Shock Mountain

Three albums from Washington-based experimental pop band Parenthetical Girls

(((GRRRLS)))

Safe As Houses

Entanglements

As stated before, Parenthetical Girls is a Washington-based experimental pop band. In all honesty, I really only stated listening to them because one of my favorite groups, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, covered their song “Love Connection” off of the Parenthetical Girls album (((GRRRLS))). Once I actually decided to give the original group a chance, however, my efforts were well rewarded. This album, while definitely not outlandish and borderline unlistenable, is not your typical pop album. Sure, the instrumentation is gorgeous and singer Zac Pennington (while sounding a little androgynous at times) sings beautiful stories in a haunting, quivering voice, this is more Xiu Xiu than Weezer. In fact, the best comparison to the sound of Parenthetical Girls is Xiu Xiu with a little more bells and a lot less freakouts. In fact, the song “I Broke Up (SJ)” off of Knife Play is a very good comparison, minus the parts of the song where Jamie Stewart freaks out and yells. Anyway, I’ve namedropped two really good experimental pop acts in this, and if the sheer weight carried by dropping those names doesn’t convince you to check these albums out, it’s out of my power.

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-McKenna

Two albums from My Heart To Joy, previously known as My Heart To Joy At The Same Tone.

Seasons in Verse

Heavenly Bodies

My Heart To Joy started out as a rough-around-the-edges punk band that reminded me of a less spastic Transistor Transistor. Upon the release of Seasons in Verse, however, My Heart To Joy evolved into a much cleaner band similar to Snowing, Castevet, or Street Smart Cyclist. Math-tinged punk rock played in a style similar to Braid has given these guys a surprising amount of fame which definitely allowed them to pick up label support and release a very-professionally done album. So far, Seasons in Verse has picked up a large amount of internet hype. This makes me really happy after getting Heavenly Bodies very soon after it came out and seeing how criminally unrecognized this band was at the time. I can only hope that their next album takes the band in an even more promising direction and they can tour around the Ohio region at some point soon.

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-McKenna

I’m not claiming to be Professor Twee or anything like that, and I know I throw the word around quite liberally, but this release by a man named Harvey Williams seems to embody the essence of twee music. Fuzzy, spacey instruments played under equally fuzzy vocals make this album sound like something made recently, instead of back in the early 90’s. I know modern lo-fi rock tends to polarize people, but this album is similar to modern lo-fi and totally different from it at the same time. For one, the vocals are relatively clear kind of incredibly depressing. Songs like “Horseriding” and “I’m In Love With A Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist” mash together depressing lyrics, vocal pop delivery, and spaced out instrumentals to create something that you can dance to while shoegazing. It gives off a feel not entirely dissimilar to early Casiotone For The Painfully Alone with a band instead of just synths and keys. Basically, these songs are kind of perfect for Ohio Octobers. It starts getting chilly, so you wrap yourself up really tight (because you’re overreacting at first, of course) and walk to your classes while stepping on dead leaves. There’s not much other pretty stuff to look at, so you just look at your feet and walk. You walk and walk and walk until you finally get to where you’re going, at which point you take your headphones off and have to hear the ugly city noises flood back again and you wish you never had to go inside. I personally feel like this is a perfect album to do that to, just try not to get lost or anything.

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-McKenna

P.S. When I went to get a link to buy the album, one of the items in the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” section was 24 Hour Revenge Therapy by Jawbreaker, which is the second best Jawbreaker album (after Bivouac, of course) and probably one of my Top 10 albums. It made me happy.

Sorry, I couldn’t find decent sized art for this album, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get it. Basically, this is twee. A sister and a brother from California playing really twee music together. Sometimes they play on 5-4-3-2-Fun! and If You Make It.

I was actually listening to this album while I was doing my Chem 121 homework a few days ago, and it make the experience so much better, which is impressive considering my level of hate towards chemistry. Also, at the time, I was making a mix CD for a friend who went off to college, and I was really tempted to just send her this album. This is the kind of music that makes you feel happy even when it’s bad weather outside just because it’s so happy and that happiness transfers over to everything else in the world and everything in the world is alright and happy and sunny and beautiful and you feel like you can walk all day long through the softest grass in your old pair of jeans you cut off at just above the knees and your favorite t-shirt and think of someone you love and you always feel like you’re just outside their house or about to see them and it’s perfect and you want to die in that moment and live it forever, all at the same time. That’s how this music makes me feel. I hope that’s how this music makes you feel, too.

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-McKenna

I’m just going to put this out there now, I’m a hopeless John Darnielle fanboy. Over the course of my life, I’ve amassed a great deal of his recordings, both with The Mountain Goats and just about every other side project he’s taken part in. I feel that many of his side projects are simply eclipsed by the fame of the Mountain Goats. The one group this has not been the case for is The Extra Glenns, a collaboration with Franklin Bruno of Nothing Painted Blue.

