Premiere: Kickstand Boyfriend's Christ's Night Out

Maybe you weren't expecting your next indie pop savior to be a teenager from South Jersey. Yet straight out of Magnolia comes 19-year-old Kevin Rogers, who has built up a band around a charming collection that streets tomorrow on rising micro-indie Como Tapes. The act is called Kickstand Boyfriend, and the arresting record is called Christ's Night Out, and if you like the lilting wistfulness of The Coctails and Archer Prewitt's solo work, or even the chiaroscuro catharsis of contemporary Boston hitmakers Kal Marks, then Kickstand Boyfriend is the band for you. Christ's Night Out presents a window into the youthful ennui and disillusionment of post-lapsarian life in small-town Jersey; in press materials Rogers speaks of losing friends to addiction, of, in effect, innocence reduced to cinders. The ominous bass line and mildly venomous vocal on "Born To Be Destroyed," and the increasingly forceful drumming of "Journey Home High Priest," darken the mid-section of the collection. But elsewhere breezy guitar chords, clean leads and Rogers' resigned tenor win the day, and limn the proceedings with an (albeit moody) lightness that is Kickstand Boyfriend's most appealing quality. The wonderfully realized "House Rules Waltz" is a highlight of the set, as is "Lying In A Coffin," a surprisingly bright and nearly cheerful number in spite of the lyrics "I'm just lying in a coffin... and all my best friends are already dead / they're in my head." Situated at opposite ends of the record, "The Pines" and its freeing instrumental foil "The Pines Part II" sparkle with something like optimism.

Attentive readers will recall that Como Tapes in March issued a solid, posthumous collection from the Oberlin-bred indie act Diocese, which we wrote about here. The label releases Christ's Night Out tomnorrow, but it is available for purchase now via Kickstand Boyfriend's Bandcamp yert on "nightclub pink" cassette and digital download. Christ's Night Out is being fêted with a release show tomorrow at The Fire in the great city of Philadelphia, with support from Choice Blanket (members of which back Rogers in Kickstand Boyfriend), The Noises That Sounds Make and Gregory Michael Jordan; all the details about the show are right here. The record was recorded at Gradwell House with former Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start [this!] guy Dave Downham overseeing mixing and mastering. Kickstand Boyfriend previously released a demo EP via Bandcamp early this year; the set was called Chocolate & Pornography, but it has already been deleted from the Interzizzles. Other "demos and throw away songs" from last summer met a similar fate. But what you can listen to right now, dear rock fans, is all of Christ's Night Out via the Soundcloud embed below. And if you are in Philly tomorrow (it looks like it is an early show?), you know where to be.

Kickstand Boyfriend: Bandcamp | Facebook

Playlist: Indie Rock vs. Baby Wakefulness, Vol. 1

This is currently the go-to soundtrack to our efforts to get our baby girl to go to sleep and stay asleep. A sad by-product is the fact that we are starting to get sick of a lot of these songs, some of which have been favorites forever and ever (we first got The Glove record around 1989 or 1990, for example). That said, we still find almost all of these to this day to be very moving in their way whenever we stop and sit and listen to them go by on the IPod docked in the nursery. The Logh and Spent tracks in particular are sublime and evocative. We've started piecing together a second mix for nighttime in the nursery. But for now, this is on heavy rotation.

1. The Glove -- "A Blues In Drag" -- Blue Sunshine [AmazonMP3]
2. Sam Prekop -- "A Cloud To The Back" -- Sam Prekop [Emusic]
3. The For Carnation -- "On The Swing" -- Marshmallows EP/Promised Works [Emusic]
4. Esquivel -- "Snowfall" -- More Of Other Worlds, Other Sounds [AmazonMP3]
5. Haywood -- "Plow" -- We Are Amateurs, You And I [Emusic]
6. Logh -- "The Big Sleep" -- A Sunset Panorama [Emusic]
7. Mogwai -- "Christmas Song" -- Mogwai EP+6 [AmazonMP3]
8. Jon Brion -- "Spotless Mind" -- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind [AmazonMP3]
9. Jon Brion -- "Phone Call" -- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind [AmazonMP3]
10. Jon Brion -- "Bookstore" -- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind [AmazonMP3]
11. Archer Prewitt -- "Along The Coast" -- Gerroa Songs [Emusic]
12. Drop Nineteens -- "My Aquarium" -- Delaware [AmazonMP3]
13. Spent -- "Brighter Than Day" -- Songs Of Drinking And Rebellion [Emusic]
14. September 67 -- "Bring Back The Weight" -- Lucky Shoe [Emusic]
15. Lilys -- "Kodiak (Alternate)" -- Send In The Subs [Unreleased/MP3]
16. Velocity Girl -- "Wake Up, I'm Leaving" -- Simpatico! [AmazonMP3]

Muxtape No. 10: The Same Records, The Same Shoes

Here is the long-promised explication to the most recent Muxtape, which we posted over the weekend. You can listen to it right here. And in fact we highly recommend that you do.

