Today's Hotness: Barry Marino, Big Deal, Business Models

>> While Managing Editor Michael P. continues to manage SXSW, the everyday business of the blog goes on... This Today's Hotness is brought to you by the letter "B," in alphabetical order, sorta...

>> For the second year running, multi-instrumentalist and video director extraordinaire Barry Marino (who is perhaps best known to Clicky Clicky readers as drummer for Boston indie rock heroes The Hush Now) wrote and recorded an entire album during the month of February. This year's effort culminated with the release last week of the sparkling and curious eight-song collection February 2.0. Apparently the exercise is a bit more formalized than we had realized previously, as Mr. Marino's impressive feat is part of something called RPM Challenge, an event that encourages participants to record in a mere 28 days either 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material. Like his solid 2012 collection I Made These Gems In A Month, the new set strikes a balance between serene folk, hazy contemplation and upbeat electronic experimentalism, suggesting influences like Mazzy Star and U2 along the way. Up-tempo highlights "Level Planes" and the not entirely reassuring "We're Not Going To Guam" employ dance-ready rhythm tracks to anchor surreal, at-times-unsettling sentiments (the latter tune includes the brilliant line "half the stuff he says goes way over my head, the other half goes way, way over"). "The Subway Ninjas," a song apparently about being stuck on the subway with a jerk, a song that Google Translate improbably indicates is sung in Esperanto, uses bright guitar leads and a female guest vocal to conjure a breezy, South American vibe. Closer "White Knuckle" quietly echoes the verse of the aforementioned Irish quartet's "Ultra Violet." February 2.0, as well as the rest of Brooklyn-based Marino's work within and without The Hush Now, routinely finds ways to impress without being flashy or pedantic. Instead, there is a patience and ease to the music that somewhat downplays the cleverness and lucid imagery that are Marino's true hallmarks, all of which makes February 2.0 well worth your time and attention. We most recently heard from Marino in late 2012, when he sang the lead vocal for The Hush Now's annual holiday single (Marino also shot and starred in this video for the tune). In related news, The Hush Now is preparing the release of "Arkansas" as a digital single in the UK, to be followed by a digital UK release of the quintet's superlative 2011 long-player Memos. Incidentally, Marino is not the only member of the quintet releasing solo music these days: lead guitarist Adam Quane issued Tuesday a new collection of vibrant, textured psychedelia called O Orpheus Singing under his long-running No Evil Star moniker. You can check that out here; in the meantime tuck into Marino's February 2.0 via the Bandcamp embed below.



>> Big Deal announced last week it will release April 23 "In Your Car," the first proper single from the London-based dream-pop pair's planned sophomore set June Gloom. The captivating track maintains the act's new, noisy posture established via the early album two preview tune "Teradactol" last year. However, "In Your Car" ably harnesses the volume and attitude of "Teradactol" but successfully channels it into Big Deal's melodic and characteristically poignant pop. Indeed, the breezy, wistful chorus ("driving in your car / I wanna be wherever you are...") fits comfortably within the band's canon, particularly the music from Big Deal's brilliant full-length debut Lights Out. And perhaps it is just the title suggesting the correlation, perhaps it is the jarring opening notes, or perhaps it is the sweeping synth in the chorus, but we sense the second single also throws an affirmative nod toward Boston's own '80s pop legends The Cars and their tune "Just What I Needed." Sure, it's a fairly jarring evolution from the quiet, pretty harmonies and delicate guitar work of the band's debut single "Homework" from a few years ago, but those harmonies and Big Deal's deft ability to sound like it is constantly telling secrets persists even with the duo's contemporary "big band" sound. Mute will release "In Your Car" as well as the aforementioned full-length; June Gloom is slated for release June 4. As we reported here last month, Big Deal principals Alice Costelloe and Kacey Underwood have buttressed Big Deal's personnel with the addition of a rhythm section, which -- for the album sessions anyway -- included drummer Melissa Rigby. It's unclear who is playing bass with the band, or whether Ms. Rigby is part of Big Deal's touring unit, but we expect all of this will be revealed in time, as the presser announcing the single promises live dates will be announced soon. In the meantime, why not stream "In Your Car" over and over and over again as we have been doing?



>> Mr. Charlton was not overstating it during his assessment of the new Purling Hiss tune when he referred to a "strong wave of municipal all-stars" rising up out of Philadelphia these days. Indeed, the mental laundry list we maintain of Philly acts we need to monitor grows almost daily. At the top of the list today is Business Models, the new endeavor from ex-Algernon Cadwallader bassist and fronter Peter Helmis that also counts among its number former members of Ape Up! (Nick) and Man Without Plan (Barclay). The self-described "post-pop-punk" trio has released to Bandcamp under the title Room preliminary mixes of four songs from a "forthcoming bunch of songs." The music maintains the melodicism and energy of Algernon Cadwallader, but eschews that band's intricate guitar work in favor of chunky guitar chords. The resulting tunes recall the city's best West Philly-styled punk and brings to mind in particular Clicky Clicky faves Armalite, whose self-titled 2006 set was among this blog's favorite of that year. We strongly suggest streaming Room via the Bandcamp embed below -- it is all killer and no filler. The trio played some tour dates in Boston and Amherst earlier this month, so we expect that might be the last we see of Business Models until a record comes out, but who knows. Here's a video of them playing "The Aptitude," one of the four jams from Room.

