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
[right click and save-as]

>> 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
[right click and save as]
[buy Ctrl-Alt-Del from Amazon here]

The Diggs: Internets | Myspace | YouTube | Flickr

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

Today's Hotness: The Diggs, Zillionaire, Julie Ocean

>> It is to be expected that former Mineral-fronter Chris Simpson would continue to evolve musically, and his recent, folksier indie rock act Zookeeper has its share of great moments. But for those of us who can't loosen our grips on the desperate second-wave emo sounds that Mineral proffered can take solace in the fact that similar new music is being ably churned out by Brooklyn-based indie trio The Diggs. Diggs guitarist and vocalist Timothy Lannen sings in a Simpson-esque (Enigk-esque, as well, now that we think about it) tenor over albeit denser tunes that crest and slope in majestic waves of delay pedal and snare drum. The Diggs' MySpace tent perhaps sums it up best at the "Sounds Like" bullet, where the band has inserted "Frustration and Hope." The five-year-old trio's sophomore full length ctrl-alt-del will be issued by the partly Diggs-run Sugarspun March 11.

The Diggs -- "Recovery Forever" -- ctrl-alt-del
The Diggs -- "Careen" -- ctrl-alt-del
[right click and save as]
[full-album stream -- recommended]
[pre-order ctrl-alt-del from Amazon here]

Mineral -- "Gloria" -- The Power Of Failing
[right click and save as]
[buy Mineral records from MusicStack here]

>> The New Granada label obviously has our number, as it pitched an act to us by characterizing it as an amalgamation of '90s indie rock standouts Versus, Codeine and Seam (also Low, but we're not big Low fans -- we might have substituted Unrest if we were making the pitch ourselves). Such characterization is the sort of thing that makes us sit up and take notice, although as always we steel ourselves against possible disappointment if the billing doesn't live up to the hype. Fortunately indie rock quartet Zillionaire have the songs and the chops, and we've been thoroughly enjoying its set The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down. Zillionaire hails from Tampa, Florida, and we must admit being a little surprised, as our conception of Florida indie rock is pretty much Gainesville screamo and, well, that's it. Although we think indie pop luminaries Human Television called Florida home for a time, so perhaps we knew there was more going on. The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down was released Jan. 1. Or it was released Nov. 17. The Internet is fraught with contradictions, no? No matter. The point is you can get the record now, and if you live in Florida you should have some chances to catch the band touring this spring. Zillionaire's mid-tempo swayer "The Gardener" in particular carries the scent of Versus, and we are posting it and two additional tracks below.

Zillionaire -- "The Gardener" -- The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down
Zillionaire -- "The Occasion Of The Water Heater" -- The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down
Zillionaire -- "No Contest" -- The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down
[right click and save as]
[buy The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down here]

>> Let's just go for the '90s trifecta today, shall we? What do you get when you combine former members of retro hardcore giants Swiz, dream poppers Velocity Girl and twee standard-bearers Glo-Worm? This is a pretty easy question: you get a new band called Julie Ocean, who first blipped on the radar last May here and here. The D.C.-based quartet will release its debut Long Gone And Nearly There on Transit Of Venus (Trolleyvox, The Shimmers) this spring. We couldn't find a hard release date anywhere online, so just go to the record store every Tuesday between now and mid-June and look for it, mmmmk? Julie Ocean (which would make for a clever billing with The Jane Anchor, no?) has posted two tracks at its MySpace yert that sound not too dissimilar from Simpatico!-era Velocity Girl's overcharged take on '60s-inflected bubblegum rock. Harness streams of "Ten Lonely Words" and "My Revenge" here.