Today's Hotness: Auburn Lull, Jawbreaker Reunion, Gingerlys, Hard Left

>> We have not yet familiarized ourselves with the ample back catalog (it stretches back to 1999) of the perfectly monikered, Lansing, Mich.-based ambient drone outfit Auburn Lull. But if the magnificence of the quintet's latest cassette is any indication, such an exploration will be well worth the time. New release Hiber is the act's first in six years and it is out now on the immaculately conceived Geographic Northern label -- whose products are as gorgeous and special on the outside as the sounds contained therein. And praise be to Eno, what sounds they are! Hiber contains five mostly instrumental tracks (a Will-o'-the-wisp female vocal occasionally appears), two of which are shorter pieces that bridge between three protracted drone suites. Opener "Moterm" melds guitars and synths into the round, sustained tones of a woodblock, mapping the general approach of Hiber as impressively calibrated guitar pedals create masterful texture, depth and space in refreshing ways with each new song. The opener leads into "CA1," wherein a gentle, alien motif iterates across a bed of icy, echoed guitar leads and warm hums. The track evokes the delicate silence of a winter's first snow, gentle reflections of a crisp, sunny day, or caverns of warmth in a freshly made bed. Later, the title track introduces a screwy piano to the mix, unfolding a complicated pattern of single left-hand notes that arguably resemble some section of a solo rendition of a Debussy number -- if ole' Claude had been a shoegazer. Auburn Lull save the best for last, as "Static Partition" makes for fascinating, stereo-panned ear candy. Bizarre, tremolo effects pitch over backwards while a bright, siren-like lead dances between the strange rhythms. White noises and found sounds creep in through the gaps and valleys of the arrangement -- specks of detail that come and go as each song awakens, breathes, and dies. You can hear the entire new collection via the Soundcloud embed below. Buy the tape, limited to 100 copies encased in blueberry-colored plastic, from Geographic North right here. -- Edward Charlton



>> From the same Bard College house show circuit that likely birthed the terrifically original lo-fi rock of the repeatedly Clicky'd Palberta come cohorts Jawbreaker Reunion, whose latest release recently found its way to our inbox. The awesomely titled Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club materialized in late May as a pay-what-you-like download at Bandcamp, and it is filled with warm, surfy, girl-group-referencing rock. It brims with memorable melodies, especially in the vocals of co-fronting Jawbreaker, Lily. Her lyrics regularly focus on humorous and awkward moments of collegiate life, as in party stompers like "Jeggings," "Bear and Loathing," "Straightedge Revenge" and "Friends Theme Song." Every member of the band contributes to songwriting, and each of the aforementioned tunes perfectly pairs carefree instrumentation with snarky lines that must work wonders during a dimly lit house show. It's when the band looks beyond goofball antics, though, that a certain bruised emotional core reveals itself. Album highlight "E.M.O." in particular is terrifically affecting, with innocent, verses transitioning to a great, high-hat filled chorus. The spiraling lead guitars and haunting lyric "I don't want to wait anymore" elevates the band from a fun, party-rocking concern to an act whose melodies melt hearts. As with aforementioned peers Palberta, there is just the right amount of recklessness to Jawbreaker Reunion's tunes to lend a bit of crackling chaos to their characteristically straightforward pop structures. It's the sum of all of that -- the chaos, the accessible emotional payload, the sheer youthful fun of it all -- that ultimately distinguishes Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club and makes it something you will press play on over and over again. Listen to the entire set via the Bandcamp embed below. -- Edward Charlton



