Today's Hotness: Happy Diving, Bully, Johnny Foreigner

>> If you missed the tight swell of hype last fall, then Father/Daughter's quiet release this week of a blistering and delicious EP from San Francisco sludge-pop upstarts Happy Diving comes as a revelation. The new East Bay quartet's four-song set, which was tracked live in October at San Francisco's The Atomic Garden, was issued digitally Tuesday but will be available on cassette Feb. 18 (according to this Facebook post there are some designs on releasing the thing on vinyl, as well). Desperate, distorted and melodic, Happy Diving's tunes certainly have a sonic contemporary in those of Connecticut phenoms Ovlov, and like the 'lov the California band employs a tried-and-true template first forged by Dinosaur Jr. on You're Living All Over Me and reiterated by the highlight of Weezer's spotty career, "Tired Of Sex." The self-titled collection blossoms out of 10 seconds of feedback and then energetically chugs through 11 minutes of massive hooks encased in a formidable aural crust (think cobbler, not crème brûlée). Amid spindles of feedback, the slowly grinding chords and bass of "Sincere" lay the foundation for a surprisingly light, somewhat detached vocal. "Complacent" is a rager in the vein of Dinosaur's "Raisans," albeit a little spookier given the reverb Happy Diving cloaks the lead guitar in. All four songs are remarkably strong and none surpasses 200 seconds in length. Happy Diving presently have three local dates (local being San Francisco) booked: Jan. 24 at Bottom of the Hill; Feb. 1 at The Fortress; and March 21 at The Rickshaw Stop (with the white-hot Perfect Pussy top-lining). Those of us not based on the west coast will have to make do streaming Happy Diving via the embed below over and over and over while we wait for something else to happen; a music video for closer "Never Been" is apparently in the can, so we'll keep an eye out for that.



>> ​​Nashville-based guitar-pop newcomers Bully this week began selling a second pressing of its winning self-titled debut 7" EP. The original issue of Bully was self-released in October, sold out quickly, and earned spots on a mess of best-of-2013 lists. And it's easy to hear why, as the band's peppy guitar pop recalls the youthful rockage of The Juliana Hatfield Three or even '90s Philly indie pop heroes Moped. Opener "Brainfreeze" crushes it right from the start, with a hip-shaking groove and rubbery guitar progression grounding fronter Alicia Bognanno's malleable alto. "Sharktooth" layers in more guitars and backing vocals to set off dense choruses from contemplative verses. Ms. Bognanno charmingly stutters into a giant chorus in the hook-heavy strummer "Poetic Trash" that closes the short stack. The new edition of Bully, available in a mere 100 units, contains the same four snappy rockers as the original, is pressed to seafoam-colored vinyl and housed in a fold-over sleeve. Bully plans to sell the seafoam spinners during a slate of tour dates supporting Those Darlins later this month, but it appears it can also be purchased by through the bands Bandcamp right here. Despite performing its first show less than a year ago, Bully has already supported a number of hotly tipped guitar-pop bands. This Facebook status suggests the band was already mixing some new music (unless it remixed Bully for its second pressing? That seems unlikely) before Christmas, so hopefully it won't be long before we here more from these talented young'ns. Bully will play this year's annual SXSW music confabulation, so if the band is not coming to you in the next couple weeks, perhaps you can go to them, should you be fortunate enough to have the wherewithal to get thee to Austin come March.



>> Birmingham, England-based noise-pop titans Johnny Foreigner disclosed Sunday its long-awaited fourth long-player will be issued in March. The set, the title of which has not yet been publicized, will be released by longtime label partner Alcopop! on LP and CD in the UK, and in Japan by Tokyo-based Vinyl Junkie. There will apparently also be some sort of fantastical deluxe edition ("we created an entirely probably fictional city for the whole mess to live in."), which we will of course buy, because Johnny Foreigner is awesome. There are more details at the tumblr post linked supra, which also suggests the collection contains 10 tracks and a bonus track. UK tour dates like these (which we assume are proximal to the aforementioned LPs release date, and most of which include support from nu-slackers Radstewart) are already starting to pop up online, although the quartet's official itinerary has not yet been announced formally. Johnny Foreigner also intends to visit Japan, Europe and its beloved South Africa later in 2014, and South African video-keytar ninja Ben Rausch will join the band for some or all of the pending UK and European shows. It's literally been years since we've been in full-on gonzo Johnny Foreigner hype mode, and, frankly, it feels good to be back. Will we resuscitate KeepingSomeDarkSecrets.net? Uh, no. But will we bring you all the pertinent info and then some on this most important of releases? You bet your bippy. While we wait around for the news to trickle out in dribs and drags, why not revisit this primo comp of b-sides collected from the years 2008-2010? It's a fine way to spend some time.

