Today's Hotness: Joey Fourr, Poledo, Owls, Speedy Ortiz

>> Loyal Clicky Clicky readers last year no doubt noticed our regular coverage of the releases from Exeter, England-based Art Is Hard Records, a little label that had a terrific 2013. The concern Wednesday announced its latest endeavor, an ambitious split 12" to be issued in tandem with Glasgow imprint Reeks Of Effort. The LP -- the existence of which was first tipped in the NME in early December -- is cheekily titled Art Reeks, and it features songs from rising UK noise-pop heroes all Radstewart, Joey Fourr, Pinact and Poledo. Each of the four bands has a pair of songs on the 12", and two tunes, Joey Fourr's "Born Slippery" and Oxford-based Poledo's "King Of Cool," are available to stream now ahead of a March 3 street date for the set. We've followed the meandering musical path of Joey Fourr pretty closely around these parts, and while a recent very grungy release felt a little hollow, the yearning strummer "Born Slippery" featured on Art Reeks is understatedly urgent and wholly affecting, touting a simple, danceable beat and some tidy harmonies. Poledo's preview track is a guitar-heavy and shouty blazer that, despite the band's Dinosaur Jr.-referencing name, seems to instead take a page from the Superchunk playbook. Which we think everyone agrees is a good thing. Reeks Of Effort, for those not in the know, is a small indie run by members of the white-hot noise-pop combo Joanna Gruesome; that act's Weird Sister LP was among Clicky Clicky's favorite releases of 2013. Incidentally, Joanna Gruesome also contributed two tunes to Art Is Hard's first quad-split, the Family Portrait 7" issued in June 2012 (which also featured Playlounge, Gum and Keel Her). Art Reeks will be pressed to white vinyl in a limited edition of 300 relatively flat circles and placed in hand-numbered sleeves. Pre-order the set via this link, and stream "Born Slippery" and "King Of Cool" via the embeds below, and sit back wait to see what voodoo Art Is Hard comes up with next.





>> The debut LP from Owls was really the last time we kept close tabs on the brothers Kinsella and basically the entire Cap'n Jazz cohort save for Davey von Bohlen, whose tuneful bands Maritime and the defunct The Promise Ring are unceasingly delightful. We were as surprised as the next guy when it was disclosed two years ago that Owls had re-formed, although we suppose nothing should have surprised us after the Cap'n Jazz reunion shows of 2010. So maybe we're just stupid and/or short-sighted. Whatever our problem might be aside, Owls have finally disclosed it will issue a second long-player, simply titled Two, via Polyvinyl March 25th. Two will be issued on all the currently acceptable media, including vinyl and cassette, and pre-orders -- including a number of compelling bundle options -- are being taken right here. The first 800 copies of Two sold will be pressed to orange vinyl, which around Clicky Clicky HQ is actually a pretty enticing product feature; some additional quantity of records will be available at retail on light blue vinyl. The original Owls LP - which was reissued on vinyl a couple years ago -- is a beautifully jagged collection of post-punk, and one we listened to constantly throughout the early 2000s. Hopes for the new collection are high, and the preview track "I'm Surprised..." is quite promising. The tune feels slightly restrained, in the sense that it is more formal and less loose than the free-wheeling and beautiful weirdness that was the hallmark of the self-titled collection. Fronter Tim Kinsella is reliably odd, but keeps his characteristic caterwauling in check, taking a more contemplative tack and pushing out syllables largely in-time to the chugging bass line. A swell of feedback balloons toward the close of "I'm Surprised," but it politely fails to overtake the proceedings. Even if there is no more explosive fare on Two, it's still a delight to have these guys (or rather, this particular combination of these guys) back. Stream "I'm Surprised..." via the embed below.



