn't mean the three songs on their EP (which can be purchased here) don't show a great deal of promise. Songs like "You Better Send Your Angels Now" and "No Big Deal" don't really go beyond Interpol-meets-Gang of Four musically, and the vocals sound vaguely British (without being too geographically specific), but they mimic the source material so well that it seems like it's only a matter of time before the band develops a voice of their own, and make themselves much more interesting in the process.



Another Montreal artist worthy of note -- though one with absolutely nothing in common with The Call Up -- is JF Robitaille. His new EP, The Blood In My Body, is an example of folk at its finest. He can switch from quick, country-inflected tunes, like "New York", to quieter, more sombre moments (see "Morning After Morning") without making the transition sound jarring. Best of all, he covers Leonard Cohen (with "Famous Blue Raincoat") and not only does Robitaille not embarrass himself, he's able to turn the song into his own, managing to make someone else's work sit comfortably alongside his own compositions. It's an excellent way to end the album -- which is only fitting, since it's an excellent EP, too.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for groups that sound like the titular band from Josie & The Pussycats, but I can't understand why The Eames Era aren't rididulously huge right now. The band's most recent release, Double Dutch, is an amazing blend of power pop and garage rock. Its twelve songs clock in at an economical thirty-four minutes, and there's not a moment that goes by where the band doesn't sound perfectly catchy. Frontwoman Ashlin Phillips has a charming voice, mixing just the right measures of sweet and sneering, while the band behind her provides her with melodies that get stuck in your head within moments of their opening chords.

There's not a single song here that couldn't dominate every radio station in a perfect universe. "Year Of The Waitress"..."Go To Sleep"..."Talk Talk: every single one of them sounds like the ideal form of the pop song, right up until you hear whatever tune comes next. Admittedly, in a world where acts like The Shins and The New Pornographers still have trouble getting the "popular" part of "pop music", it's hard to imagine The Eames Era have a chance, but Double Dutch makes you believe they deserve to be one of the biggest bands in the world.

...Jane F., Sophie W., Tom D. and Paul G. all win copies of Final Fantasy's new album, He Poos Clouds, weeks before it's available in stores. Thanks to everyone who entered!



This week's feature is on Hind Hind Legs, from Montreal's best new pop band, The Lovely Feathers. Click here to read a review of the album, and then e-mail us to enter to win a copy!

The Lovely Feathers, Hind Hind Legs (Equator)

WHO...

Montreal quintet who pick up where The Unicorns left off.

DISCOGRAPHY...

My Best Friend Daniel (Love Your Diary, 2004)
Hind Hind Legs (Equator, 2006)

IN A NUTSHELL...

The Lovely Feathers' second album doesn't quite match their phenomenally great live show...but it's not too far off, either.

THE STORY...

Live, The Lovely Feathers are a revelation. They're a musical hurricane, a force of pop nature with co-frontmen whose charisma is enough to make you believe you're witnessing one of the best bands in the world at that moment. It's no insult to the band, then, to say that Hind Hind Legs doesn't quite live up to that precedent.

Then again, it's hard to imagine what could. The band would've had to come up with one of the best albums of all time if they wanted to match their live show, and, after being together for approximately two years, they haven't quite matured to that stage yet.

Which isn't to say that they won't achieve that level of maturity very soon. Indeed, The Lovely Feathers' second album suggests that while Islands may have inherited members from The Unicorns, it's the Feathers who have inherited that band's playful, punkish pop sound. Songs like "Pope John Paul" and "I Really Like You" are full of the same frantic energy, and you can almost hear the band ricocheting around the stage as they may music that combines Beatlesque pop with the Spirit of '77.

Admittedly, the comparison between The Lovely Feathers and The Unicorns breaks down when you look at the lyrics and the vocals. Where the latter band mined the tension between band members for lyrics full of double meanings and interplay between vocalists, Feathers co-frontmen Mark Kupfert and Richard Yanofsky present a much more unified front, often singing the same lyrics simultaneously. Then again, when the duo sing "If its just my body you want, my body you want; then come on and tell me / If you want me for my body, for my body, for my body" on "Rod Stewart", they give Hind Hind Legs its own unique charms. Similarly, a line like "Let's go outside, put the car in drive, to the cornfield's side / Then we'll take off our pants, kiss the corn and dance", in "The Only Appalachian Cornfield", makes it clear that The Lovely Feathers don't just play music, they attack it with a zeal and a joy that few bands can match.

