Today's Hotness: California Snow Story, Dikembe,Gold Muse

>> It's been nigh on a decade since we last had something substantive to say about indie pop luminaries California Snow Story, but that's not because we took our eye off the proverbial ball. Indeed, the Scotland-based act has been on hiatus pretty much since we first wrote about them here in 2007. But its timeless, genteel pop has stuck with us, particularly 2007's terrific tune "Suddenly Everything Happens," so our desire for new California Snow Story material has never waned. We were jazzed to see bread crumbs on social media late last year suggesting the band's return, and said return transpired late last month, when its winsome, understated sophomore long-player Some Other Places arrived. The set opens with the breezy strummer "Motorway," whose instrumentation and poignant melancholy establish an appealing mood that persists across every one of the albums' 10 tracks. Escapist reveries and optimistic longing rule the day, something underscored by even the song titles: "Our New Sun," "Her Ocean Airport," and "Railway Station," to pick a few. That latter track is an album highlight; it foregrounds acoustic guitar, and its simple vocal harmonies and electric leads tidily punctuate a perfect pop gem whose cool air echoes -- among other things -- the sound of contemporary groovers Ultimate Painting. California Snow Story was formed in 2001 by Camera Obscura co-founder David Skirving, who was later joined by Spanish vocalist Sandra Belda Martãnez, Japanese keyboardist Madoka Fukushima and, occasionally, drummer and vocalist Melanie Whittle. Shelflife Records released Some Other Places as a digital download May 27, and it can be purchased via California Snow Story's Bandcamp wigwam right here. The band has indicated a release on vinyl remains a possibility, so keep an eye on its Facebook page. Shelflife previously issued the band's One Good Summer EP in 2002; the band's debut LP Close To The Ocean was released on Letterbox Records in the UK and Philippines in 2007. Stream all of Some Other Places via the embed below.



>> Due to work commitments, the mighty Dikembe's new releases and tours tend to come at this time of year, something that helps set a rhythm to our modern lives. So there was a certain satisfaction that accompanied the news that the Gainesville, Fla. emo goliaths will release next month a new LP Hail Something, the band's third and its first to be released domestically via its own Death Protector Collective subscription service. The set was preceded by a flexidisc single touting two ferocious album tracks "All Wrong" and "Awful Machine." "All Wrong" is remarkably effective given its concise build and straightforward, three-chord foundation; Dikembe's finely tuned dynamics and fronter Steven Gray's mournful growl apply all the color the song needs, and the results are spine-tingling. "Awful Machine" stretches out a bit further and touts chugging guitars and splashy cymbals. But its fine appointments in the second half -- the dry acoustic guitar and the undertow of delayed and reversed guitars -- proclaim the strength of the quartet's composition. A third new tune, "Just Explode," is also streaming at Bandcamp, and you should be able to listen to all three via the embed below. If you'll indulge the tangent, artist-based subscription services are something that we've followed (and certain of our esteemed colleagues including the great Koomdogg have written about) since the turn of the century. In those early days, technical glitches created hurdles to providing really fulfilling digital subscriptions, but the march of technology would seem to have alleviated most old concerns. So in a way it is surprising more artists don't avail themselves of this type of platform, and we're hopeful to see more efforts like Dikembe's emerge. Hail Something will be released in the U.S. July 12; the set will also be issued on Dog's Knight in the U.K. and Lost Boy in Australia. Lucky American fans will be able to see the act perform live during an 11-day jaunt that kicks off July 18 in the nation's capital; full dates are posted below. We previously reviewed Dikembe's debut LP Broad Shoulders here in 2012 and sophomore set Mediumship right here in 2014.