>> Honestly, we were going to try to ignore for the time being the release of "American Horror," the second "single" -- which these days is apparently a term equivalent to "promotional track," the latter being a term we prefer here at HQ, because a single to us is a thing you can buy, a thing that carries a catalog number, like FAC-13 or DRYL 11, not just a thing you can hear on the Internet, but we digress, see how we digressed? -- from Speedy Ortiz' forthcoming Real Hair EP, which is due next month on Carpark. We wanted to ignore "American Horror" temporarily because we're weeks away from drafting a complete review of the brilliant quartet's four-song EP, but this song is just so massive we can't help but engage with it at least superficially now. Indeed, we're compulsively listening to the thing over and over. And over. "American Horror," which leads Real Hair, is an explosive and noisy (and, we should say, radio-ready) gem, shot through with unforgettable melodies. The lyrics deal with watching a loved one struggle with mental health issues, and despite the seriousness of the subject matter fronter Sadie Dupuis is still able to forge perhaps her most undeniably sing-alongable chorus since the "Taylor Swift" single, no small feat. "...BABY YOU FEEL SO CRA-ZEEEE..." See? Stream the track via the Soundcloud embed below. And if you still haven't pre-ordered Real Hair, Jiminy Crickets, what the hell is wrong with you? Pre-order right here (more orange vinyl!). Speedy Ortiz is out on tour now and pretty much forever; we look forward to seeing them open up for Los Campesinos! Jan. 21 here in Boston at the Paradise Rock Club.

Review: Everyone Everywhere | Everyone Everywhere (2012)

We flip through Martin Esslin's "The Theater of the Absurd" occasionally, driven by a recollection of how the book miraculously seemed to illuminate everything -- not just theater, not just literature -- when we read it a couple decades back. Criticism of texts concerned with the innate absurdity of the human condition and the inane social constructs created to deal with it: it seemed like the ultimate decoder ring for a disaffected late teen.

And while we can never regain that feeling of encountering a unified theory of everything within the pages of the book, its summation of Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming," seems particularly relevant to the work of Philadelphia-based emo heroes Everyone Everywhere: "the play presents a sequence of realistic (or at least realistically explicable) events which at the same time could be, might well be, fantasy, a wish-fulfillment dream. On either level the play makes sense. But its poetic force lies in the ambivalence between them."

It's a broad leap, the one that gets you from criticism of modern theater to the key to the latest record by a superlative contemporary punk rock act, but not an impossible one. Everyone Everywhere's wide-eyed observations and elegant arrangements of electric guitars, vocals and harmonies, and rhythm section regularly steer toward the absurd. One of many highlights from the band's first full-length (also self-titled, an especially absurd move post-Weezer), the song "Music Work Paper Work," contains the lyric "look in the mirror and try to raise one eyebrow... it's pretty weird." Out of context it seems like an arch statement, but the majority of Everyone Everywhere fronter Brendan McHugh's lyrics address the mundane and frame it with a sense of innocent wonder. And maybe it's delivered with a wink and maybe it's not: as stated supra, the poetic force lies in the ambivalence. Accepting that ambiguity doesn't render confronting it any less tiring, however, as acknowledged by McHugh's weary yen for escape in opener "I Feel Exhausted" ("live in daydreams / I choose fiction / I feel exhausted"). Indeed, ambiguity (a critic dealing with a larger subject might instead here say modernity) and efforts to confront it echo the attractive, prickly friction between Mr. McHugh's Slacker-styled lyrical bent and the cracking, buoyant punk the quartet (rounded out by drummer Brendan Graham, guitarist Tommy Manson and bassist Scottoline) emits.

The music on the new long-player is as bracing as ever, and it continues to rely on big melodies, pulse-quickening tempos, wiry guitar leads and well-measured dynamics to please the palate of today's discerning indie rocker. Everyone Everywhere has somehow managed to up its already very substantial pop game to Davey Von Bohlen-levels of genius, a prime example of which is album closer "Wild Life," which would have been at home on any of the recent Maritime LPs. Like those of New Order's Bernard Sumner, McHugh's lyrics have historically seemed less than weighty ("Cool Pool Keg Toss Pete" from the 2008 EP A Lot Of Weird People Standing Around describes a really awesome party), but succeed every time because of a throbbing emotional resonance. On the new collection they are perhaps as emotional as the tag "emo" suggests: far from playfully threatening to throw an empty keg and lawn chairs into a pool, McHugh here is anxious, worried, sweating the big things and deeply personal things. The stunning emotional core of the record is laid bare during the chorus to "No Furniture," when -- after describing the atmosphere of a recently cleaned-out apartment, collateral damage to a collapsed relationship -- the rhythm section and guitars back off and McHugh pleads "spare me the car ride home." He desperately reasons "we can move around, do nothing, say nothing" and later, sardonically, "I guess it's fine we can all go and do whatever we want." It's a tragic resignation to a new reality. And it is the sort of powerful narrative that, coupled with the band's increasingly deft composition, leads this reviewer to where he doesjn't want to go, because the assessment oversimplifies the very significant accomplishment that is Everyone Everywhere (2012): the new record is the product of maturity as much as it is a product of skill. Whatever the reason, Everyone Everywhere, self-released by the band last month and available for sale right here on blue-green vinyl and digital download, is a triumph.