Martial Arts Weekend was released in 2002, the same year All Hail West Texas and Tallahassee were released. This album almost compromises the two Mountain Goats albums, being fronted by Darnielle’s superb songwriting and lyrics carried over from All Hail West Texas, and being solidly backed by Bruno’s supporting instruments, in a fashion closer to Tallahassee. In all seriousness though, this album almost sounds like a precursor to later Mountain Goats albums, but Bruno does make himself heard, no small feat when you share a band with Darnielle. Recently, some Mountain Goats sets have included acoustic covers (if that’s the right word) of Extra Glenns songs, and although the original songs are definitely Darnielle-fronted, they lose something in transition. Basically, think of this as a modern Mountain Goats album before the Mountain Goats became modern.

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-McKenna

If I wasn’t in Kent for D.I.T. Fest this weekend, I would have been at the Beachland Ballroom seeing Ramona Falls, the new solo project of Brent Knopf from the Portland, Oregon band Menoma.This is some of the most electrifying pop music I have heard in quite some time. Though I haven’t listened to too much Menomena, I expect that to change.

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- James

PS: POST 200!!!

There isn’t really anything that can be said about The Flaming Lips that hasn’t already been said. With the release of every new album, I prepare myself for the first bad Flaming Lips album, but my preparations are never needed. Judging from the 3 songs here, the new double album, Embryonic, is looking to be no exception, with Wayne Coyne and Co. continuing in the vein of their post-The Soft Bulletin work, though veering away from the more accessible style of At War With The Mystics. I know at least one guy here at Shock Mountain who cannot wait until December 29 for the release!

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THIS ALBUM WILL BE [supposedly] RELEASED DECEMBER 29, 2009

-Max

I just got home from seeing Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band at The Grog Shop. I was unfamiliar with his main support, Deep Sea Diver. I had assumed that it would be a folk rock band like the one before and after it. As I was waiting for the next band to start, an incredibly attractive woman was standing on stage. I assumed that she was Conor Oberst’s hot girlfriend, only to have my jaw drop when she started playing guitar. Jessica Dobson played as Beck’s live guitarist for his 2008 tour and has released two albums on Atlantic, but is now a free agent who just dropped this pleasant EP that I purchased for $7. Deep Sea River lulls you into an enticing trap, and once you’re hooked, there’s no going back. I can’t explain the reason why I like it any more accurately than saying ‘it makes me feel good’. It’s warm, charming, subtle, and fun music. I’m definitely going to be keeping a close eye on this artist and I believe that we’ll both be hearing a lot more about her very soon.

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- James

Well, shit, Ian Svenonius has done it again. First, he leads my favorite post-hardcore band, The Nation of Ulysses, then he creates one of my all time favorite bands, garage rock-meets-gospel outfit Make Up, and now he returns with Chain and the Gang. Ditching the genres he has dabbled in previously, this album mixes dusty chain gang blues and a sassy New Orleans funk strut with Svenonius’ anti-capitalistic rantings. Despite that description, which probably appeals to middle-aged fathers than a lot of our readers, this is a ridiculously fun album, perfect for the incoming spring weather, that I’m sure many of our readers will enjoy. Plus, Calvin Johnson, founder of K Records, Beat Happening, The Halo Benders and basically the father of the entire Northwest indie scene, guests on this album. Finding these two giants on the same album is like a dream come true. And for those of you in the Cleveland/Akron area, Chain and the Gang is playing at Musica in Akron Thursday, April 30. You have no idea how pissed I am about being unable to go. Please go for me!

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-Max

This is a split between Ghosttown Trio frontman, Andy Cook, and singer-songwriter Matt (I forget his last name) that produces music under the name American War. Anyway, this split is slightly different from others you may have heard as the track listing is not split down the middle. They alternate from one to the next and it meshes together much smoother than you might imagine. Andy’s voice is definitely more harmonious and clear sounding than Matt’s, whose voice is scratchy and filled with soul. Both offer something  unique to the album that has soft and slow songs followed by ballads that beg to be sung by a group of kids in a basement, attic, wherever… just download it and see for yourself. I’ve been lucky enough to see both of these guys a few times and they never dissapoint. This is good springtime music.

Andy Cook

American War

- James

Where to begin with Dirty Projectors? Not only are they one of the most interesting groups around today, but they are also one of the most adventurous. In 2007, they released “Rise Above”, a rehashing of Black Flag’s legendary 1980 album, “Damaged”. Not only did frontman Dave Longstreth record the album entirely from his teenage memories of the album, but he transformed it from a staple of hardcore punk to an art-pop gem, overflowing with harmonies, odd time signatures and Longstreth’s wailing vocals. Earlier this year, Longstreth collaborated with former-Talking Head/personal hero of mine David Byrne on the track “Knotty Pine” for the “Dark Was The Night” compilation album. With “Bitte Orca” we find Yale-educated Longstreth continuing his streak of art-pop gems, continuing with his abstract and avant-garde approach to creating pop music, which will be released by indie giant Domino Records, home to Animal Collective, Four Tet and The Notwist.