07.18 -- Comet Ping Pong -- Washington, DC
07.19 -- Aviv -- Brooklyn, NY
07.20 -- Amityville Music Hall -- Amityville, NY
07.21 -- PhilaMOCA -- Philadelphia, PA
07.22 -- The Mr. Roboto Project -- Pittsburgh, PA
07.23 -- Mahall's -- Lakewood, OH
07.24 -- Downstairs (at SubT) -- Chicago, IL
07.26 -- Nostromo -- Nashville, TN
07.27 -- The Shark Tank -- Tallahassee, FL
07.28 -- Loosey's -- Gainesville, FL
07.29 -- Will's Pub -- Orlando, FL



>> Boston noise-pop leading lights Gold Muse recently released to the wilds of the Internerds a third digital single, just in time to help promote their very enviable slot opening for Philly 'gaze gigantes Nothing at Cambridge's Sinclair last weekend. Both new numbers, "Trick Of Time" b/w "Waves," are jarringly urgent, pretty, dark, and bracing. Continuing a trend first charted on "Kiss The Sun" earlier this year, the visceral rocker "Trick Of Time" features increased vocal interplay between Deb Warfield and guitarist Dan Parlin. That said, no song element is superfluous, and every one feels necessary: Justin Lally's syncopated drumming, William Scales' rapid-fire bass line, the skeletal guitar, the bending synth tones. At greater than six minutes, "Waves" is the foursome's longest foray to date, and it manifests certain of the band's post-rock impulses. The rhythm plods at first, the arrangement -- anchored to a dry acoustic guitar -- is spare, and the vibe is morose. But Ms. Warfield's simple organ enters at the midpoint and transforms the song into a rarified elegy that suggests turn-of-the-'70s Pink Floyd in the best possible way. It's a new direction, and both songs present exciting new ways forward for Gold Muse. Moreover, the release represents a bit of a departure for the band process-wise, as these are the first songs the band recorded with area hit-maker Brad Krieger. Indeed, the sessions, if memory serves, were the last done at Hanging Horse studios original Norwood, Mass. location. There hasn't been any indication of when Gold Muse's next release or live performance will transpire, but we will certainly keep readers apprised. In the meantime, listen to the terrific "Trick Of Time" b/w "Waves" via the Bandcamp embed below.

Review: Dikembe | Mediumship

First impressions can be tricky. Dikembe's debut EP Chicago Bowls, our introduction to the Florida-based emo foursome, memorably rechristened certain stars of the fabled mid-'90s Chicago Bulls championship squads with weed-related surnames, and -- to our knowledge -- the songs had little to do the EP's quasi-theme. That thematic dissonance detracted hardly at all from the music's inherent quality, and so the short stack helped establish the act as one to watch in the underground. The ensuing first full-length Broad Shoulders [review] followed a similar sonic template but eschewed the goofball song-naming scheme, to thrilling results, although Dikembe now bemoans what it calls a lack of cohesiveness to the set. And so, with its titanic second full-length Mediumship, the band aimed to craft a front-to-back, real-deal album, one that felt of a piece all the way through. The record is a resounding success.

The LP's book-ending tracks provide a tidy framework for the triumphant collection. "Even Bother" and its counterpart, the towering album highlight and closer "Throw Lips," each commence solemnly, respirated by sparsely strummed guitar and fronter Steven Gray's world-weary vocals. By midsong Gray and Co. are reeling, firing in all directions while propounding a propulsive beat amid the din. While the two songs rely on similar dynamics and structural elements, the latter is hardly a retread of the former, as the amazing chorus of "Throw Lips" touts brilliantly overlapping vocal lines. But both songs are among the heaviest hitters on an album replete with bangers. Sure, dynamic songwriting is hardly a new development for Dikembe -- indeed, they routinely cover loudQUIETloud standard bearers Pixies in their live sets, as they did again this past Sunday at Great Scott in Boston -- but the Floridians have never before wielded their guitar attack with such devastating focus.

A re-recorded version of early Dikembe track "Donuts In A Six Speed," which sits in the final third of Mediumship, provides an interesting benchmark for analyzing how far the band has come. The original recording, from a four-way split released by Count Your Lucky Stars, feels two-dimensional when contrasted with the new version. On Mediumship, and especially live, Dikembe's explosive performance creates space in which the guitars feel especially cutting, the fill-heavy drumwork from David Bell particularly vital.