Everyone Everywhere: Internet | Facebook | Bandcamp

Out Today: Maritime's Human Hearts

We almost feel bad for Davey Von Bohlen. The fact that he was a part of the legendary Cap'n Jazz, and that he fronted highly revered, third wave emo stand-outs The Promise Ring, means that it's usually a couple dozen words into any blog post about what he's been up to for the last five years before you even see the name Maritime. There, we just did it again. But today marks the release of Maritime's fourth full-length, a set characteristically stacked with Von Bohlen's melodic and yearning genius. Have you seen the video for "Paraphernalia" yet? As we quipped on Twitter last month, the video makes us realize we wasted the winter doing crap that was not as fun as this. But anyway, you should just surrender now. What Mr. Von Bohlen does is too potent to be characterized as simple, but simple is what it is: perfect melodies, big guitars. It's a formula that worked wonders with 2006's We, The Vehicles and 2007's Heresy & The Hotel Choir. And it works here. We only see a few live dates on the books for the band currently, but we expect it shan't be long before Maritime is out promoting this one, so use the time in the interim to learn all the words. You'll want to sing along. Human Hearts was released by Dangerbird Records.

Review: Walter Schreifels | An Open Letter To The Scene [MP3]

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Walter Schreifels' new record is that it sounds completely effortless, like the hardcore/post-hardcore luminary is not even breaking a sweat, like the music simply exists out there in the universe waiting to flow through whenever Mr. Schreifels picks up a guitar and opens his mouth. There are, of course, other surprises: for example, sometimes when Schreifels here picks up a guitar and opens his mouth the music sounds like Squeeze, or John Cougar, or Maritime. But these surprises do not eclipse Schreifels' startling ease with acoustic pop in the wake of decades in which he helped define New York Hardcore with Gorilla Biscuits and then mapped successive escape routes from the genre beginning with the incendiary post-hardcore act Quicksand. More years and more bands followed, and now, finally, Schreifels released last week a record under his own name.

Let's reiterate: it is odd -- at least for those of us who have only anecdotally followed Schreifels' career for the last decade -- to hear one of the most important figures in hardcore music release a record of beautiful acoustic pop. Schreifels' web site contains a note stating this is the sort of material he has been playing in acoustic sets in recent years; the note also states the songwriter had been looking to The Beatles, The Byrds and Donovan for inspiration as he was writing An Open Letter To The Scene. But it is not the influence of classic rock bands that makes the record special, it is the synthesis of those bands and others, and a synthesis of that music and Schreifels' facility with hooks and emotive lyrics.

The addictive album opener "Arthur Lee's Lullabye" is perhaps as much about the legendary fronter of Love as it is about Schreifels himself proclaiming his own freedom from his musical past ("the scene, you don't need them"). The title track may be, as friend and Daily Buzzard scribe Jim suggests, Mr. Schreifels' eulogy for the hardcore scene or CBGB's (or both). Our take is the tune is a light-hearted shot at those who have taken hardcore and Schreifels so seriously that he is compelled to write a song that closes a chapter in his life. In that context, An Open Letter To The Scene is a classic Dear John letter. It's not you, reader, it's Walter. Even so, discussion of the larger themes at play does a disservice to the sublime moments scattered across the record: the da-da-da's in "She Is To Me;" the world-weary drawl of the first line in the second verse of "Save The Saveables;" the poignant, soft electric piano in the tragic "Wild Pandas;" the explosion of hooks that is the smile-inducing "Ballad of Lil' Kim." Because, in the end, it is about great songs, and not about where Schreifels has been or where he is going. An Open Letter To The Scene certainly summarizes Schreifels' musical past -- so much discarded snake skin -- but more importantly it frees him from its confines once and for all.

Walter Schreifels -- "Arthur Lee's Lullabye" -- An Open Letter To The Scene
[right click and save as; MP3 via Schreifels' promo co. Okay! Okay!]
[buy An Open Letter To The Scene from Dine Alone here or Big Scary Monsters here]

Walter Schreifels: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

05.14 -- The Tower -- Bremen, DE
05.15 -- Gruner Jager -- Hamburg, DE
05.16 -- Bunker Ulmenwall -- Beilefeld, DE
05.17 -- Schlachthof -- Wiesbaden, DE
05.18 -- Blue Shell -- Köln, DE
05.19 -- St. Gallen -- Gabenhalle, CH

Clicky Clicky's 2007 Regrets: Caribou, Maritime, People Press Play...