1. Elvis Costello and The Attractions -- "Welcome To The Working Week" -- My Aim Is True
(The most obvious mix starter ever? Ah, but it took us until Wednesday to post this, so it is likely you've already been welcomed to the working work by someone else. Short, sweet, hooks, social criticism. Why is this song never covered? It's dynamite. And it's got some great "oohs" in it).

2. Embrace -- "Building" -- Embrace
(The original emo band -- unless Rites Of Spring or Faith formed first? No matter. Embrace was Ian Mackaye's project between Minor Threat and Fugazi. This is one of the act's better tracks, although "Last Song" is probably their defining statement. Mackaye's singing in the first two verses is, well, a little wimpy, although we suppose the whole point was about being direct in dealing with emotional material. Anyway, things gradually build -- no pun intended -- and eventually we're treated to the Mackaye howl we've all come to know and love.)

3. Loomis -- "Conquistador" -- You're No Tiger, Meow, Meow, Meow
(Amazing post-hardcore track from midwestern act that reformed late last year for one reunion show. This number opened the band's 1996 set, and is an incredibly satisfying rocker in that "bad things happen to me" or "I am ill-equipped to thrive in contemporary society" sort of vein. "Conquistador" has a vocal melody that is never far from our memory.)

4. Bettie Serveert -- "Kid's Alright" -- Palomine
(Such a delicious guitar riff opens this one. We love the high bending pull that signals things are coming around again, and we were particularly thrilled when we figured out the tuning for this as a relatively new guitar player. Highlight from an amazing record whose execution seemed effortless. Palomine is the last rock record to have really amazing dynamic range, which is a weird thing for us to note when we consider the album, what with all the remarkable tracks it contains. This veteran act still soldiers on, but we're always most inspired by the electric sunshine on this set.)

5. Fields -- "Isabel" -- 7 From The Village
(Now London-based Fields is about to return to playing live at the end of this month with a new lineup. The quintet -- which may or may not be a quintet any longer -- led by Nick Peill released this remarkable EP in 2006, and we wrote about it recently here as part of our guest blogging stint over at Keep Hope Inside. This is one of the hotter numbers from the set, and we are eager to hear what the act's new record will sound like, despite not being that into some demos we hear earlier this year.)

6. Gastr Del Sol -- "Eight Corners" -- Unsorted
(This song should be the whole Muxtape. No, no, we should just go to Half.com and buy all the Gastr Del Sol records we don't have. Anyway, this song name-checks Western Avenue, and many other avenues. Given Gastr's Chicago orientation, we don't imagine the Western Avenue that is a couple blocks from where we are typing, but even so our ears perk up every time this number shuffles on. After the brief lyrical introduction this turns into a hypnotic, spare piano exercise that draws you further and further down the rabbit hole. And then suddenly, woodwinds and electronic bleeps. Astonishing.)

7. Dosh -- "The Magic Stick" -- Wolves And Wishes
(Here we are at the center of the concept we were most interested in exploring with this Muxtape: that the new Dosh record -- which is excellent and which we fear we'll never find the time to review -- rests somewhere along a heretofore unimagined axis between Gastr Del Sol and Caribou. Doesn't this Dosh track seem of a piece with the Gastr number? We think so. Dosh is Martin Dosh, sometime sideman to Andrew Bird and an accomplished multi-instrumentalist in his own right. Dosh has released a number of records, but prior to hearing a track from the new record on WMBR some weeks back we'd never heard of him. We need to "get out more," musically.)

8. Caribou -- "Eli" -- Andorra
(Not sure if this song sells the whole axis idea we posit above, but it is one of our favorites from Andorra. The guitar lick it rides in on really sounds like the beginning of The Notwist's song "Neon Golden." Speaking of, The Notwist record came out Tuesday, and we hope to get out of the office at lunch tomorrow to score it at Newbury Comics.)

9. Creeping Weeds -- "Long Way Down" -- Creeping Weeds EP
(An odd Southern California '70s rock vibe permeates the verse of this very nice rocker from this Philadelphia-based act discovered via Jon Solomon's roundly excellent This Is Local Support podcast. Creeping Weeds also have a full-length called We Are All Part Of A Dream You're Having out; this EP was from 2004, if we recall correctly. We think the west coast psych/respectable Eagles feel makes it a nice pairing with the Caribou track.)