Indeed, in a live setting the band's sharp shifts in volume and tone transpire with twice the intensity. The band opened its show Sunday with Mediumship's gritty lead single "Hood Rat Messiah;" the tune's steady build to its shout-along chorus neatly distills the sound that characterizes the entire new record. The show ended with the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?", but not before graciously dipping into the aforementioned back catalog, all of which elicited appreciative cheers from the assembled throng. The performances were terrific, but hearing cuts from Mediumship within the context of favorites from Chicago Bowls and Broad Shoulders made plain just how much the band has elevated its game with the new collection. Mediumship was released by Tiny Engines earlier this week on 12" vinyl and as a digital download, both of which can be purchased right here. The entire record can be streamed via the Soundcloud embed below. -- Dillon Riley

Dikembe: Bandcamp | Facebook



Previous Dikembe Coverage:
Introducing Clicky Clicky Live / Here's Episode 1 Featuring Dikembe's Steven Gray Today's Hotness: Dikembe
Clicky Clicky's Top Songs Of 2012: Jay Edition
Review: Dikembe | Broad Shoulders

Introducing Clicky Clicky Live / Here's Episode 1 Featuring Dikembe's Steven Gray

This is our 2,000th blog post... thank you, thank you... no, really, you're too kind. Anyway, we had really hoped to have something special lined up for post number 2000, but we didn't have high hopes. But then it just so happened that this inaugural edition of Clicky Clicky Live slid right into place. And there was much rejoicing. We're extremely excited about this feature, in which the Clicky Clicky brain trust will interview the hitmakers of the day about what's happening right now out there in indie rock. The cool thing is that the interviews happen live on the Internet, and if you catch the link in time, you can see us work our magic without a net, as it were. And then the interviews are archived, and we post them right here. Cool, right? Staff Writer Dillon Riley was our first man with the baton, and he had a virtual sit-down yesterday afternoon with Dikembe fronter Steven Gray. Clicky Clicky holds the indie punk heroes near and dear based on their terrific debut EP Chicago Bowls and powerful first full-length, Broad Shoulders; that record's "Not Today, Angel" was one of our favorite songs of 2012. Dikembe is slated to release later this summer a sophomore set titled Mediumship via Tiny Engines, which we think will make a lot of waves given the underground's warm embrace of emo records of late.

Mr. Gray told Dillon yesterday the band is particularly excited about the new collection because it was envisioned and created as a whole; whereas Gray feels Broad Shoulders sounds like a bunch of songs just slapped together, he states the new set isn't something that listeners will really want to skip around in. Mediumship has got a beginning, middle and end, and hearing Gray talk about it made us that much more excited about it. Two songs are already in the wild, the mid-tempo rager "Gets Harder," and the prettier and more pensive "Hood Rat Messiah," and both can be streamed via embeds below. But first, turn your attention to our interview above. Gray also talks about trying to keep his rocker secret identity on the downlow in the workplace, obstacles and bonuses when it comes to touring, and the general vibe of the major annual Gainesville punk festival The Fest. Clicky Clicky is super grateful to Steven and Tiny Engines for assenting to the interview. Dikembe plays Boston's Great Scott July 20 with Weatherbox and New City Ghost, which is right around the corner, so you'd best get yourself ticketed. And while you're in a mood to part with your dollars, pre-order Mediumship right here. Just last month Dikembe released via Tiny Engines a split with The Jazz June, and that is certainly something you'll want to check out, too. Dig it. And keep your eyes open for more Clicky Clicky Live segments very soon.