2007 was a very busy year for both :: clicky clicky :: and our non-blog-related doings, and truth be told 2008 is expected to be worse as far as overwhelming day-job commitments are concerned. If current schedules hold, your :: clicky clicky :: service will be largely dark in September and October, unless we line up some fill-in writers. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Today we'd like to acknowledge at least briefly records that we would have liked to have listened to more and reviewed during the year. We'll give them all a sentence or two in the next paragraphs, but if you are impatient, the list is at the bottom along with whatever promo MP3s we could dig up. You know the drill: right click and save as.

Rising Philadelphia quintet The A-Sides, after a long wait, expanded on the sophisticated harmonies and jaunty rock of the band's excellent 2005 debut and delivered the lush, atmospheric and detailed collection Silver Storms with memorable tracks including "We're The Trees" and "Sinking With The Ship." Dan Snaith's transformation from Manitoba to Caribou is nowhere near as remarkable as his music's evolution from kaleidoscopic electronic grooves to stunning and organic '60s psych-influenced nuggets including the phenomenal tune "Eli;" Caribou's Andorra was a huge sleeper record for us in 2007. We were skeptical of The Forms' mathpop because of the hype surrounding its self-titled release -- particularly a widely recycled message board endorsement from engineer Steve Albini. However, the easy tempos, big melodies and Mr. Albini's superlative drum production made for a clever and immensely listenable concoction, so hats off to The Forms. Les Savy Fav's brawling return via Let's Stay Friends provided one of the most potent spine-tinglers of the year -- the shouted, mildly uncomfortable extended amorous metaphor "The Equestrian" -- as part of a bracing collection that brought the semi-legendary live act back to the fore of indiedom; if we weren't old and crotchety we would go see these guys play New Year's Eve in Manhattan.

Former Promise Ring fronter Davey Von Bohlen extended his winning streak of excellent indie pop records on the strength of endlessly hummable songs like "Guns Of Navarone," "Hours That You Keep" and "Pearl" released on the very under-rated Maritime set Heresy And The Hotel Choir. The Morr Music release of the year was definitely Danish dreamers People Press Play's self-titled collection, whose songs precipitated our glancing at our IPod to see who was so awesome every time they came up on shuffle; we felt like we did a particularly bad job of covering Morr in 2007, and we are reminded of this whenever we hear the blissed-out "Stop" or the wholly arresting vocals of the New Order-ish cut "Always Wrong" from People Press Play. Do we really need to say anything about Radiohead's In Rainbows? We usually don't take the time to note what bands at the top of the music ecosystem are doing, but we were astonished at how gorgeous the In Rainbows discbox was when we received it, and that astonishment was only heightened by our growing belief that the collection's best music -- "Last Flowers To The Hospital" and "Down Is The New Up" specifically -- mostly resides on the bonus disc. Finally: broken-hearted ex-pat Josh Rouse, whose 2006 set Subtitulo firmly took us in despite our general disdain for folksy singer-songwriter work. Mr. Rouse's latest release Country Mouse, City House may be even better and includes yearning songs with undeniable choruses such as "Sweetie" and the upbeat "Nice To Fit In."

The A-Sides -- Silver Storms -- Vagrant [BUY / Download "We're The Trees"]
Caribou -- Andorra -- Merge [BUY / Download "Melody Day"]
The Forms -- The Forms -- Self-released [BUY]
Les Savy Fav -- Let's Stay Friends -- French Kiss [BUY / Download "The Equestrian"]
Maritime -- Heresy And The Hotel Choir -- Flameshovel [BUY / Download "Guns Of Navarone"]
People Press Play -- People Press Play -- Morr Music [BUY]
Radiohead -- In Rainbows, Disc Two -- Self-Released [BUY]
Josh Rouse -- Country Mouse, City House -- Nettwerk [BUY]

Today's Hotness: Meneguar, New London Fire, Morrissey, Maritime

>> We don't think we've seen this anywhere except random message board posts: Meneguar's forthcoming set Strangers In Our House will be issued in Europe in August on vinyl via Sweden's Release The Bats label. The Release The Bats issue will be a limited (to what quantity, we don't know) tour pressing with 11 tracks, and it will have different artwork than the U.S. version of the LP. Watch this space for possible samples. The U.S. version will be issued by Troubleman Unlimited. Troubleman doesn't have any details of the record posted at its site yet, but if you poke around you will find that Strangers In Our House is catalog number TMU 193. That's something, right? Anyway, we posted all of Meneguar's European tour dates here, even though we haven't been to Europe in six years.