>> Shelflife Records will release July 8 Valley Stream, New York indie-pop outfit Gingerlys' debut EP, Jumprope, which features four perfectly realized, fizzy strummers. The opening title track lays the foundation for the entire short programme, but the EP really takes flight during its second song, the beautiful, uptempo "Summer Cramps," which echoes wonderfully the detached dreaminess of Chapterhouse's legendary 1991 album opener "Breather." Gingerlys' high-pitched, simple synth lines run over top electric and acoustic guitars while dynamic drumming steadily pushes the buoyant jangle to the edge of panic. Maria Garnica's lead vocals provide a catchy, sultry counterpoint to the relatively clean-cut, conventional instrumentation. Often, her wordless oohs and ahs are the best hooks on the disc, and they are the source of so much of what lends the quintet's tunes a sensual dimension. Her ever-present pillowy synth lines anchor the songs, and remind this reviewer of The Wake's epic 1985 album Here Comes Everybody. Closer "Set You Off" increases the guitar interplay with colorful, chorused leads, and emphasize the dual vocals of Garnica and songwriter Matt Richards, as well, imbuing the proceedings with even more of a C86-revival feel. Fans of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart or Minks take note! Consider grabbing for this great introduction to Gingerlys instead; Jumprope is available in a limited edition of 300 vinyl singles and as a digital download. Pre-order the EP from Shelflife right here and stream it via the Soundcloud embed below. -- Edward Charlton



>> "What's that sound? Boredom!" So goes the refrain of "What's That Sound?," the electrifying debut single from Hard Left, a Slumberland Records supergroup featuring members of Boyracer, Manatee and #1 Smash Hits. The recording sounds as fun as it must have been for this group to conceive. The single, released through the label's Soundcloud account and embedded for your consideration below, is a wonderful throwback to primo early punk, with growled backing vocals a la Gang Of Four, and three chords wrapped in just the right amount of vintage fuzz tone. The band inhabits the retro sound, and leverages its bombast to carry youthful and vibrant political messages to an indie rock community that (in our opinion) collectively could use a lesson in the importance -- nay, necessity -- of protest and politics in music. That said, it's a touch funny to hear these folks in a band like this, as in their youth certain of them were busy providing an alternative to this type of music within the Washington, D.C. -area. But desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Let's hope there is more like this coming, both from Hard Left and others, because -- as the band reminds us -- "Suck-cess is not far away!" Listen via the Soundcloud embed below. -- Edward Charlton

Review: Ava Luna | Electric Balloon

Has there ever, in the now-actually lengthy history of indie rock, been a more apt descriptor for a band than "nervous soul," a tag some likely under-appreciated genius bestowed upon New York funk-punk (errrr... we mean "nervous-soul") quintet Ava Luna?

Ava Luna takes cues from classic soul and R&B, as well as the smart-guy tropes of turn-of-the-'80s bands including Talking Heads and Gang Of Four, and synthesizes them within its own skewed but wholly modern aesthetic. This is not to suggest that Ava Luna's music is overtly clinical: opener "Daydream" or the totally tweaked "Sears Roebuck M&Ms" provide ample evidence to the contrary, expressed in terms of devastating, Parliament-channeling groove. Indeed, Electric Balloon smoothly splits the difference between real-deal soul and the nervy indie rock that Ava Luna principals Julian Fader and Carlos Hernandez have become known for crafting as producers. Call it a late-night jazz club jam remade for the basement shows set, arrived at as much by significant deconstruction and reduction as by appropriation.

Chatter regarding Electric Balloon deems it the more accessible of Ava Luna's two long players. While that may be true, the music is still far from a conventional. Stylistically, the band is all over the place. Bits of jagged, angular post-punk, loose funk, and slow-jam R&B all coexist within the space of these 11 tracks, sometimes skillfully blended, sometimes swapped in an out for one another in rapid succession. What makes the record so compelling (as well as the band on the whole, really), is how fluent and capable the players are in wielding these varied musical vernaculars. It all flows from the rhythm section. Mr. Fader is an especially tight drummer, and locks the band into formidable grooves on songs such as the aforementioned "Sears Roebuck"; he routinely dishes out thrilling and compact fills, even when the song arrangements are at their most stark. He also ably applies nuanced syncopation, like on the stop-start dynamics of late-album highlight "Genesee," where his light touch on the hi-hat is often the only thing holding the sparse arrangement together.