Dikembe: Bandcamp | Facebook





Previous Dikembe Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Dikembe
Clicky Clicky's Top Songs Of 2012: Jay Edition
Review: Dikembe | Broad Shoulders

Clicky Clicky's Top Songs Of 2012: Jay Edition

2012 provided another year of incredible music, from both Boston bands and the wider world. Music continued to transport us, to provide opportunities for celebration and for solace. Our simple mantra, that "music is important," drove us to engage with it in more and deeper ways, and -- not coincidentally -- our care and attention consistently was rewarded by bands finding new methods of knocking our proverbial socks off. And so we arrive at the end of the year, where we cast a long look back, we take stock of our ITunes playcounts, we think about the songs that occupied our mind and heart. The fruits of that examination are below, where we present our 10 favorite songs of 2012. Frankly, there are certain songs we are surprised not to see there (Karl Hendricks Trio's "The Men's Room At The Airport" immediately jumped to mind). But what did make the cut are tunes that moved us and continue to move us many months on. Expect to see our top albums list later this week, and perhaps lists from Michael and Edward before the year is out -- or before the new year has off-gassed a substantial amount of its newness -- as well. For now, we wish you and yours a peaceful and hopefully joyful balance of the year. If the songs below are not yet in your life, take some time and get into it.

1. Sun Airway -- "Close" -- Soft Fall

We try to stay sort of scientific with our top picks of the year, relying largely on data (basically, ITunes play counts). But there is also something to be said for the aggregate amount of time one spends singing a song to himself, something you will see us reference over and over below, and Sun Airway's "Close" ranks highest for us in 2012 based on that metric. The lovelorn lyric "I tried to get close to you," delivered by Sun Airway fronter Jon Barthmus, is among the most affecting of any this year, simple though it may be. The composition and arrangement on this brilliant single is anything but simple, however, with technicolor melodies and layered guitar and synths steadily spiraling around a stuttering rhythmic axis. Listen in via the embed below, and check out the amazing video right here. We reviewed the record for The Boston Phoenix in October right here.



2. Golden Gurls -- "I Can See The City" -- Typo Magic

A jaunty rhythm, big dense guitars modeled on Dinosaur Jr.'s Bug record, and a series of great melodies: what more can an indie rock fan ask for? "I Can See The City" is but one highlight of the Baltimore trio's exceptional debut full-length. From the undeniable, gestural guitar riff to the light, bouncing melody that complements it, to the peanut butter-thick guitars in the bridge, this is an understated piece of genius from one of the most thoughtful songwriters we've encountered in recent years. We're terrifically excited for Golden Gurls' planned sophomore set, but the band has set an extremely high bar for itself with Typo Magic and brilliant songs like "I Can See The City." We reviewed Typo Magic right here in May.



3. Everyone Everywhere -- "No Furniture" -- Everyone Everywhere (2012)

Although it opens with chugging fuzz bass and pummeling drums, Everyone Everywhere's "No Furniture" eventually exposes the still, desolate heart of the Philly punk heroes' second self-titled full-length, which the band self-released in 2012. The lyric describes the dismantling of a domestic situation, and at the tail of its second minute, the drums drop out momentarily, parting the composition like clouds to reveal the line "spare me the car ride home..." -- an indignity the apparently jilted just can't face. It's the receding water line chasing the final surrender of a narrator who's been worn down. And that moment of stillness that sets it off, it's also a momentary fissure in the fourth wall wherein our hero unburdens himself to us. In contrast to the quartet's prior two releases, Everyone Everywhere (2012) is substantially more mature, more emotionally weighty, as "No Furniture" perhaps best illustrates. We reviewed the record in September right here.



4. Swearin' -- "Movie Star" -- Swearin'

There were a number of excellent, excellent records in 2012 that we just didn't have the time to turn our critical ear upon, but that doesn't mean we enjoyed them any less. And so it was with Swearin's self-titled effort. The songs from the collection merged everything we love about pre-Warners Built To Spill -- you know, the brevity, the fizz and melodic sense -- with everything we love about The Breeders -- you know, the spunk and hooks... so pretty much the same thing, right? Chief among the songs on Swearin' in our cold little heart is the album closer "Movie Star." It's got insistent and scritchy guitar and bass, a patient pace, and the cheerfully self-effacing line "no one likes you when you're as old as we are." While we never got around to reviewing this record, we did play "Movie Star" during the September iteration of New Music Night and dozens and dozens of other times as well. Swearin' is an act we expect to hear a lot from for years to come, so if you do not yet know the name, mark it well. Dig the embed below.