Review: Slowdim | Slowdim

Given the slow, incremental progress that brought Slowdim to this point, the Boston indie pop quartet's sparkling, self-titled debut full-length evinces a remarkable degree of carefree ease that almost certainly belies the sweat and hours ploughed into it. Indeed, Slowdim streets this week as an exclamation point at the tail-end of a series of digital singles, compilation tracks and EPs, a tour de force of bright, melodic guitar pop that situates songwriters Paul Sentz (formerly of This Car Up, who we wrote about here in 2009) and Eric Ryrie (ex-The Shills) at the peak of their powers (sorry, boys, it's all downhill from hereLOLZ -- Ed.). The giddy momentum of opener "Up Stream" and the equally buoyant follow-on "Wishing Well" propel the collection with such energy that its spiraling final number, "Leave Our Names," comes too soon every time.

Certain of the music on the new record will be familiar to fans. Slowdim issued the ridiculously catchy album track "Money" as a single in Feb. 2012, and a year earlier the quartet released the Spirals EP (which now appears to be something of a rarity, as it has been removed from Slowdim's Bandcamp page). The EP featured early versions of "Don't Cough Me Out" and "Wishing Well," and the impressive evolution of the former song -- from a welterweight, hook-laden chant to full-blown, arena-ready rocker with ripping guitar solos -- illustrates the power and payoff of the quartet's wood-shedding over the last few years. Indeed, there is nary a songwriting misstep on Slowdim.

But while its songs are worked over, they are not overworked. To be sure, there is plenty of flourish -- the swoony "ooohs" complementing Eric Ryrie's reedy tenor on the sweet ballad "Can't Stop Falling;" the glimmering guitar appointing the verses of "Wishing Well" and "Birds" -- but there is nothing superfluous. Even when Slowdim stretches out, which they do ably during their shoegazing epic "Uh Oh," layering guitar upon guitar upon guitar to form a curtain of dense melody and noise, the record does not meander long, as the uptempo strummer "Laid Flat" immediately puts the record back on pace. Bassist Ana Karina Da Costa's voice plays a strong role backing up and harmonizing with those of Mssrs. Sentz and Mr. Ryrie, and is crucial to the overall sound in the same way as Phoebe Summersquash's was for Small Factory (or, for you Philly old-timers, Kara Lafty's was to Moped).

Slowdim surpasses the quartet's prior efforts by every metric, but its ultimate success manifests in the same way: listeners are left wanting still more music. While rock and roll inevitably suffers when we try to assign to it didactic intent, the lesson of Slowdim's long-awaited LP clearly is take the time to do it right. Two tracks, the aforementioned "Up Stream" and "Leave Our Names," are currently previewing on Bandcamp; stream them via the embeds below. The foursome plays a record release show at Great Scott Thursday with support from Night Fruit and Fedavees; all the details are at this Facebook event page, and hopefully the band will have product on-hand as there is no way to pre-order Slowdim as of yet.

Slowdim: Facebook | Twitterz | Bandcamp

Muxtape #5: Just Like You Said, Everything Is Happening

As promised to Twitter scrapers and Facebook noseys, here is the link to the new Muxtape. Assorted notes and musings below.

1. Come -- "Yr Reign" -- Don't Ask, Don't Tell
(In an era of good feel-bad songs, this one might take the cake. Perhaps the closest Come gets to sounding like Nirvana, with the same sort of primordial, the-gods-are-against-me pathos. The title to this Muxtape comes from the terribly affecting lyric in this number. This song is a four-minute rain of sledgehammers with the word "BUMMER" embossed on one of the long dimensions.)

2. Moped -- "Does Your Back Hurt?" -- It Won't Sound Any Better Tomorrow
(We saw what might have been the final Moped show at Philadelphia's Silk City Lounge. They may or may not have opened for Idaho, those dudes with all the custom four-string guitars. We requested this song. And then they played it. And for a moment we had the world by the tail. This whole song is a best part, but perhaps the best part of the best part is the screamed backing vocal in one of the final verses. Exhilarating. We used to scream along in our silver Volvo sedan after charging 12 packs of beer to the family gas card when we were sequestered in Virginia. A memory that makes us wonder where our copy of Bardo Pond's Amanita is.)