MySpace

THIS ALBUM WILL BE RELEASED JUNE 9, 2009. SNATCH IT NOW BEFORE THE WEB SHERIFF SHOOTS YOU.

-Max

One of Cleveland’s most interesting artists, Nicholas Megalis has been tragically overlooked by the Cleveland press compared to many less-talented groups. Recorded at the age of 16, this is Nicholas’ debut album, which combines piano and drums to sound like a cabaret-punk Elton John or David Bowie. His sound has since evolved, leading more toward over-caffeinated, avant-pop music. I’ve been fortunate enough to catch his live show a handful of times and this man doesn’t just play music, he puts on a performance. Last year, I was fortunate enough to interview him and film his show at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a documentary in my newswriting class. Not only was he one of the nicest people I met, but everything he had to say was noteworthy, such as informing me that his biggest influences were Jesus, Shakira and Chingy. A few months ago, he moved to New York City and has recorded a free EP, I Find It Sexy How You Mislead Me, which finds him bringing more electro-pop aspects to his sound. Plus, not just any ho-hum act is invited to open for Nine Inch Nails at their hometown show like Mr. Megalis was.

*Note: sorry for the lack of artwork, I don’t believe that the album artwork exists online

MySpace

-Max

Exit Stencil has been good to this blog. The Cleveland-based label first supplied me with tracks by Like Bells and now we can rejoice in some tracks by Blake Miller, a very young (my age) singer songwriter, who has been featured on Pitchfork’s forkcast. Have you ever passed up on going to a show only to find out a few weeks later that the artist is well worth your time? This is what has happened to me when Blake Miller had a record release show for Burn Tape, which was released on, as I’m sure you can tell, a tape deck as well as a digital download. Included here are a few songs from Burn Tape of which I am especially fond. Do yourself a favor and buy it so that you enjoy more of one of the most talented young musicians around.

- James

Mysapce

Exit Stencil

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I’m not sure what it is that makes me like this music so much. It could be that I just got through 50 pages of a book I am reading for latin american history, it could be the lush melodies, or just the fact that it is something I can’t fully understand that makes La Bien Querida so enticing. Obviously, the lyrics are all in Spanish and the band name translates roughly to “the wanted good” (amirite?). My Spanish may be a little rusty but this album certainly is not. Flamenco guitars slowly set the scene for Ana Fernandez’s smooth voice to drop followed by the beat, which is composed of rock drums, handclaps, and numerous latin percussion instruments. Slowly, the worldly sounds fill your ears and mesh together to form a pop arrangement that you always wanted but never got. I remember when I was younger my dad used to play Meringue music in the car and it would drive me insane. I hated everything about it: the repetitive nature, the shouted and muffled vocals, and the boring electronic beats. I feel like this album is everything I wanted Spanish music to sound like after hearing that: refined and toned down, but with an energy to move you.

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The artwork for this album couldn’t possibly be any more fitting. Among one of the most colorful releases of the year by a new artist. SUNBEARS! is a two man band based out of Jacksonville, Florida. They are currently on tour with Black Kids and Mates of State. Previously, they toured with Dredg. This being their first release, they set out to create a distinctive sound that would catch the ears of the audeinces seeing them the first time. They in no way or part fail in this endeavor. Touching on both uplifting and downtrodden tones in what seems like a claustrophobic 31 minute debut. The first song sounds like something out of a Disney score and the following are hypnotic pop arrangements filled with orchestral instruements and tight drumming. With sounds ranging from Indie Rock ballads like “I’m Alive!” to the Ambient closer “Sunshine at 9 p.m.” this album has a little bit of everything and can be appreciated by anyone who has even marginally good taste in music. I can’t remember the last time I have listened to a band for the first time and gotten so excited. I feel bad that they are on tour with Black Kids and will undoubtedly get labeled as hipster garabe because this is such a passionate record. So before you go shitting on the next up and coming band, why not see what all the buzz is about and make your own decision, whether it be good or bad. That’s what SUNBEARS would want.

“at sometime or another, many of us take a look at ourselves and what it is that we have been up to and what we are about to do. many of us choose to ignore the bad and only acknowledge what we find to be good about ourselves. about our insides. about our guts. what makes up what we are. then there are others who do indeed the opposite. only noticing the ugly and the hate and the wrong doings and all of that shite. neither of these doings are good nor will they ever be good. no black and white. always gray and colours in between. always happy/sad like little SUNBEARS!”

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