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.

Be Prepared: Everyone Everywhere | Self-titled | 4 May

It's been a long winter, and we expect you're ready for the malaise to dispel. Maybe you've been downsized. Maybe your lady up and left you because she says she "could never love you like she loves Scott Baio." Maybe you've been kicked in the gonads one time too many. Fortunately, Philadelphia-based emo superheroes Everyone Everywhere have been thinking ahead to the care-free days of summer, and specifically how you'll need a soundtrack for good times and warm weather. While you won't be wrong saying Everyone Everywhere reminds you of The Promise Ring, we think it's more correct to say that this band, and this forthcoming set, sounds like summer. And so the quartet will release its full-length debut via Tiny Engines May 4th. The new set, which comes in the now-almost-imperceptible wake of the 2008 7" EP A Lot Of Weird People Standing Around, will be made available digitally and on limited-edition, colored vinyl (350 maroon, 150 white). Pre-order Everyone Everywhere right here. In the meantime, the band is cobbling together a strand of tour dates to support the record. We're pleased to see at least some of them are slated for "venues" in the Philly 'burbs near where we ourselves were born and raised (Grand Slam USA? Isn't that the indoor batting cages?). Inspect the full itinerary as it stands now below.

03.17 -- The Fire -- Philadelphia, PA
03.26 -- Grand Slam USA -- Malvern, PA
03.27 -- AVA House -- Philadelphia, PA
04.03 -- MacRock -- Harrisonburg, VA
04.23 -- (House Show) -- Malvern, PA
05.07 -- Fennario -- West Chester, PA
05.08 -- Charm City Art Space -- Baltimore, MD
05.11 -- Kung Fu Necktie (Record Release Show) -- Philadelphia, PA
05.22 -- Bushwick Music Studios -- Brooklyn, NY
05.29 -- O'Brien's Pub -- Boston, MA

Today's Hotness: Pavement, Everyone Everywhere, Yuck

The charmingly monikered Filthy Little Angels label released Monday its long-anticipated, freely downloadable Pavement tribute compilation Show Me A Word That Rhymes With Pavement. While the collection is uneven, it is not all that much more uneven than historically notable (or at least the first three at the top of mind) tribute comps Step Right Up, Give Me The Cure or Homage. The repertoire on the Pavement comp, of course, is untouchable, but certain of the covers struggle (some fail) to convey either the emotional heft or the Shakespearean wise fool tone set down by Mssrs. Malkmus and Stairs and their cohort. That said, there are sterling covers to be had here, including Mascot Fight's delightful "Carrot Rope" and Olympic Swimmers' moody (moodier?), droning take on the gem "We Dance." Another highlight of Show Me A Word That Rhymes With Pavement is Benjamin Shaw's haunting interpretation of "Starlings Of The Slipstream," from Pavement's flawless Brighten The Corners release. Mr. Shaw's adaptation approaches with a deceptively diminutive scale but builds to a short, tasty cacaphony. Readers may recall that Shaw's I Got The Pox, The Pox Is What I Got EP was released by the fledgling label Audio Antihero late last year. You can download the entire Pavement tribute comp here, but we're offering the cover of "Starlings In The Slipstream" below.

Benjamin Shaw -- "Starlings Of The Slipstream" -- Show Me A Word That Rhymes With Pavement
[right click and save as]
[download the entire compilation from Filthy Little Angels right here]

>> We're going to start talking about contemporary emo quartet Everyone Everywhere now and probably not stop talking about them for quite a while. The act is based in Philly and creates music not all that dissimilar to that of defunct emo heroes The Promise Ring, which basically means we are genetically pre-disposed toward loving Everyone Everywhere. The label Tiny Engines will release the band's self-titled full-length on May 4th, and we can already tell you the thing is super. "But Clicky Clicky," you're saying, "we want to get with this band now!" Believe us, we understand. Fortunately for you, web 'zine If You Make It is currently hosting a free download of Everyone Everywhere's very good 2008 7" A Lot Of Weird People Standing Around. The single sold out but more recently was reissued by Evil Weevil, so if you need that stuff on vinyl go here. As for the forthcoming full-length, it can already be pre-ordered from the band's MySpace dojo right here. The vinyl version will be a limited edition of 500, with 350 pressed on maroon vinyl and the rest pressed to off-white. We're posting a track from A Lot Of Weird People Standing Around below because it is awesome.

Everyone Everywhere -- "Cool Pool Keg Toss Pete" -- A Lot Of Weird People Standing Around
[right click and save as]
[download A Lot Of Weird People Standing Around here]
[buy the 7" here]

>> So, yes, thank you commenter with the information about the awesome London-based band Yuck, which we first wrote about here last month, and which we now know is a quartet that is sometimes a quintet, two of whom used to be in an act called Cajun Dance Party. We actually discovered some of this for ourselves after scouring the Yuck blog and watching this video of the band playing somewhere at a club called The Lexington. Or maybe the song is called "The Lexington?" The band continues to offer us more questions than answers, but that is how we like it. Yuck issues its undeniable debut track "Georgia," one side of a split single, March 15 on Transparent Records. We are sure we'll have more to say about these guys soon.

Muxtape No. 12: Things I Need To Do Before The Batteries Die

Welcome to the weekly Muxtape, or at least the various scattered thoughts centering thereon. Seems like the theme this week is remarkable lyrics. Kind of a general idea, nothing like trying to prove a point about Dosh and Gastr Del Sol as we endeavored to do last week. You can listen to all the tracks here. Read on for our musings.