Today's Hotness: The Hush Now, Sir Yes Sir, Shores

>> We saw The Hush Now's final show of the year Wednesday night and the quintet continues to be among the most formidable of Boston bands. We've been holding onto the fivesome's latest holiday jam "On Holiday" because, well, we're trying to hold the line against holiday creep. But now that Thanksgiving is over and done, it is time to confront the sounds of the season. The Hush Now's aforementioned, bossa nova romp approaches irresistible, and we've had the one-song CD-R on repeat in the car for days. "On Holiday" is an uptempo confection that eschews the band's now characteristic wall of guitars in favor of a horn-driven, jingle bell-appointed chorus. We've got to hand it to the boys: anybody can write a holiday jam, but few acts write ones you want to hear over and over. Catch the stream below (and cheers to the RSL Blog for the initial upload). The Hush Now is off for the rest of the year, but we've heard whispers about new music for the new year. So be good for goodness' sake.

The Hush Now - On Holiday by rslblog.com

>> Tip the 40, if you will, for Sir Yes Sir: the London-based noise pop upstarts announced earlier this month that they are breaking up. However, fret not: it sounds like what is really being done -- after five years, one tape, one CD and one CD-R -- is that Sir Yes Sir is scrapping its name and contemplating reconfiguring a little. When we last wrote about the trio in May they were poised to release their debut full-length Reigning Over Silence, which you can stream right here. We had short correspondence with Daniel from SYS after the break-up announcement, and were told the band is considering adding a new member and perhaps changing who plays what instrument. This all sounds like a good thing to us, and as long as the new entity can continue to churn out delightfully tuneful sludge like "Not Excited," which we wrote about here in January, we'll be more than happy.

>> Fans of hardcore and pop-punk know No Idea, the Gainesville, Fl.-based label responsible for superb releases from acts including Armalite, Lifetime and J Church (RIP Lance). The label's aesthetic is well-established, but one new No Idea release from Michigan-based and un-Google-able slowcore duo Shores challenges it, and suggests that No Idea is now about more than, well, all that stuff we mentioned above. Take, for example, the track "Meanwhile" from Shores' debut Coup De Grace, issued by No Idea Oct. 31 in a limited first-run of colored vinyl with a screen-printed cover and download code. It's measured, meditative, melodic and dynamic, and it hits a strident crescendo two-thirds of a way through that recalls certain fine moments from T.W. Walsh and Codeine. No Idea has posted "Meanwhile" as a free download, and it is ripe and ready for your winter playlists. Have at it.

Shores -- "Meanwhile" -- Coup De Grace
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[buy Coup De Grace from No Idea right here]

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, She, Sir, Armalite

>> This is our 900th post. And that only counts Blogger posts. Factoring the old home-made Comcast sites and posts to Junkmedia's World Of Sound blog and various other stints and guest positions and, well, we sort of wonder whether we would have been better off devoting the time to learning tennis or something. OK, that's not true. We like rock.

>> If you live in the U.K. you have many things for which to be thankful, nationalized health care among them. But also there is the small matter of the release of Birmingham, England indie titans Johnny Foreigner's full-length debut. Waited Up 'Til It Was Light is released by Best Before Records Monday. We haven't heard the set ourselves (well, at least not all together in a row with the CD case in our hands), but the acclaim seems largely positive, although not as effusive as it was for the release of the band's annihilating Arcs Across The City EP. Even so, it is understandable that faced with the task of releasing its first full-length, the trio might end up with one or two tracks that are less than stellar in the running order. That said, Waited Up 'Til It Was Light is some 13 songs in length -- the band could have easily held some back, but that's never been Johnny Foreigner's style. The deal has always been that the band writes songs and presents them and fans listen to them. Recall that this is an act that gave away a 16-song demo for free, and at least in the good old days would just email the tracks to you. So despite some criticism of certain tracks on the new record (even we are not crazy about "DJs Get Doubts," although there was a time when we were on the fence about "Henning's Favorite," which of course we grew past), we remain largely excited to hear the entire thing from start to finish. And with huge tracks such as "Salt, Pepa And Spindarella," "Eyes Wide Terrified" and "Our Bipolar Friends," Waited Up 'Til It Was Light already has hits to spare. Speaking of "Eyes Wide Terrified," the band recorded a version of the track last fall for a Radio One session and we, uh, borrowed it from the band's MySpace player for safe-keeping. It is slightly different from the album version, and we're posting it below. It's brilliant, and every time Alexei gets to the lines "I'm not that lucky, these t-shirts don't fold themselves" we get chills.