The vocal work from all three singers is impeccable throughout, with Mr. Hernandez, Rebecca Kauffman and Felicia Douglass each taking show-stopping turns at the mic. The band's greatest moment may well be the classic-rock baiting, massive song suite "Plain Speech." Commencing with a brilliant staccato riff from Hernandez, the song deftly shifts to half-time for the chorus while lush vocal harmonies bloom brightly from the pocket like they have something urgent to deliver. They probably don't, and Ava Luna doesn't seem push any particular message. Which is fine by us; we don't need to know the lyrics to groove, baby, and the weight of preachy didactics is probably best left, for present purposes anyway, in the past with the aforementioned Gang Of Four. Blunt politics would only drag down Electric Balloon, and that would be a cardinal sin, as Ava Luna's fluid grace and resolutely cerebral hymns for the hips clearly thrive in their unfettered state. Electric Balloon is out now via Western Vinyl, you can grab it on vinyl or CD right here. Stream the album's two opening cuts as well as the space-ghostly soul ballad "PRPL" via the Bandcamp embed below. The band is currently on tour with bugcore heroes Krill; the remaining tour dates are listed below. -- Dillon Riley



03.08 -- Albuquerque, NM -- The Sister
03.12 -- Austin, TX -- EIS/Impose Showcase
03.13 -- Austin, TX -- Western Vinyl Showcase
03.13 -- Austin, TX -- Father Daughter Showcase
03.14 -- New Orleans, LA -- Tulane
03.14 -- New Orleans, LA -- Siberia
03.17 -- Atlanta, GA -- Mammal Gallery
03.18 -- Charlotte, NC -- Snug Harbor
03.19 -- Durham, NC -- Pinhook
03.20 -- Richmond, VA -- Gallery 5
03.21 -- Washington, DC -- The Dunes
03.22 -- Baltimore, MD -- The Crown
03.23 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Golden Tea House
03.25 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Silent Barn

Today's Hotness: Steiner, Protomartyr, Goddam Nobody

>> The placidly spiraling first label release from self-styled "non-guitarist with a guitar" Steiner, the nom de guerre of Belgian Stijn Hüwels, is a captivating collection of ambient compositions. The set, titled At Or From A Distance, will be issued Feb. 17 via London-based experimental label Glass Reservoir in a limited edition of 50 handmade CDs or as a digital download. Each of the seven tracks contained therein gorgeously swell with gently modulating guitar samples that cycle in and out of perception like so many ocean waves. The compositions are virtually edgeless and form a lush, connected suite that would play perfectly as a score to emotional scenes from a futuristic sci-fi romance. Opener "Topography/Hiro (I)" emerges from atypically utilized white noise and distant whispers, but before long Steiner throws the switch on a looping and smooth long-form delay melody that repeats as echoes from a field recording construct an aural atmosphere to house it. "Unsettling (Evening Before Bedtime) (VII)" patiently strides along long ambient drones, while a melody fighting the monotone underneath powers the piece's great push-and-pull motion. This builds in intensity and volume until the four-minute mark, where the piece suddenly embraces a complex strum that ultimately brakes up, evaporating into dead air. "The Opposite Of Now (VI)" is a distinct highlight, perhaps Steiner's "pop song" of sorts. The composition wanders peacefully but eventually locks into a motif that is both uplifting and elegiac; its repetition is as entrancing as it is catchy, and reinforces the cinematic charm of the entire collection. Stream the set's "I Seem To Glimpse You In Every Window (II)" via the Soundcloud embed below. Pre-orders for At Or From A Distance -- surely another unqualified victory for Glass Reservoir -- will be taken (here, in all likelihood) beginning Jan. 31. -- Edward Charlton