1. The Mendoza Line -- "Road To Insolvency" -- Fortune
(We're surprised by two things: 1) that Shannon McArdle will have a solo record out before former Mendoza Line and life-partner-in-crime Timothy Bracy and 2) that the songs at Ms. McArdle's MySpace cabin are so appealing. If we haven't come right out and said it before, we'll say it now: we always preferred Bracy's tunes to McArdle's in the Mendoza Line canon. Such as this song "Road To Insolvency." The guy can write amazing lyrics, his singing voice is rumpled to the extent of being wholly ace. But this new McArdle stuff is really very good. We saw Large-Hearted Boy hosting an MP3 from the set today, hopefully have time to do a post about it later this week. Ah, what the hell, we already wrote about the tune last week, so here it is: Shannon McArdle -- "Poison In My Cup" -- Summer Of The Whore; right click on the hyperlink and save as.)

2. The Replacements -- "Staples In Her Stomach (Outtake)" -- Stink [Expanded]
(This is the "bonus" track we were most interested in hearing from the recent Mats reissues, as it had been hyped more than once in the books we've read concerning the erstwhile Minneapolis band. And while it is slightly one-dimensional, it doesn't disappoint. It's was appended to the expanded version of Stink, but seems to be more of a piece with Sorry Ma. Another great lyric.)

3. Nosferatu D2 -- "Broken Tamagotchi" -- Nosferatu D2
(When Ben Parker yowls "the telephone is ringing!" in this track the hair on the back of our neck stands up. No one does literate and terribly exercised like Mr. Parker, whose acclaim falls far short of his immense talent. The title to this Muxtape is taken from this searing tune.)

4. Modest Mouse -- "Whenever I Breathe Out You Breathe In (Live)" -- Bootleg, May 19, Some Year
(Originally on the band's first single backed with "Broke," and while the Modest Mouse catalogue has many, many great songs, we tell anyone who will listen that they've never surpassed the excellence -- or at least the annihilating emotional impact -- of the first single. This live version is a nice take on the recording, and it was posted to some music blog a billion years ago when music blogs were shorter and lived closer to the water.)

5. The Swimmers -- "Pocket Full Of Gold (Live)" -- The Hideout, Chicago, 2008
(So we figured we'd post up another live track. We really like The Swimmers record that was finally released this year. The Philly-based quartet was giving away -- for a while anyway -- MP3s of their show last spring at The Hideout in Chicago. "Heaven" was the "big" track from the record, but we are equally as enamored with this rocker. We enjoy those plinky tones at the beginning, and the drumming on this recording sounds particularly forceful, in a good way.)

6. The Trolleyvox -- "Stomping Grounds" -- Luzerne
(And then we figured we'd keep it Philly style. This is from the T-vox's double set released last year. It's a quiet acoustic and violin-appointed thing, a ruminating vocal. This track is about a million miles away from the vitriol packaged above in the Nosferatu D2 track, and truthfully this seems more like an autumnal jam, but it's so purty we'll just leave it here.)

7. Wimp Factor 14 -- "Rebuilding Europe" -- Some 'zine comp
(We've always preferred the Eggs cover from that band's amazing Exploder! release. But even so, we were always intrigued to find and hear the original, and then it finally was posted to BCO or some such outpost of musical musicery, and we were pleased. This track features one of the best opening lines of the '90s: "I don't want to be part of your Marshall Plan...")

8. Unwound -- "Lady Elect" -- Repetition
(This record came out at the end of our college days and even now seems to sum up that period of time well. But even outside of our own context, Unwound seemed to harness the disaffected zeitgeist of the early and mid-'90s, post-grunge indie northwest. It would seem that when Mr. Cobain died, this trio, who we once saw destroy the Khyber in Philly many moons ago, stepped in to carry the mantle of the broken and disturbed. Love the subtle vibraphone -- we think that's what it is -- at the end of this track.)

9. The Sea And Cake -- "Civilise" -- The Fawn
(We referenced our strong feelings for The Sea And Cake's The Fawn Sunday, so we thought we'd throw in a track here from that excellent album. A nice gentle chorus, and wonderful pattering snare drum in the verse under spare piano and guitar. A very handsome package, and a track that could just have easily been on the more guitar-oriented set The Biz, rather than the somewhat electronically tilted The Fawn.)

10. Yo La Tengo -- "Beach Party Tonight" -- Summer Sun
(We were just at the beach. It was nice. Almost as nice as this top shelf Yo La Tengo dreamer. In a perfect world this song would lull us to sleep every night.)

11. Lifter Puller -- "Nassau Coliseum" -- Soft Rock
(We came to this pre-Hold Steady band way late, we admit. This track is amazing, as amazing as anything Mr. Finn has put his name on since. The relentless listing of cities and towns at the end leads up to a bawdy but stirring finish.)

12. The Promise Ring -- "Best Looking Boys" -- Boys And Girls
(So this sort of acts as a chaser of sorts to Mr. Finn's x-rated proclamation above, as here we have one of Davey Von Bohlen's innocent pop confections. It's no "Red And Blue Jeans," but few songs approach the greatness of that amazing track. So here we send you off with a pop song. Have a nice day.)