3. Drop Nineteens -- "Delaware" -- Delaware
(Title track from important record from erstwhile Boston act. Not as catchy as "Winona" and not as epic as "Kick The Tragedy," but even so this song provides the blueprints to the exceptional first iteration of this band. With My Bloody Valentine reunited and hosting that jawn in New York state in September -- which we can't go to because of work -- and with Lilys now on the bill, the only thing that would make our non-attendance at the event more tragic would be if Drop Nineteens reformed to play this record front to back.)

4. Kimbashing -- "Ultraeasy" -- Parades Of Homes EP
(We loved the K logo this band used. The act featured future members of every Philly band except the ones you were in. We recall there was a Pro-Teen single these guys did that had a blue sleeve, and if you really want to be our friend you'll email us MP3s of that. There also may have been a 10-inch, although we may be confusing Kimbashing with Buddy Sevaris on that one. Anyway, this song requires playback at heroic volumes so the churning muck of the guitars rises to waist-level. An argument could be made that this is the best track on the Parade Of Homes vinyl EP, as Haywood's "Devon Lanes" ends up sounding relatively one-dimensional compared to the exceptional material that followed it, and Barnabys/Sweeney never quite got a version of "Tiny Ships" recorded that matched the live versions we witnessed.)

5. Drunk -- "Gizmo" -- A Derby Spiritual
(Mrs. Clicky Clicky says this song sounds like it should have been on "The Muppet Movie" soundtrack. And of course she's right. Incidentally, word is our boss' cousin, who you know from popular movies and television programs, has inked an agreement to write a new script for the Muppets film franchise. Anyway, back to Drunk. This track graced an early Jagjaguwar release. When we lived in Virginia the dude who ran Jagjaguwar was the graphic designer at the arts weekly where we sold classified ads. We can't remember any of the other tracks on the record, as this song eclipses them all.)

6. Hip Young Things -- "Gizmo" -- Shrug
(This German act's record seems largely overlooked, which is too bad. It was released around 1995 and is on par with the 18th Dyes and occasionally even the Pavements of the era. We select this one because it is good, and also because it is interesting to hear two songs named "Gizmo" in a row. Every band should have a song named "Gizmo.")

7. The 6ths -- "Falling Out Of Love (With You)" -- Wasps' Nest
(Dean Wareham sings Stephin Merrit, to thrilling effect, if your idea of a thrill is hearing songs that are sad delivered by a guy who does deadpan better than most, probably without trying.)

8. Ted Minsky -- "Porque No Hablo" -- Madame Le Ted
(A curveball track from a record filled with curveballs. We've searched the Internetz now and again to see if Ms. Minsky ever released another record besides this one on the Austrian Angelika Kohlermann label, but we never find anything. Which is too bad. This record is special.)

9. Spoon -- "Me And The Bean" -- Girls Can Tell
(Many of the songs on this Muxtape were selected in response to having watched the popular film "There Will Be Blood" Friday night. The line "I have your blood inside my heart" in this track has particular relevance. We just received our copy of the vinyl reissue of Girls Can Tell and have been enjoying it thoroughly.)

10. Blonde Redhead -- "Jetstar" -- Zero Hour Threadwaxing Space compilation
(The stylistic development of Blonde Redhead is fairly remarkable if one stops to think about it. Nothing they've done this decade has really resonated with us, but there was a time in the mid-'90s when the band was dark, dangerous and boundlessly sexxy with two x's. That time was probably after this song was recorded, as we pinpoint it to the material released on the peerless La Mia Vita Violenta record. But still, this is a stirring ballad.)

11. Crooked Fingers -- "When U Were Mine" -- Reservoir Songs
(Bachmann's spin on Prince's classic is revelatory. Great backing vocal in here. If anything, Bachmann's sorrowful take seems more appropriate to Prince's tale of the lover that would not be controlled, and the lovee too weak-willed to do anything about it.)

12. Palace -- "You Have *** In Your Hair And Your D*ck Is Hanging Out" -- Arise Therefore
(This is one of the songs that plays in the movie adaptation of the sequel to your life. Incidentally, you've been chosen as an extra. You have just been told off in the hotel lobby right in front of all the bellboys and the over-friendly concierge. She walks out. This is the saddest song ever recorded, and something about the weird mix of Oldham's voice, the creaky first-wave drum machine, guitar, piano and Albini's spare production gives this the song the impact of an entire shelf of books collapsing on your heart.)