>> We find Hoboken, NJ-based New London Fire's "Different" exhilarating, the kind of track that would make plain a lot of emotional information all at once if used as part of the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie. "Different" has roots planted firmly in songs such as '80s technopop act Alphaville's overwhelmingly poignant "Forever Young" and Kitchens Of Distinction's chilling downer "What Happens Now?" [Or is New London Fire some sort of misshapen Frankenstein's monster comprised of parts of A Flock Of Seagulls and Squeeze? No matter.] We distinctly remember hearing that Alphaville track at one of our first high school dances and being elated by the over-the-top romanticism and huge melody. "Different" gives us a bit of that feeling, too (we're far too old and jaded now to feel more than just that bit). But when we listen to the "Different," over and over and over because it's great and surprisingly hard to shake, we want so badly to tweak the production, adjusting reverb, changing guitar tone, going for a chunkier keyboard sound. We're definitely showing our bias for indie rock production here, but one nice thing about "Different" is that it reminds us of a lot of songs from a time when we didn't overanalyze every piece of music that has the misfortune of crossing our desk. You can stream the entire record "Different" came from, I Sing The Body Holographic -- released on Eyeball Records last August, at the band's Virb page here. Here's "Different."

New London Fire -- "Different" -- I Sing The Body Holographic
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>> We're gradually working through all of the TouchRadio podcasts. We started with the most recent episode, realized we'd been missing out on the sort of thing we used to love about listening to non-commercial radio, and began at the beginning. So far we are up to TouchRadio2, which we are listening to now, and it is awesome. Just slowly phasing 60-cycle hum, sporadic digital chirps, what sounds like surface noise of a needle going across a piece of vinyl, crickets... what at first blush sounds like what noise is both surprisingly textured and rhythmic as well as intensely relaxing. Our friends' new baby loves the ocean noise generating doohickey they play for her when she sleeps. We wonder how she would dig Stockholm-based Carl Michael von Hausswolff's track "As Quiet As Campfire or Analogue Motoric And Electro-Magnetic Silence Disturbed By Intuitive Slumber." Because we are loving it. The cut was originally released on limited edition vinyl on Ash International in February 1997, with "Mingling Or Dodekaphonic Drones Interfered By Known And Unknown Digital Phenomena" (presumably on the flipside, and, incidentally, much too ominous to be played for an infant). You can find a link to TouchRadio2, which contains both tracks, at the bottom of this page.

>> Legendary singer Morrissey is entertaining thoughts of signing a recording contract from Warner Bros. Although, instead of making a new record he might tour New Zealand, South Africa, Scandinavia, Israel and Iran instead. Yeah, Iran. This according to an item at the NME here. Morrissey, you so crazy. The former Smiths fronter's most recent solo set, 2006's Ringleader Of The Tormentors, is among his best solo records to date. Morrissey is in Boston next week, but unfortunately we're going to be out of town. Rats.

>> We were pleased to see Pitchfork report here that Maritime, the indie pop act that includes former members of erstwhile third-wave emo standouts The Promise Ring, will issue a new record in October. The quartet will issue the twelve-song set Heresy And The Hotel Choir on Flameshovel Oct. 16. It's the band's third set, although we're only familiar with the sophomore set We, The Vehicles, which produced the excellent rocker below, among many others. We reviewed the hot track "Tearing Up The Oxygen," from the same record, right here in March 2006.

Maritime -- "Calm" -- We, The Vehicles
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>> Art DiFuria's fabulous psych-pop act The Photon Band will finally issue the digital-only EP Get Down Here In The Stratosphere July 3. It contains outtakes from the longtime Philly project's forthcoming set, Back Down To Earth, and will be available via the usual digital storefronts. No hard release date on that full length just yet. For those of you privileged enough to actually live in Philadelphia, you can see The Photon Band at Johnny Brenda's both this Friday and also Aug. 18.

>> Birmingham, UK-based mad scientists of noise pop Johnny Foreigner have a new web site. Remember when web site launches were the stuff of news? Crazy. Anyway, here's the site, which has a bunch of free MP3s of older tracks, and promises more in the future.