10. Archer Prewitt -- "Final Season" -- White Sky
(Mr. Prewitt never executes the way we'd like him to. This is primarily because his gentlemanly pop doesn't have much edge to it. But darn it if the songs don't stick in our head all the time. We just recently re-ripped In The Sun to our hard drive and listened through it for the first time in years. We bought the disc along with Wilco's Being There on a business trip to Kansas City 11 years ago and whiled away many, many autumn hours in a downtown office building listening to those discs. Strangely happy memories, perhaps because this is strangely happy music.)

11. Johnny Foreigner -- "Absolute Balance" -- Waited Up Til It Was Light
(We had to include this track, which we singled out in our review of the record last weekend. When singer Alexei Berrow starts shouting in the middle distance at the end of the track it gives us goose bumps. Johnny Foreigner trades almost exclusively in anthems, and few of them get more anthemic than this. Five solid minutes of joy.)

12. Diagram -- "Remember The Days" -- History Of The White Flag EP
(We thought we'd round out the mix by extending the ethereal joy of the Johnny Foreigner track with even more shoegazing electronic brilliance. Diagram broke up a couple years back, and we did this blog item in February where we caught up on what music the various members are making now. Which reminds us -- we think another similar and very good Philly act Relay is opening the Frightened Rabbit/Oxford Collapse show here in Cambridge, Mass. July 1. That's a hell of a bill).

Review: The Sea And Cake | Everybody [Stream]

Anticipating the release of a new record from The Sea And Cake is a ritualized experience for us, during which we wait in uncertainty like Pozzo and Lucky for signs of a return to one of the band's landmark recordings. In 1995 and 1997 the Chicago-based quartet issued back-to-back records that are pillars of indie pop, the guitar-oriented The Biz and the electronically textured The Fawn. Over the past decade we've done two things more than we'd care to admit: listen relentlessly to those records, and hope that the four horsemen of the indiepopalypse (Mssrs. Prekop, Prewitt, McEntire and Claridge, each Chicago music luminaries in their own right) would finally concoct a third perfect record mining one or both of those records' styles. Today we can report after a four-year wait (since the release of the band's prior effort Oui) that the quartet's forthcoming collection Everybody is as close to a perfect guitar-pop album as The Sea And Cake has crafted since The Biz.

While maintaining a characteristic understated sophistication, the set is touted as The Sea And Cake's "rock record." And indeed the group's gentlemanly pop here is propelled by punchier rhythms and occasionally aggressive -- well, relatively -- performances and production. "Left On" pulses with the inevitability of vintage kraut rock and occasionally unleashes avian shrieking and feedback in what may be the heaviest Sea And Cake tune ever tracked. The show of strength is bracing, but it is little surprise when the band retires to its pop boudoir as the song recesses into silence. "Crossing Line" bursts open with an abundance of sonic fizz in the form of a fuzzed out guitar, resulting in another near-brash track from a group that typically maintains a sort of polite decorum with its compositions. The Sea And Cake states Everybody is relatively straightforward and live-sounding and that there are fewer overdubs than on their other collections. That may be so, but there are still many nice production touches, such as the electronic flourishes in the denouement of the irresistible sorta title track "Lightning."

Everybody will be released May 8; a deluxe gatefold LP will include a 16-page booklet that we imagine will be a delight to behold. The Sea And Cake plan a substantial strand of tour dates beginning May 14 in Vancouver. The full tour is listed below, as is a stream of the African high-life tinged "Exact To Me."

The Sea And Cake -- "Exact To Me" -- Everybody
[it's a stream, just click, and get ready to adjust your volume]
[buy Everybody from Thrill Jockey here]

The Sea And Cake: Interweb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

05/14 -- Vancouver, BC -- Richard's on Richards
05/15 -- Seattle, WA -- Neumo's
05/16 -- Portland, OR -- Crystal Ballroom
05/18 -- San Francisco, CA -- Bimbo's
05/19 -- Los Angeles, CA -- The Troubadour
05/20 -- Los Angeles, CA -- The Troubadour
05/21 -- Solana Beach, CA -- Belly Up
05/31 -- Chicago, IL -- Empty Bottle (Two Shows)
06/02 -- Toronto, ON -- Mod Club
06/03 -- Montreal, QC -- La Sala Rossa
06/05 -- Boston, MA -- The Paradise
06/07 -- New York, NY -- Webster Hall
06/08 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Theatre of Living Arts
06/09 -- Washington, DC -- Black Cat

[Click here for European tour dates]
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