>> Detroit post-punk unit Protomartyr will April 8 issue what promises to be a cracking sophomore long-player, Under Color Of Official Right, via Sub Pop-offshoot Hardly Art. The first preview track from the quartet's forthcoming, 14-song set is the anxious and menacing exhortation "Scum, Rise!" The track exudes the sort of early post-industrial nihilism and defeat whose roots clutch late-'70s England, where acts like Joy Division and Gang Of Four internalized and then memorialized the physical and spiritual decay of Manchester and Leeds respectively. The members of Protomartyr likely need not look for inspiration -- or, indeed, whatever the opposite of inspiration is -- outside the confines of their native Detroit (the metropolis is presently bankrupt, although its art holdings were recently saved from liquidation by $330 million in donations). Perhaps as a result of the strife in their environs, perhaps not, "Scum, Rise!" seethes within its atmosphere of boxy reverb. Discordant guitar notes pulse in the space between fuzzy floods of stinging chords and hungry cymbal crashes, while fronter Joey Casey drawls verses through gritted teeth. The tune is as bracing as it is harrowing, particularly as Mr. Casey warns "there's nothing you can do, nothing you can do, nothing you can do, nothing you can do..." While it is harder and darker than the earlier tunes posted to Soundcloud, "Scum, Rise!" throbs with vitality and will certainly keen the interest of post-punk adherents. Pre-orders for Under Color Of Official Right are not yet being taken, but watch this space. Stream "Scum, Rise!" via the Soundcloud embed below. Protomartyr's prior label Urinal Cake reported here earlier this week that it has sold out of a second pressing of the Detroit act's 2012 debut LP No Passion All Technique; the first pressing sold out in less than two months.



>> Let's leap from Hardly Art to Art Is Hard, because life should be mildly confusing but filled with indie rock and exciting verbs. Exeter-based Art Is Hard is relaunching its rock-solid Pizza Club single series for 2014 (they spent 2013 away from pizza boxes but engaged in a similar enterprise via postcard). Every other Friday this year Art Is Hard will reveal an exclusive single for free download, and then sells only four (that's right, four) hard copies; the hard copies come on a 5" CD stuffed into a 7" pizza box (hence the series' moniker). In 2012, these hard copies were snatched up in seconds, so if you are a physical media completist with an ear for great indie pop, prepare for routine, crushing disappointment -- but also regularly dispensed bits of indie pop delight. The price for the singles series ranges from free to a mind-boggling ₤125, but sadly, that deluxe top tier (which included a pizza date with the label proprietors) is completely sold out; read all the other pricing details right here. The first single of 2014 is a lovely and blurry pop strummer from Falmouth bedroom-pop concern Goddam Nobody, the brainchild of one Matthew Oliver. Mr. Oliver's tune is called "Cut And Paste To Waste," and it evokes images of crushed wet leaves in the gutter and rain streaking across the windows of a train car. After a solemn introduction of backwards guitar, lo-fi production and cloudy reverbs crowd layers of wistful vocals, pretty, chorus-pedaled guitar and steady drumming. It's Phil Spector's wall of sound gone haywire, an aquarium whose water needed to be changed months ago, but the noise does not thwart the composition but instead strikes a balance that, ultimately, imbues the shiny pop beneath with a warm glow. "Cut And Paste To Waste" is an exception to Art Is Hard's practice of only releasing exclusive material, as the tune was the title cut to a Golden Oldies-influenced EP self-released in late 2013. So, to review: Pizza Club is back for 2014, stream "Cut And Paste To Waste" via the embed below.