5. Infinity Girl -- "Please Forget" -- Stop Being On My Side

This tune explodes out of the gate, even more so when the Boston quartet plays it live, and we never got tired of spinning it this year. In fact, we don't envision getting tired of spinning it any time soon, although the tunes on Infinity Girl's brand new Just Like Lovers EP certainly give this one a run for its money. If it had money, you know, which it doesn't, 'cause it's a song. What were we talking about? Oh, right: "Please Forget," the uptempo, visceral and blurry highlight of Infinity Girl's powerful full-length debut that we reviewed here in June. It's a tidal wave of melody, noise and sentiment.



6. Hop Along -- "Lament" -- Get Disowned

It was really a toss up, which tune to choose from Philly's Hop Along. The promo track "Tibetan Pop Stars" is an unabashed, high-octane, big-statement rocker with a killer hooks and a barely contained rage. But the deeper album cut "Lament" surpasses even that excellent number on the strength of a percolating, addictive vocal melody in the chorus and the greater degree of sophistication in the arrangement. We suppose it helps that the chorus has shouty vocals apparently abetted by at least one of the dudes in the late, lamented Algernon Cadwallader, whose label Hot Green Records released Get Disowned -- a windows-wide-open-to-the-gathering-heat, coffee-cup-in-hand kinda record -- last summer. And every time we listened, when fronter Frances Quinlan hit the line "the one on the left said to the one on the right," we couldn't keep from singing along. A brilliant, brilliant song.



7. Speedy Ortiz -- "Taylor Swift" -- "Taylor Swift" b/w "Swim Fan"

At the top of this piece we referenced singing songs to ourself, and Speedy Ortiz's very catchy single "Taylor Swift" was another we found ourselves absent-mindedly singing a lot. Which made us laugh. And so we made that the hook to a brief piece we wrote for The Boston Phoenix last spring. What's funny is the chorus, "I've got a boy in a hardcore band..." certainly doesn't apply to us, but that didn't make us sing it any less. Speedy Ortiz is a band destined for a national profile, and its facility for pop hooks paired with muscled compositions boasting big guitar parts is the reason why. Years from now, fans will probably remember this single as the thing that started the whole train rolling. It's certainly unforgettable. Dig "Taylor Swift" via the embed below.



8. Dikembe -- "Not Today, Angel" -- Broad Shoulders

Apparently one never outgrows an affinity for the beautiful, brooding ballad, as Florida-based emo heroes Dikembe's "Not Today, Angel" echoes the sort of heart-rending slow burners we loved in the early '90s from bands like Codeine and Seam. We've marveled for month and months at the understated, left-field production on this number: the odd clattering percussion, the guitars just slightly feeding back to fill the ambient space, gathering like a thick, quick fog shifting around the cycling melody. The tune isn't wholly representative of the rest of the music on Dikembe's amazing full-length, Broad Shoulders, but it also isn't completely out of character either. It's a beautiful, slow-spinning center of a collection of songs bristling with energy, edge and promise, and we listened to it a hell of a lot of times, reflecting on things so remote now that they might as well have happened to completely different people.



9. Los Campesinos! -- "Tiptoe Through The True Bits" -- Hello Sadness outtake

So it's a non-album track from an album released last year, but Cardiff-based indie rock giants Los Campesinos! gave "Tiptoe Through The True Bits" an unofficial release via its blog earlier this year and the patient, pretty song permanently burrowed its way into our subconscious not long there after. Fronter Gareth Campesinos! explained that while the tune was his favorite from the sessions for the band's excellent 2011 collection Hello Sadness, the band all agreed that it didn't sit well within the context of the rest of the songs on the album. The song is amazing and soulful, but -- more importantly for us -- it speaks to our fixation on bands' unreleased material. If Los Camp! had never put this song on its blog, few of us would ever have known about it and how awesome it is. What other gems does the band, or others, have laying around? That's the sort of thing we think about a lot. Perhaps almost as much as we sang the chorus "I've been waking on your side of the bed..." to ourself this past year. Download the song here, or stream it via the embed below.



