Be Prepared: Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson | Self-titled | 1st March

Above is the art for the magnificent sophomore full-length from Oslo-based post-rock standouts Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson. The act enlivens the increasingly tired post-rock formula by blending in the urgency and immediacy of second-wave emo; think Christie Front Drive and Mineral (one of the songs from the new album curiously references Weston, too, although we don't hold them in quite the same esteem). The seven-year-old septet's Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson is a limited edition double-disc set packaged in an A5-format, 32-page hardcover book in one of four colors (as above, as well as green, white and grey). The first disc is subtitled "Puzzle," and the second "The Detective."

The new music, the band's first since its 2005 debut Unnoticable In A Tiny Town, Invisible In The City, will be issued 1 March by How Is Annie Records. It costs 19 Euros and How Is Annie accepts Paypal; the latest exchange rate makes that $25.87 in U.S. currency. Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson offered a free preview track late in 2009 via its MySpace dojo. It is the closing track to the "Puzzle" disc, "To Sit Down Or To Follow, So I Follow," which we have taken the liberty of posting below. The stirring, elegiac track has a wonderful, subdued middle section with cello and shouting buried in the mix that is very compelling.

Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson -- "To Sit Down Or To Follow, So I Follow" -- Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson
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[pre-order Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson right here]

Youth Pictures Of Florence Henderson: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Today's Hotness: Superman Revenge Squad, The Diggs

>> Superman Revenge Squad recently recorded a radio session for Earwax Radio and Wax-Music has posted here a stream of the show. Even better the site has posted an MP3 of a solid take on the Croydon, England-based band's -- well, Ben Parker's, as he is the sole member of his Squad -- track "Idiot Food." This performance is particularly notable because Mr. Parker -- usually the best kind of dark and cynical pessimist -- here sounds almost optimistic. This is nowhere more true than when he intones the final words "we're both doing fine / and this song means nothing." The recording isn't as sharp, production-wise, as the version released earlier this year as a digital single by the God Is In The TV 'zine, but that's to be expected from a live recording. Even so, we remain steadfast in our conviction that Parker is one of the biggest talents in contemporary music in the U.K.

Superman Revenge Squad -- "Idiot Food (Live)" -- Earwax Radio Session
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>> Brooklyn-based trio The Diggs recently recorded a session as one of WOXY's Lounge Acts and you can stream the whole session right here. We reviewed the band's record Ctrl-Alt-Del here in March (we first wrote about the act here in February) and found the set to be an arresting revisitation of the desperate second-wave emo sounds of Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate. WOXY has posted two MP3s of songs that were album highlights and both exhibit a band that swings, performing with a little looser in vibe than the some nearly overwrought recordings on Ctrl-Alt-Del. "Careen" is almost jaunty, breezy, at least until the song strides into its denouement, during which singer Timothy Lannen becomes almost frenzied as he recites "there are thoughts that seldom survive." Download it and the track "Brigante" at the link above.

>> We want to briefly note the end of the blog The Dead Part Of You, which we started reading about year ago. We will especially miss the show reviews, and here is hoping Mr. Dead Part finds inspiration to blog in the future.

Review: The Diggs | Ctrl-Alt-Del [MP3s]

What else is left to say about The Diggs' sophomore set that we didn't say already? First, there is the matter of fronter Timothy Lannen's earnest vocal delivery. We sort of bullet-pointed his style as akin to that of Sunny Day Real Estate's Jeremy Enigk and Mineral's Chris Simpson here last month, but that was admittedly a bit lazy. While Messrs. Enigk and Simpson's singing to us conveys a vertiginous desperation, Lannen can communicate calm and confidence (the songs "Careen" and "Brigante" come to mind) that the latter singers were many times (this must be past-tense, as their styles have since evolved) too unstrung to attain. Of course, in other places -- including "You Really Used To Light Up The Room" and the title track to Ctrl-Alt-Del -- Mr. Lannen approaches commensurate levels of unhingedness as the aforementioned gentlemen, but we wouldn't call it his hallmark.