Johnny Foreigner -- "Eyes Wide Terrified" -- Radio One session
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[buy Waited Up 'Til It Was Light from RecordStore.Co.Uk right here even though with the exchange rate suckage; and the economy generally in the crapper; and with the fuel crisis likely never resolving because we are all fat slobs who can't ride a bike; you should instead use the money to buy groceries or a hand-cranked radio or whatnot]

>> Austin, Texas-based shoegaze supergeniuses She, Sir are featured here in a new interview segment at something called Vimby. The core duo of Russell Karloff and M. Grusha discuss its glorious 2006 EP Who Can't Say Yes and the forthcoming full-length Go Guitars. Having loved and lost a great shoegaze band many times before, we are slightly concerned, as the new set is apparently a departure from the '90s-referencing shoegaze sounds of the EP and will feature fewer guitars and broader instrumentation, including brass and woodwinds. "On the newer stuff we're doing, you know, we're sort of taking it back even further, trying to bring back a real sort of vintage, kind of a '60s sound, you know, trying to bring back a lot of that professionalism I think has somehow been lost since the '60s," Mr. Karloff tells the invisible Vimby interviewer. The apparent stylistic shift conjurs memories of RIDE's unforgivable 1994 mis-step Carnival Of Light. That said, we haven't heard any of the forthcoming She, Sir and it could very well be amazing. It certainly sounds interesting. "I'm hoping that there won't be much guitar in this at all, which I'm looking forward to as a contrast from the EP," Karloff continues in the video. "We're bringing in flutes, oboes, I think there's going to be an accordion in there, french horn, in addition to that we'll have a stack of vocals, you know, females, guys, crowds."

>> Hardcore supergroup Armalite -- which features former Fracture/Atom And His Package dude (and hockey fan) Atom Goren and that guy Dan Yemin who is in every great Jersey hardcore band -- will play a rare show at Richmond, Virginia's Best Friends Day festival. Curiously, the festival is actually three days long, Friday Aug. 15 through Sunday Aug. 17. This is the festival's eighth year, and seventh with music; more details here. Armalite's Armalite was one of our favorite records of 2006; read the whole list here.

Armalite -- "I Am A Pancreas (I Seek to Understand Me)" -- Armalite
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[buy Armalite from No Idea Records here]

Today's Hotness: A-Sides, Kevin Drew, Armalite

>> Word on the street, or at the least at the bottom of this blog post, is that Philadelphia indie rock phenoms The A-Sides will tour extensively in October. Vagrant will issue the band's sophomore set Silver Storms Aug. 28. Well, actually, Spin.com today says here that the set will now be issued Sept. 18, as does the band's web dojo; not so much their Virb page. Things change. Incidentally, Spin.com, which named The A-Sides their band of the day today, thinks the band sounds like The Shins and Modest Mouse. Uh, what? Either way, make sure to hit that link to Spin.com supra and grab the MP3 for the newish track "Diamonds." Speaking of The A-Sides, we'd never seen this live footage of the band playing "Cinematic" last January at Philadelphia's 700 Bar. The A-Sides are in Boston at the Middle East Aug. 9. We'll be there.

>> This new video for Broken Social Scenemeister Kevin Drew's "Backed Out On The..." that features J., Murph and Lou from Dinosaur Jr. is getting a huge !!hell yeah!! from us (note the crazy exclamation points for added jazz). Pitchfork has the video posted right here. Drew releases his inelegantly titled solo set Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew, "Spirit If..." Sept. 18 on Arts & Crafts.

>> Pop-punk supergroup Armalite, which features Atom Goren of Atom And His Package and a bunch of other famous-type Jersey hardcore kids, doesn't want you to forget that they are playing a rare live show Aug. 10. at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. So don't. Armalite's self-titled debut was one of our favorite records of 2006; we had occasion to dine with Mr. Goren in May and he said there are currently no plans for a second Armalite set, as the guys are all busy with other things. So this show is as good as you're gonna get. Someone please take video. And here are some MP3s:

Armalite -- "Entitled" -- Armalite
Armalite -- "I Am A Pancreas (I Seek To Understand Me...)" -- Armalite
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[buy Armalite from No Idea right here]

>> Merge Blog has just posted here two acoustic cuts from Swede pop sensations Shout Out Louds. One of the cuts is the infectious bouncer "Tonight I Have Leave It," which we wrote about here a couple weeks back. The other is called "Impossible." Both songs were part of a radio session recorded by LA-based commercial rock station Indie 103. We can't get either of the files to open, but perhaps if you check back later the Merge web gremlins will figure out what the problem is.

>> Fun fact from a recent Brian Baker interview that Pun Canoes links to here: apparently DC hardcore legends Minor Threat have sold between 800,000 records and a million records over the last quarter century or so, according to Mr. Baker's estimate. Not too shabby for guys who have never once cowtowed to The Man. We salute you, Minor Threat.

>> Believe it or not, we are actually going to get out and finally see The Beatings tonight, speaking of our favorite records of 2006. We'll have a full report over the weekend.