10. Johnny Foreigner -- "3 Hearts" -- Names EP

As prolific as Birmingham, England's noise pop titans Johnny Foreigner are, for some reason we were surprised when the quartet released an EP this fall. Given how monumental the task of creating and promoting 2011's epic Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything must have been, we just didn't think the band would have much in the tank. But happily we were wrong, and Johnny Foreigner in late October released its brilliant Names EP, which we reviewed here last month. The short set was released both in the US and in the UK, with each territory having one exclusive track. But it is the EP closer "3 Hearts" that sticks in our head most. The tune memorably repurposes the line from Talking Heads' "Girlfriend Is Better" to power a characteristically overdriven, exasperated tale from the quartet. The tune provides a series of huge moments that make us very, very excited about what the band will do next, an excitement that has stuck with us for going on about six years now.

Review: Dikembe | Broad Shoulders

The emo and punk scene in Gainesville, Florida has been vibrant for so very long that this blog's executive editor lost a bass player to the lure of the student mecca some 12 years ago. Dude left BOSTON -- Piebald's Boston, The Wicked Farleys' Boston -- to go to Gainesville; this really happened. Anyway, based on the strength of the debut full-length from the southern city's latest export, Gainesville's gravitational pull on the perennial population of earnest indie and hardcore kids is likely to grow yet stronger as people inevitably turn on to the brilliant emo foursome Dikembe. The fiery quartet's new album Broad Shoulders, released Tuesday by Tiny Engines (a small label whose A&R is uneffwithable), is crammed with melodic, gritty anthems concerned with the regrets and resignations that accompany coming of age. Channeled through a textural, two-guitar attack and nailed down by a charged rhythm section that pounds time to the band's punk heart, the 10 songs on Broad Shoulders crackle with energy as intensely as they ache with honest sentiment.

The collection's comfort zone is the heads-down punk boogie of jams like "Apology Not Fucking Accepted" and the ode to Gainesville "We Could Become River Rats," but Dikembe's playing is so dextrous and songwriting so well-developed that Broad Shoulders is free of tired punk and emo tropes. The scritchy guitar tone and mournful repetition of album highlight "Not Today, Angel" recalls very early Portastatic, but the rhythm section breathes a glow onto the ballad's slow burn. Melodic guitar leads arc above gathering clouds of feedback while fronter Steven Gray murmurs his incantation, his wishing away of his corroded relationship with his dad; the chorus is buttressed by a curious, canned beat buried among the song's soft, blanket-like folds. "Not Today, Angel" is a small moment of stillness on a record that otherwise shakes with energy. The relentlessly propulsive groove of "I Watch A Lot Of Jackie Chan Movies" -- which feels like it could crescendo at any moment, but just ends up eating its own tail -- echoes slithering grinds similar to those turned out these days by Western, Mass.-based indie heroes Speedy Ortiz. Stream "Jackie Chan" and a few other selections from the album via the Soundcloud embed below.

Broad Shoulders is clearly excellent on its own merits, but it is especially gratifying for those of us still lamenting the demise of late, great Brooklyn indie punks Meneguar, who quietly called it quits in 2008 after releasing its third record, the fairly weird The In Hour (the debut I Was Born At Night and 2007's Strangers In Our House, however, are stone-cold classics). So to Meneguar fans we say, "have no fear, your ship has finally come in." Broad Shoulders was released Aug. 14 on limited edition 12" and digital download and is available for purchase right here. The vinyl comes in an edition of 500 pieces, 100 of which are clear "with blue smoke," 150 dark orange and 250 light brown. Dikembe's long player was preceded by the free, digital-only EP Chicago Bowls, which was released in 2011 and is still available for free download right here.

Dikembe: Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube

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