The defining characteristics of The Diggs' music are big dense melodies and measured dynamics. Rich bass anchors layers of guitars that we expect are difficult for the trio to duplicate live (we regularly call this "the Kitchens Of Distinction conundrum" during some of our nerdier music nerd conversations over pints) and propulsive drumming (with some really pleasing shell resonance on the snare) drives the compositions. It's not a new formula, as our belabored comparisons above attest, but The Diggs imbue their songs with ample energy and raw emotion that render formula sort of irrelevant. Sugarspun released Ctrl-Alt-Del March 11. The band performs two dates later this month in Brooklyn, including a record release show March 28. Both dates are detailed below.

[Nagging questions: How is it that there is no video of the Sunny Day Real Estate heartstopper "Sometimes" on YouTube? How is it that right now if you search YouTube the only recognizable band covering Sunny Day is Paramore? Oh yeah, here is the awesome.]

The Diggs -- "Careen" -- Ctrl-Alt-Del
The Diggs -- "Recovery Forever" -- Ctrl-Alt-Del
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The Diggs: Internets | Myspace | YouTube | Flickr

03.21 -- Soundfix -- Brooklyn, NY
03.28 -- Union Hall -- Brooklyn, NY

Today's Hotness: Zookeeper, Film School, Slumberland Records

>> Longtime readers may recall this post from November expressing surprise at encountering YouTube footage of excellent second-wave emo juggernaut Mineral. The band's 1996 release The Power Of Failing received much play in our old silver Volvo in our final year of undergraduate study. We were equally surprised to get an email reporting that former Mineral (and Gloria Record) fronter Chris Simpson has returned to the world of music after a bit of a hiatus with a new and surprisingly rootsier project called Zookeeper. We've got links to two MP3s below, but make certain you to hit this album stream and listen to the track "Delivery Room," which is our favorite cut on the album. Simspon's ear for a big melodies clearly weathered the hiatus well, and we have to say that the one thing about Mineral's recordings that didn't work for us was all the treble: Zookeeper's broader instrumentation softens the over-all assault. It is a bit jarring to hear Simpson's voice paired with shuffling acoustic guitars and juke-joint organ, but the music is fantastic. Zookeeper's self-titled EP was released last year; a full-length platter Becoming All Things is expected to be released this fall. In a MySpace post last year Simpson stated that he had written and recorded about 40 tracks, so we can likely expect a lot more to come. For those of you itching for some of that old Mineral video footage, here is the band doing the awesome cut "Parking Lot," and Crank! has Mineral music posted here.

Zookeeper -- "I Live In The Mess You Are" -- Zookeeper EP
Zookeeper -- "Tax Collector" -- Zookeeper EP
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>> We just got wind of the news that San Francisco-based nu-gaze quintet Film School, which made a big splash a year or two back for being on of the first bands to have the theft of their gear widely written about in the blogosphere (that was weird), have completed a new record. The set is titled Hideout and it is to be released on Beggars Banquet Sept. 11. Hideout was mixed by Phil Ek, who you may recall worked on all the good Built To Spill records. Film School recently added a different rhythm section and a new guitarist, and it will be interesting to hear whether that makes much of a difference. Film School's eponymous full-length debut was released by Beggars last year; it has several standout tracks including "Breet" and "Garrison" that we enjoy listening to with our ears.

>> Speaking of excellent dreampop type stuff, digital music service Rhapsody recently added some of our favorite recordings to its catalog by licensing a bunch of Slumberland Records releases. Chief among these are Rocketship's flawless and crucial 1996 set A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness, which we can and have listened to on repeat for heroic lengths of time. It's that good. Another one of our favorites is Lorelei's stirring Asleep EP and Black Tambourine's discography. All of the Rocketship record is classic, and make a point to listen to "The Sky Is Falling" from the Asleep EP. And don't forget that Slumberland offers a generous amount of MP3s through its recently revamped web site. Below are a few of our all-time favorites. We remember the chills we got when we heard this first one, in Brookhouser's van. And we clearly remember hearing the second one on WPRB on the way to a gig at Princeton's Terrace Club, and thinking it was so good we may as well just stop making music. And eventually, about 10 years later, we did.

Velocity Girl -- "My Forgotten Favorite" -- DRYL 10 7" (out of print)
Lilys -- "Claire Hates Me" -- In The Presence Of Nothing (out of print, stop at nothing to acquire)
Boyracer -- "The Useless Romantic" -- More Songs About Frustration And Self Hate (out of print)
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