Today's Hotness: The Hush Now, R.M. Hendrix

>> The Hush Now's fidelity to tradition persists, a small but beautiful thing we've come to count on, a little consistency in a crazy world. Like morning frosts and 4PM sunsets, the Boston-based dream-pop quintet returns, here with a third annual Halloween-themed treat in hand, this one titled "The Flapper." The jaunty song reinforces our long-held belief that singer and founder Noel Kelly and his merry men could easily be raking in dough on the side writing pop gems for Disney soundtracks. "The Flapper" rests upon a winking guitar lick and a sturdy beat, both of which provide a platform for Kelly's strong, soulful voice, creepy leads from guitarist Adam Quane and dusty organ from key stroker John Millar Jon Rosen [sorry Jon! -- Ed.]. As entrancing as the tune is, we are curious to know whether there is an extended version somewhere, as we'd certainly like to hear more of the stone groove the quintet digs as the song heads into the fade, where dubby reverb hits the drum kit and synth noodles scurry like creeping insects (this latter part reminds us of a passage from some electric Miles Davis jam we can't put our ears on right now). Previous Halloween numbers from The Hush Now include 2011's "The Legend Of Dudley Town" [playlisted] and 2010's "Please Mephistopheles (Leave Me Alone)" [blogged]. Check out the latest offering via the embed below; you can also download the joint from Bandcamp right here, where you will find most if not all of the band's catalog available for free download. The Hush Now in recent days have been tracking tunes for a new planned full-length, its fourth, at Allston's Mad Oak Studios. Check out the band's Facebook page for photos from the ongoing sessions.



>> Boston-based graphic designer and music DIY-er R.M. Hendrix last month issued the latest in a long strand of releases, the dense, droning psych-pop platter Pink Skin EP. The short set trades in big, effected guitars and driving drum beats, all cleanly captured to tape (or, more likely these days, ones and zeroes) for maximum impact. "Last Days of Black" commences with cool guitar noise loops before a slinky bass enters and clears room for some massive guitar swaths. Just as quickly, Mr. Hendrix's voice comes in, recalling Adam Franklin's effortlessly cool speak-sing in Swervedriver, or even the Brit-affected warbling of Robert Pollard. The real jewel is the final track, "Lipstick and Perfect Hair." A jangling rock structure plays underneath disorienting guitar strums that aim to disrupt the classic college rock vibe that carries the song. The track evokes Lenola's first album (or maybe at times Julie Ocean) in its youthful power-pop innocence, paired perfectly with queasy histrionics. Pink Skin, available on CD and digitally, was conceived by Hendrix earlier this year and eventually mastered by Starflyer 59's Jason Martin. Hendrix, formerly of indie rockers Flannery, has apparently been slyly producing music for nearly as long as his particular strain of the genre has existed -- at least one song at his web site dates back to 1996. Peruse the entire catalog right here. Could R.M. Hendrix be the R. Stevie Moore of shoegaze? The world could certainly use more of those. -- Edward Charlton

Today's Hotness: A Weather, Like A Fox

>> We've started considering what our year-end lists will look like, and one of the more difficult decisions is going to be where in the top five to place A Weather's Cove. We think the set is flawless, but the question that we'll grapple with over the next several weeks is whether the inspiration we derived from it exceeds that of other releases (the identities of which devoted readers can likely posit). We received A Weather's amazing debut late last year, reviewed it here in February, and it was officially released in March on Conor Oberst's Team Love imprint. It is a quiet, intimate and boundlessly sweet stunner. And yet the band has, likely unintentionally, remained somewhat enigmatic because of a very, very low profile. Sure, Pantsfork reviewed the record. But while A Weather toured the west in September, the Portland, Ore.-based quartet/sometimes quintet has never made it to the east coast in support of the record. At least as far as we know, and despite two band members being from New England and a third from Baltimore. But we continue to hope that we'll catch A Weather performing someday. Embedded above is the cute video for the album closer "It's Good To Know," which features prominent contributions from some stuffed animals, which puts the band on twee-ness par with London-based Psapp. Check back next month to see where Cove ends up on our list of the Best Records Of 2008.

>> [UPDATED] Philadelphia-based quintet Like A Fox, the latest vehicle de indie rock of long-time scenemaker Jay Laughlin, issued its sophomore full-length Where's My Golden Arm? last week. The music's kaleidoscopic mash of influences conveys an affinity for David Bowie and T. Rex filtered through modern indie pastiche proponents like Grandaddy and The Elevator Drops. That band leader Mr. Laughlin's singing voice is a dead ringer for that of Grandaddy's Jason Lytle reinforces that comparison song after song on Where's My Golden Arm?, particularly the tracks "On The Way" and the triumphant anthem "Been Sitting Here." Philly indie fans will recall that Laughlin previously fronted New Jersey's Lenola, a band that became dramatically more interesting to us after we learned that Laughlin previously played guitar in one of our favorite hardcore bands, Turning Point. Over the course of nine years Lenola released three full-lengths and scads of EPs and singles, although the final long-player -- a double album -- was only released in Europe and Japan, according to this Wikipedia entry. At any rate, Like A Fox takes Lenola's skewed pop tendencies and layers in light electronic tones and beats, more often than not over a bed of acoustic guitar. Transit Of Venus issued Where's My Golden Arm? Oct. 28, and the label has been cool enough to let us give away a copy of the record. The first person to email us (address is in the sidebar) a message with the words "Golden Arm" in the subject line will receive the CD in the mail from us in short order. In the meantime, here's an MP3 to whet your appetite, again courtesy of the fine folks at Transit Of Venus. [Congratulations to reader Jeff for winning a copy of Where's My Golden Arm?]

Like A Fox -- "Night Person" -- Where's My Golden Arm?
[right click and save as]
[buy Where's My Golden Arm? from Transit Of Venus right here]

Clicky Clicky Hardcorner: Before They Were Indie Rockers

The impending release of Julie Ocean's shiny debut Long Gone And Nearly There, as well as the hardcore-referencing Philly sports blog Choketown that our friend TymMac has started contributing to, has gotten us thinking about writing some posts about indie rockers and the hardcore bands from whence they came. You may recall that one of Julie Ocean's members formerly served time in the stunning D.C. hardcore act Swiz, whose No Punches Pulled release is as forthright and powerful a hardcore record as they come. Along the same lines, we recall years ago being amazed to learn that one of the fellows from (erstwhile?) Philly indie band-about-town Lenola once played guitar in one of New Jersey's finest straightedge bands, Turning Point. We once traded several Van Halen and Judas Priest vinyl albums for about as many hardcore records. And while we likely came out on the short end of the deal, our copy of Turning Point's It's Always Darkest Before The Dawn pressed to clear vinyl is a cherished possession. We were too lazy to rip the album, but EMusic did the heavy lifting for us by selling the band's Discography. There are a couple choice tunes below from Swiz and Turning Point. Look for our review of the Julie Ocean record in a couple weeks.

Swiz -- "Ghost" -- No Punches Pulled
Swiz -- "Toon" -- No Punches Pulled
[right click and save as]
[buy No Punches Pulled from Jade Tree here]

Turning Point -- "Shadow Of Lies" -- Discography
Turning Point -- "Guidance" -- Discography
[right click and save as]
[buy Turning Point's Discography from Jade Tree here]