It's those two qualities that make The Lovely Feathers so special, both on stage and on disc. The band's sophomore outing may not be enough to make you forget about the former, but it's good enough to make you convinced that they're just a few steps away from harnessing that energy, and when that day comes they'll be absolutely unstoppable. In the meantime, however, Hind Hind Legs is more than enough to make the wait an immensely pleasant one.

Here's something new: I'm not going to say that Ryder Havdale, the man behind Mohawk Lodge, is a transcendent, mind-blowingly great artist. I won't say that his band's most recent album, Rare Birds (which you can buy right here), is one of the best of the year (partly because it's from 2004, but also because it's not). In fact, this will be a fairly hyperbole-free recommendation.

This is because Mohawk Lodge don't make music that lends itself well to hyperbole. Like, say, Hayden or Bonnie "Prince" Billy, the band makes straightforward, country-ish folk that just happens to be incredibly, rivetingly listenable. Songs like "Making Music", "Traitors and Knives" and "TV Above" won't blow you away, but, at the same time, they'll stick with you in a way that only songs from acts like this can. That may not be the most enthusiastic recommendation or the highest praise imaginable, but, when it comes to Mohawk Lodge, it seems like truth is the best way to go.

Thank you to everyone for their wonderful patience. To make it up, here's a whole bunch of musical goodness.



I'd try to connect these songs to Final Fantasy -- he is, after all, the subject of this week's contest -- but it somehow seems wrong. Owen Pallett may be a sometime-member of Arcade Fire, but he certainly wasn't there when the band did a KCRW session in January of last year. Nonetheless, it is tangentially Pallett-related...and, of course, it features some excellent songs from Arcade Fire.

1. Wake Up
2. Neighbourhood #4 (7 Kettles)
3. Vampire / Forest Fire
4. Intervention
5. Born On A Train
6. In The Backseat

So download the songs, check out the contest, and enter to win a copy of He Poos Clouds! And don't forget...I'm a sucker for a good pun in a subject line.

And as a bonus...



Jason Collett's KEXP session from almost exactly two years ago is an excellent introduction to the Broken Social Scene member's solo work. He's much more country-inflected than his bandmates, but, as these four songs show, he's still poppy enough to be enjoyable. The session features a pair of songs from Motor Motel Love Songs, one song from last year's Idols of Exile and an unreleased track, titled (confusingly), "Idols of Exile". Listen and enjoy!

1. Bitter Beauty
2. Blue Sky
3. Idols of Exile
4. We All Lose One Another



A few months ago, I said that People In Planes' debut EP gave every reason to believe that their debut, As Far As The Eye Can See... would be one of the year's better albums. Now that the full-length is actually out, however, it's looking like the self-titled EP was a fluke, with all the songs worth hearing from the band and none of the filler plaguing As Far As The Eye Can See... About the only thing that hasn't changed, however, is this: "If You Talk Too Much (My Head Will Explode)" is still a great rock song. Pity they couldn't have built on it.



Lastly, I can't figure out why I don't like Danko Jones. I actually enjoy Andrew W.K., and I spoke a few months ago about how much I love The Darkness. Jones' schtick is pretty much the same thing -- he has one love, baby, and it's RAWK!!! -- but, for whatever reason, on Sleep Is The Enemy he just can't seem to rise sounding absolutely absurd.

Then again, sometimes stupid rock can be fun, and given that it's a beautiful spring weekend, sometimes that's all you need. With that in mind, then, here are two songs from the album that are absolutely ridiculous...but still, in some bizarre way, kind of fun: "She's Drugs" (easily the best song Andrew W.K. never wrote) and the gloriously over-the-top "First Date", which contains the line "Let's do it on the first date".

Sorry about the downtime, everyone. It turns out that doubling your visitors in a month wreaks havoc on your bandwidth. I'm working to get the problem solved, but posting and site access may be a little spotty until Monday. A plethora of MP3s when everything is sorted out, but in the meantime, why not check out our Final Fantasy contest if you haven't already?