Today's Hotness: Markus Mehr, Joey Fourr, Eagulls

>> Although Clicky HQ typically focuses on matters guitar and pop -- whatever that means these days -- we also enjoy the kaleidoscopic world of electronic music, and we're endeavoring to re-engage with it editorially after some time away. We've warmly received the new full-length from Augsburg, Germany-based ambient electronic artist Markus Mehr. Out July 17th on Hidden Shoal Recordings, On is Mr. Mehr's third record working under his own name; it is filled with immaculately constructed instrumentals, appointed with imaginative instrumentation and illuminating samples, that are as soothing as they are transporting. While much non-"pop" electronic music is rooted firmly in repetition, Mehr impresses with his ability to proffer a different approach to his craft with each song here. Lead single "Flaming Youth" doesn't develop dramatically, with its buzzing stereo entrance and a locked-groove horn sample instead steadily exhaling and inhaling across seven minutes. The intro evokes the summertime sounds of a busy bug zapper, before settling into a lush and beautiful motif that recalls the Canadian-metropolitan beauty of certain Broken Social Scene instrumentals. The real gems of On are the one-two punch at the close of the record. The aptly titled "Monks On The Beach" presents an ethereal chant smothered with static and multiple tracks of childish conversation tied together with a subtle, distorted bass guitar pulse. The song builds to the massive finale "Tunnels," itself a gradually swelling behemoth. Chirping phasing sounds give way to a persistent three-chord piano figure that suddenly yields to a series of gargantuan distorted piano slams. With each strike Mehr subtly tweaks the fuzz with flanges and clipping until the tempo climaxes and the song implodes. Like a lot of the best artists within this genre attracting wider audiences (Fennesz, Eluvium and the great William Basinski to name a few), Mehr is able to infuse his art with cool effortlessness and power sufficient to hold a mirror to the listener's soul with a series of patient epiphanies. Buy On from Hidden Shoal right here and download "Flaming Youth" via the embed below. -- Edward Charlton



>> Given the great degree to which we've enjoyed the music the label puts out (seriously, have you heard this?), it is surprising we're only just now mentioning Art Is Hard's delightful biweekly 5" Pizza Club single series (each pizza-printed CD comes in a limited physical edition of ONE in a handmade pizza box). One recent track from the series has burrowed particularly deeply into the Clicky Clicky hive mind, the lightly psychedelic single "Cross Dresser" from Joey Fourr, a nom de rock of Joseph Prendergast, fronter of English alt-rockers Tubelord. The single is a galloping indie rocker with a trampled lead falsetto vocal and very cool production flourishes. Starting with a dance floor-ready electronic beat and distorted rhythm guitars, the tune showcases an insistent lead riff that repeatedly crops up throughout. And what a lead it is, effectively winning the award for the "What Instrument Is Making That Weird Sound?" category. Like some sort of hell-bent whistling, the genius of "Cross Dresser" is in how hard it is to place the source material. Is that a maniacal guitar? A broken synthesizer? The lone physical manifestation of "Cross Dresser" is of course sold out, but the song will appear in/on an upcoming Joey Fourr zine/EP titled How To Buy Happiness from Art Is Hard, so stay tuned. The Pizza Club series is worth following not just for the quality of the tunes offered, but also the sheer generosity of a label that is so willing to give away quality tunes twice a month. We're currently unable to make the embed of "Cross Dresser" work, so make certain to do yourself a favor and get the track for free right here. -- Edward Charlton

>> Leeds-based rockers Eagulls recently announced a self-titled 12" vinyl EP for release July 16th on the Sexbeat Records imprint whose lead track "Coffin" is a unabashed, collar-grabbing, big-guitar anthem. Like the critically acclaimed newcomers Iceage, Eagulls top precise drumming and hotly-recorded, progressive guitars with classic punk yelping, all on display here with "Coffin," an embed of which is below. The opening guitar riff sets things up with an inviting and detailed flange that falsely advertises as a Catherine Wheel song before the rhythm section snaps listeners to attention. The self-described "progressive punks" would seem to be part of a rising European scene of tough yet intellectual rockers that borrow as much from America's post-hardcore heritage as their own dreamier and excogitated indie pedigree. And perhaps the song is a narrative for this generation of European indie bands: with a crumbling EU economy, mass unemployment and other tensions continually pervading every facet of life, what's a young person to do but sit in their room and come to terms with the fact that it's a different world than was promised, much as Leeds' post-punk godfathers Gang Of Four did three decades ago. The Eagulls EP comes on green vinyl and features a poster drawn by the band themselves. Order direct from the label here. -- Edward Charlton