For today's post, a pair of bands the rest of the world discovered months ago but that I'm only discovering now. Oddly enough, they're also both male-female duos who could never be confused with shills for Coke.



In my defence, even though Giant Drag's Hearts and Unicorns came out last year, it wasn't officially released north of the border until just a few weeks ago.

As unfortunate as the wait was, however, the important thing -- at least with albums as good as Hearts and Unicorns -- is that it's finally available as something other than an import. Somehow, Annie Hardy's deadpan wail on songs like "My Dick Sux" and "Kevin Is Gay" (both available on Giant Drag's Myspace, along with "Wicked Game") is made even better with the knowledge it doesn't cost some ridiculously exorbitant amount.

Then again, it's hard to put a price on tracks like "You Fuck Like My Dad" (sorry -- "YFLMD") and "This Isn't It" (again, on their Myspace). Hardy's sneering vocals, coupled with irresistable riffs and Micah Calabrese's excellent drumming, make those two songs among the best musical putdowns you're likely to hear. It's not often that misanthropy makes for a riveting listen, but that's certainly the case with Hearts and Unicorns.



As far as Mates of State go, however, there's really no reason why I'd never heard Bring It Back before today. Part of it, I suppose, could be put down to the sheer volume of good music being produced, but that's no excuse. Bring It Back is an amazing joyful pop album; songs like "Fraud In The '80s" (currently streaming on Mates of State's Myspace) and "So Many Ways are the musical equivalent of an exuberant romp through a field on a beautiful spring day.

Bring It Back's highpoint, however, has got to be "Running Out". The song starts out as a fairly simple ballad, before turning into a gloriously grandiose epic, complete with a choir doing the chorus over and over again. Its emotional weight provides a nice counterweight to the sunny pop that pervades the rest of the album, and by combining the two ends of the spectrum so well, Mates of State have created one of the best pop albums of the year.

Astonishingly, the best comparision to make when talking about The Paper Cranes is to Voxtrot. In no way is this suggesting that one is influencing or ripping off the other (neither is old or established enough for that), and the fact that both bands specialize in catchy, danceable pop hardly puts them in a unique category. Nonetheless, one listen to the Veins EP makes it hard not to put The Cranes alongside Voxtrot when talking about bands to watch.

In fact, one listen to Veins (which is both The Cranes' debut album and the maiden release from Unfamiliar, the new label from blogger Are You Familiar?) makes it easy to believe that The Paper Cranes are even better, by simple virtue of the fact their vocals are more interesting. While songs like "I'll Love You 'Till My Veins Explode" and "Milkrun" may have melodies that are impossible to shake from your head, they also have a lead singer, Ryan McCullagh, whose voice is just yelpy enough to stand out, but not so much that you want to grab him by the throat to make him stop. It's fun, unforgettable music, and it suggests that both The Paper Cranes and Unfamiliar are a band and a label to watch.

Up until a few days ago, I would've described Meligrove Band's third album, Planets Conspire, as the work of a band heavily indebted to The Beatles. After all, as the four songs on their Myspace attest, the band has the whole catchy melodies/beautiful harmonies thing down pat. Songs like "Our Love Will Make The World Go Round" and "Ages and Stages" essentially the kind of songs that would've fit right in on Rubber Soul or Revolver.

So why not make the distinction? Because one listen to the band's CBC session shows that while the band owes a debt to The Beatles, it doesn't define their sound entirely. The seven songs from that set -- which you can download right here (unless there's a problem with the .zip, in which case I'll upload the individual songs) -- showcase a punkier, more urgent side to the band. The harmonies and the melodies are still catchy, but they're a lot more unpolished, giving Meligrove Band an edge that's not present on their third album. Ultimately, of course, it comes down to a matter of personal preference, whether you prefer the polish of their studio work or the punkish nature of their live stuff. Regardless of which side you fall on, however, it's pretty obvious that Meligrove band have made a winning album with Planets Conspire (which is a lot more than could be said about their last album).

Info and a link to buy after the jump...